Ecofan Airplus Heat-Powered Fan for Wood Stove Efficiency & Efficient Wood Stove Heating

Ecofan Airplus Heat-Powered Fan for Wood Stove Efficiency & Efficient Wood Stove Heating
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(5 out of 5)

I was excited to get the opportunity to review the Ecofan Airplus as, coincidentally, I had just bought one for my own wood stove just a few weeks prior. I live off the grid in the mountains of northwestern Maine where winters are long and frigid, and my wood stove is the only source of heating for my entire home. My wood stove is huge and certainly could heat the whole space if the hot air it produced were properly criculated throughout the house. As it was, my wood stove sits in a corner where all the heat gets trapped - without any external assistance, that is. Enter the Ecofan Airplus Heat-Powered Fan for wood stove use.

The Facts

The Ecofan Airplus is a 3-blade fan with outputs of 100 CFM (cubic feet per minute). It’s cordless and requires no batteries or other electric power supply. The fan has its own stand, which means to operate you just place it on top of the wood stove, positioned back from the front of the stove - where it may melt - and pointing away from the chimney pipe, into the room. It operates silently, turning itself on and off at temperatures ranging from 150 degrees to 650 degrees Fahrenheit, and adjusting its speed based on the temperature emitting from the surface of the stove.

There’s the facts. Now for what I love so much about this ingenious little device.

The Review

It’s Non-Electric

One of the greatest and most unique aspects of the Ecofan Airplus wood stove fan is that it’s heat-powered - that is, it doesn’t utilize electricity. Rather, as the name implies, it’s heat-powered. Being that I have limited electricity, with only a couple of solar panels, an insufficient battery supply and a gas-guzzling generator, I wouldn’t be able to afford to run an electric fan to circulate the heat the from the wood stove throughout my house. Without a non-electric option like the Ecofan Airplus, I would be out of luck. My only alternatives then would have been either to move the gargantuan stove or to install a second, supplementary stove on the opposite end of the house. And still I’d be wasting much of the heat - and therefore wood supply - from my inefficient wood heating setup.

It’s Energy Efficient

Me and my Ecofan Airplus

Because the EcofanAirplus Heat-Powered Fan for wood stove use circulates the heat produced by the stove throughout my home, I burn less wood, which is a huge cost-savings to me, not to mention a savings on my environmental impact.

The heat circulating throughout the home also keeps me much more comfortable at home, which, since I work at home, translates into me being more efficient and productive in my work.

One of the hardest parts of any home to heat, off-the-grid or on, are the floors, What with heat rising and the ground below freezing, the entire lower portion of the home is always cold, and therefore my body from the calves down was always cold. But the Ecofan Airplus circulates the heat from the stove down to the floor to mix with the cold air which then rises and moves about the house. So not only does the Ecofan Airplus keep the temperature at the opposite end of the house from the stove as warm and comfortable as the area right up close to the stove, but it keeps my feet as warm as my head.

Caframo Ecofans For Multi-Use

In researching more about this product I found that Caframo also makes an Ecofan Airplus Heat-Powered Fan for gas stove use as well - an intriguing proposition considering, in my opinion, gas stoves need all the energy-efficiency help they can get. Well all I have to say about that is, if it’s anything like the Ecofan Airplus Heat-Powered Fan for wood stove use, I suspect eco-conscious gas stove users also have something to rave about.

Resources

Caframo Airplus

Images:

Caframo Airplus; Caframo

Me and my Ecofan; Sage Kalmus