Radiator fans

[DDY]

Computer fans can cool a room in the summer, but can they help warm a room in the Winter?

Absolutely.



I've only had it up for half an hour and I'm really surprised how much difference forcing air through the radiator can make. It heats up my room in no time and does it more uniformly too.

Each 120mm fan consumes about 1W and all six would cost about 4p/day in electricity if switched on constantly.

Opinions?

[deejayburnout]

Bravo for ingenuity.

i think its brilliant idea. we were talking about fans on radiators at work yesterday. this would defo be a good idea for the cold winter.

Whats the noise like?

[hesham1516]

Hahaha, will definatly give this one a go when it gets colder.

[scaryjim]

Love the fans idea, but OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING KEEPING YOUR GUITAR THAT CLOSE TO THE RADIATOR!!111!!one2!

I guess this is really just assisting the natural convection effect of the radiators anyway. If you could use an arduino to hook up a control to a room stat or the TRV that'd be even better - then the fans would only be on when the rad is providing heat to the room....

[Dooms]

+1 for having the idea!

We have the stupidly thin on wall electric jobbies so wouldn't work for me.

[DDY]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Whats the noise like?

For now, louder than I'd like it, but I've had the same fans (plus another 5) running during the summer so it's a noise I'm used to.

Love the fans idea, but OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING KEEPING YOUR GUITAR THAT CLOSE TO THE RADIATOR!!111!!one2!

I guess this is really just assisting the natural convection effect of the radiators anyway. If you could use an arduino to hook up a control to a room stat or the TRV that'd be even better - then the fans would only be on when the rad is providing heat to the room....

I like to play a warm guitar , not that it gets much heat from the radiator!

I think an Arduino or any microcontroller is overkill, a simple thermistor on a transistor would do. Although, I don't have a dozen Arduino Pro Mini boards for nothing

[santa claus]

Great idea! What's the betting Dyson will mimic this within a couple of weeks if you're not careful

[peterb]

Great idea! What's the betting Dyson will mimic this within a couple of weeks if you're not careful

Just be careful neither Apple nor Samsung have a patent on it!

[Laminator]

This is Pure genius

[wasabi]

Just be careful neither Apple nor Samsung have a patent on it!

he is safe. Although the radiator is white it clearly has squared-off corners.

[DanceswithUnix]

Makes me wonder if having a car radiator & fan plumbed in would make for a very compact (if rather loud) radiator.

Do you get a dust problem on those fans?

I have seen fans like this before: http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatal...r_Booster.html
...but thought they looked a bit pants, they seem very directional on how they distribute the heat and work against the original planned heat flow around the room. Your layout just boosts what would happen by convection, which seems a much better idea.

[circuitmonkey]

Love the idea
I'm thinking a few sterling engine powered fans though

[Zak33]

so long as everyone realises that it does improve moving the heat around but also costs more in heating fuel, ie it's not free extra heat.

Effectively you're warming the room faster by cooling the radiator by forcing cool air through it and so, the water returning to the boiler is cooler and will need more energy to re heat it.

I'd suggest for the ultimate invention, it needs to be easily switchable to speedily heat a room and them switch off once up to temperature

[Zak33]

god I'm an old misery guts today...

Well done.. it IS a good idea... and it's class.

Sorry... I seem to have seen all the bad points in everything today.

[herulach]

so long as everyone realises that it does improve moving the heat around but also costs more in heating fuel, ie it's not free extra heat.

Effectively you're warming the room faster by cooling the radiator by forcing cool air through it and so, the water returning to the boiler is cooler and will need more energy to re heat it.

I'd suggest for the ultimate invention, it needs to be easily switchable to speedily heat a room and them switch off once up to temperature

Not necessarily true if you have thermostatic control though - this would simply bring it up to temp faster, and consequently may use less fuel (as you're getting more heat into the room rather than lost into walls etc through the pipe run or out the exhaust) I have no figures to back this up, but I would have thought boilers (like most things) are more efficient at higher outputs, and consequently full for 30 minutes wouldn't necessarily use more gas than half for an hour.

[wasabi]

Alternative is to use a ceiling fan. We already have them in the bedrooms for rare hot summer evenings. The direction can be reversed...

See http://www.hansenwholesale.com/ceili...mer-winter.asp