Wood Stove Fan, Energy Consumption Question?

[JPapiPE]

I just bought one of the Englanders stove fans. It mounts on the back of the rear heat shield. It is a heavy 2 speed unit and seems built for hard use. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what it might cost per day to run? It draws 0.8 amps and I imagine that must be the high speed draw of current. I do pay $0.17 / kilowatt hour. That consumption is based on 115 volts. If I remember correctly AmpsX Volts = Watts...So if that is corrrect the fan will draw 92 watts/ hour and 2208 watts / day....so I am thinking this fan if ran 24 hours a day it will cost me about $0.38 / day to run. Does that sound right? It is a pretty loud fan, even on low speed, but it does move some good air. 40ish C.F.M on low and 80ish C.F.M on high. I did pay $112 including delivery.

Does anyone have any idea how much current a typical ceiling fan draws? I do have a ceiling fan quite close to the stove, and that thing is whisper quiet.

Thanks

 

[Apprentice_GM]

Spot on with your maths. Personally I have found low speed is good enough for 90% of the time with my stove - I only use medium or high to quickly get house warm (I only burn at night) or a heat boost when the stove is loaded and really going. A fan located on your heat shields is going to be much more effective and therefore efficient at increasing convective heat transfer cf ceiling fans. Ceiling fans are only good for moving heat around the room to reduce high/low temp zones, and not much good for that anyway IMHO.

 

[itworks]

Sometimes I think we get bogged down with the costs involved to compare one heating system to another. A traditional heating system (NG, Oil, Propane) also use electricity. I'm not sure more or less than a wood or pellet stove, but they definitely use electricity.
I think the best way, which isn't perfect either because of the many variables, is to compare your bills including electricity to keep your home at your desired comfort level when using a traditional system vs a wood or pellet system.

 

[SteveT]

From Progress-Energy.com

Fans use no more electricity than light bulbs. Typical wattages for various ceiling fan sizes are:
36" = 55 watts
48" = 75 watts
52" = 90 watts
56" = 100 watts

I'm guessing these values are for full speed. If so maybe 1/2 of these wattages for low speed>

 

[JPapiPE]

Well that is good news...In other words i won't go broke using fans to circulate my wood stove heat

 

[burntime]

How much are those kil-a-watt power strips?

 

[Highbeam]

Engine: That table is actually high. If you go and actually buy or compare the ceiling fans they will have wattage consumed at various power levels. My HD bought 50" fan only sucks 6 watts on low according to the packaging. I agree with the previous post that the ceiling fan only keeps the stove room stirred up (comfortable)and doesn't necessarily get any more heat out of the stove or move it away from the stove room.

If the stove blower fan for my stove wasn't so bloody expensive, I would buy one for it. It isn't needed but it might help get more hot air out of my radiant style stove.

 

[burntime]

I have an insert and can say with 100% certainty that it is better with the blower. I think it gets more heat out into the room and much quicker. Your heat up time will be cut to a 3rd. Figure what you save in a month, your overtime, give up a few meals out, what ever you have to do but a blower makes it faster to me.

 

[JPapiPE]

No, No, No, I have a hard time accepting that a ceiling fan is worthless and an eater of energy as opposed to a stove blower...I guess I need some empiracl evidence to back such a premise.... Can some of you electrical engineers respond?

 

[Apprentice_GM]

<snip>It isn't needed but it might help get more hot air out of my radiant style stove.

<snip> I think it gets more heat out into the room and much quicker. Your heat up time will be cut to a 3rd.

The vast majority of heat transfer from wood stoves, or slow combustion fireplaces as we call them Down Under, is from convection, not radiation. Therefore moving from passive or natural convection to active (fan forced) convection dramatically improves heat transfer from the fire to the room. As per my previous post, and the post by burntime above, the stove blowers heat the room much more quickly than without. You need to have a good strong fire going to use them, otherwise the heat transfer to the room results in a significant decrease in temperature of the firebox, and combustion is less efficient at lower temps (just something to be aware of). For this reason I don't turn my blower on until at least 30 minutes from fire startup.

