This fan is used to circulate warm air from a solid fuel stove around the room. It sits on top of the stove and is powered by the heat differential between the thin base section in contact with the stove-top, and the larger area heatsink above it, that is cooled by the fan when it runs.
The power for the fan is generated by a very common peltier module often used in car-fridges, but actually being used to generate power in this application. Basically speaking, if one side is hotter than the other it will generate a small amount of electricity.
Don't be tempted to make your own, since these are pretty much engineered to perfection with custom aluminium extrusions. They look stylish and are much cheaper now than they used to be. They also have some specialist features like a bi-metallic strip on the base that physically tilts the fan back if it's getting too hot, to reduce it's area of contact with the stove.
You can find these on ebay if you search for stove fan. But make sure you shop about, as the same fans are being sold for wildly different prices. In the UK £40 inclusive is typical.
When the stove is lit the fan will not run until the temperature is high enough, and will then often ramp its speed slowly up and down until it reaches a point where the heat of the stove and the fan cooling of its heatsink reaches an equilibrium.
The power for the fan is generated by a very common peltier module often used in car-fridges, but actually being used to generate power in this application. Basically speaking, if one side is hotter than the other it will generate a small amount of electricity.
Don't be tempted to make your own, since these are pretty much engineered to perfection with custom aluminium extrusions. They look stylish and are much cheaper now than they used to be. They also have some specialist features like a bi-metallic strip on the base that physically tilts the fan back if it's getting too hot, to reduce it's area of contact with the stove.
You can find these on ebay if you search for stove fan. But make sure you shop about, as the same fans are being sold for wildly different prices. In the UK £40 inclusive is typical.
When the stove is lit the fan will not run until the temperature is high enough, and will then often ramp its speed slowly up and down until it reaches a point where the heat of the stove and the fan cooling of its heatsink reaches an equilibrium.
would love to see you test the volts and amps coming from the Peltier semi conductor thingy
Morning Clive,
I have a log burner in my workshop. I'm running my electrics off an inverter, leisure batteries which is getting charged from the solar panel. However, the rays are pretty poor these days.
I have a stove fan which made me think, if I buy a bunch of the Peltier modules I could make use of the heat to feed power back to my battery bank (around 480Ah). Do you think I'd be wasting my time on this or do you think I could have an array of these modules to generate enough power to charge up batteries or even produce enough power to run the inverter or just some lights?
Best Wishes,
Brandon.
Что за штуковина и за счет чего работает? И почему у меня в Махачкале такого нет?
Is this really helps to heat the room better / faster ?
Or is it a nice gadget ?
DOES ANYONE HAVE A DATASHEET OF THE SEEBECK MODULE WHICH IS INSIDE THIS GADGET?
Which voltage does it have..?
This isn't self powered. You getting power from the stove.
My brain hurts.
big Clive. I'm at a friends house, I have had a few, he has one of this fans. My mind is ok overdrive trying to work it out. I feel you are the only person that can explane this to me. Break this bad boy down and show us how it works. also can that fan then power other things. eg a led?
Probably make one of these easy enough from old heat sinks, scrap metal, a motor and I've got a few Peltier plates lying around.
Actually these things are using the Seebeck effect, not Peltier. The Peltier effect causes a temperature differance when a current is passed through two dissimilar metals or semiconductor junctions, The Seebeck effect causes a current to flow when two dissimilar metals in contact with each other are held at different temperatures.
Of course a Peltier effect cpu cooler will exhibit the Seebeck effect when a temperature differential is maintained across it.
The Thermal Engine Company makes a stove fan called the Whisper-GP which uses a Stirling engine, and I've heard that they are more powerful than Peltier junction driven fans. It is designed to operate on stoves with a wide variety of temperature ranges. It may even run on ice, but I don't have UKP 132.76 to try it out.
I had the Stirling engine version of this, lovely engineering, but my double skinned stove just did not rub hot enough. Check them out.
I'd love to see a similar device powered by a stirling engine. Kinda want to build one now