Use A Caframo Ecofan Wood Stove Fan, Be Warmer, Use Less Fuel!

Find out how a Caframo Ecofan, a simple but ingenious heat powered fan that will sit on the top of your wood stove can greatly increase the efficiency of your stove in heating your home.

There are zero running costs for the eco fan itself and by using one, Caframo estimate you will cut your fuel costs by around 14% - that's a big saving! By using less fuel, you will also reduce fuel emissions, so it is more environmentally-friendly if you heat your home using wood burning, pellet or gas fired stoves!

They even make stove top fans for stoves that run with a lower surface temperature (such as gas stoves) so even if you do not have a wood burner, you can still benefit from a warmer home and fuel cost savings!

Many people are amazed that a wood stove fan of this type has zero running costs. This is because it generates its own electricity. It needs the stove top to be at least 65°C (that's 150°F) in order to start working. The base of the unit sits on the hot stove and heats up. The fins of the unit above the base remain cooler. Between the two parts, there is a thermoelectric module and the heat differential generates electricity to drive the fan blades.

The blades can move up to 150 cubic feet of air per minute and because of the design of the ecofan blades, they generate a wide, gentle movement of air, rather than a narrow, more directed blast of air. This can

• Push warm air throughout your home, enabling your stove to heat more of your house.
• Make it much more cosy and comfortable around the whole room in which the stove is sited, not just the 'circle of comfort' where everyone huddles round the stove!
• Avoid the necessity of using more fuel to generate more heat as the whole room remains at a more comfortable temperature on a lower setting.

We first found out about using one of the range of Caframo Ecofan models available because my brother recently bought a wood stove here in the UK. We visited him on a really chilly day and were surprised to see this stove top fan, positioned on top of the unit and silently circulating air in the room. He showed us how the stove worked and then remarked on how little fuel he was using in it.

He was excited to show us how the fan made all the difference! We were invited to sit at the other end of the room, more than six meters from the stove after he had removed the fan. Within a few minutes, you could feel the temperature drop. He replaced the ecofan and again in just a few moments, you could feel the gentle warmth from the fire once again!

This certainly demonstrated the benefits to us and we decided to find out whether there was a Caframo ecofan suitable for our gas stove at home that looks exactly like a solid fuel burner but runs on mains gas - read on to find out what we have decided.

My brother has the Caframo 812, this is the larger model, designed to move air around your room and your home, silently, at up to 150 cubic feet per minute (CFM). The smaller 810 fan will move air at up to 105 CFM.

Both fans are designed for solid fuel type stoves that burn wood, coal, brickettes or pellets and will work on stoves with a surface temperature of between 65°C and 345°C (that's about 150°F - 650°F).

My brother has a small stove-top thermometer positioned on top of his stove to check the operating temperature. Basically, the higher the heat, the faster the blades spin and the more air the unit moves around the home. The ecofan 810 is also listed as the UltrAir and the 812 as the Airmax

I have seen a bewildering array of different heat powered wood stove fan options on eBay, some of them quite cheap. The difference seems to be (visually at least), in the shape of the blades.

As I mentioned above, the Caframo blades are designed to circulate air around the room rather than directing a blast of hot air forward from the blades. This makes the whole room more comfortable to sit in, prevents more of the heat from rising uselessly to the ceiling and in my opinion is well worth the small additional outlay on the purchase price.

If you are in the UK, you can get the 810 and the 812 at a great price from Amazon UK

Because our Gas powered version of a wood burning stove operates with lower surface temperatures, we decided to opt for the newer, Caframo 806 stove top fan.

We only have quite a small bungalow home and rarely have our fire turned up to even halfway! Normally, it is running on about a quarter.

At this setting, the temperature of the surface soon creeps up to the minimum 65°C operating temperature for the fan.

If you look at the prices, you will see that the 806 fan is more expensive than the ones designed for wood burning stoves.

This is because it is designed to operate efficiently at lower temperatures and instead of one module to generate electricity to drive the fan blades, it has two.

It also has a triple bladed fan rather than a two bladed one.

You can find the Caframo 806 GS on Amazon in the UK, and there is one pictured if you follow the Amazon UK link above.

If you have more questions about whether an ecofan could benefit you by keeping your home warmer while using less fuel in your stove, you will find these two web pages very helpful - there are answers to all the frequently asked questions and a link to ask anything that you could not find out the answer to.

http://ecofan.co.uk/faq.html#anchor13 if you are in the UK

http://www.caframo.com/hearth/common_faq.php if you are in the US or Canada

The Terms "Caframo" and "EcoFan" used throughout this article are trademarks.