If you want to do it the cheap way, buy a room fan - they are $15 Australian for a 3 speed model from Bunnings (which sounds similar to your Home Depot) - and blow air across the fireplace (if it's a freestanding model - wouldn't work well with an insert!) - this works effectively even with old and smaller stoves that weren't designed with heat shields and blowers in mind.

As for the plea for electrical engineering expertise, well that is my background (although have been in IT for last few years), and I concur with the previous post regarding ceiling fans wattage use, they are very low, definitely less than 0.8 amp, even on 115V. Mine is 0.05 to 0.2 amp but at 240V so 10 to 50 watts, and that is a large ceiling fan, 5 speed. The thing is, as I posted earlier, despite low wattage, ceiling fans don't get more heat out of the fireplace.

 

[SteveT]

I don't think a ceiling fan to blower comparison makes much sense (apples to oranges). A blower's main function is to increase the efficiency of the stove or insert by moving heat that would other wise go out the flue. A ceiling fan obviously can't do that. What is does is move hot air already in the room so that the heat is better distributed.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

JP...

Watts x time is what we pay for. Volts x Amps is Watts only for pure resistive loads. A fan is both resistive (real power) and inductive (imaginary power). You pay only for real power. So your 0.8 A x 115 V = 92 VA, not watts. For simplicity I'd say you can say the cost is no more than 92 watts x time. Most likely it is considerably less, in any case it isn't a big hit on the electric and, remember, the power consumed in the resistive load of the fan produces heat, so the power consumption is producing more heat for you, not much, but more heat.

 

[SteveT]

Engine: That table is actually high. If you go and actually buy or compare the ceiling fans they will have wattage consumed at various power levels. My HD bought 50" fan only sucks 6 watts on low according to the packaging.

Could be. As I said I thought those numbers were for high speed. The EPA published data for Non Energy Star fans (like Hampton Bay) gives wattages as Low = 15.2, Medium =34.8 and High = 72.5. Interestingly they didn't state what size fan so it probably mid size, around 50 inch. That's pretty close to the Progress-Energy table.

When I had a ceiling fan in the same room as a stove I never bothered with low speed -- it seemed to do nothing. We used Medium when we were in the room and High when we left it. That worked out pretty well.

In any event 6 watts isn't going to move much air. That is about 1/125th of a horsepower which intuitively just isn't going to do much. As a point of reference most "puck type" CPU fans use around 2 or 3 watts and they aren't moving much air at all.

 

[Tazball]

I just bought one of the Englanders stove fans. It mounts on the back of the rear heat shield. It is a heavy 2 speed unit and seems built for hard use. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what it might cost per day to run? It draws 0.8 amps and I imagine that must be the high speed draw of current. I do pay $0.17 / kilowatt hour. That consumption is based on 115 volts. If I remember correctly AmpsX Volts = Watts...So if that is corrrect the fan will draw 92 watts/ hour and 2208 watts / day....so I am thinking this fan if ran 24 hours a day it will cost me about $0.38 / day to run. Does that sound right?
Thanks

ok since i do not have the package in front of me and i tried looking for specks online but cannot seem to find them i am not sure how it is worded or even if it is specified. If the .8 amps is the running current or if the .8 amps is the start up current. the difference could be big in if you had it running 24/7 due to if it is just starting amps it only draws .8 amps for a few second then drops down like when your fridge starts up. if it says .8 amps max that is most likely the case. If it is the only way you will know running amps is with an amp meter. Also if you do not burn 24/7 there are ways to make the fan run only when you are using the stove (aside from plugging it in and unplugging it each time) that would either require some knowledge of electricity or getting someone who has some.

I am currently building a hearth and surround for a wood stove i had gotten and plan on using a low voltage heat sensor to a low voltage switch i will be adding onto the blower motor.


Hope this can help some
Jason