Computer Fan heater

In the winter time my house is cold.

In my house we have a gas fireplace, because we do not like running the heater and it saves money and the environment.

What i have noticed was the gas fireplace doesn't spread the heat around the room.

So i made a fan system out of a couple dead computer fans.

Step 1 What i Did

What i did.

I took a three computer fans and hooked them up to a 12v converter, then i set them up so they would

push the hot air out of our gas log fireplace saving us money, and reducing my carbon foot print.

Comments

[casey321b]

So, how does burning natural gas for a fireplace reduce your carbon footprint?

[teknomage2012]

check out these heat shields I found from hastyheat.com, made of a ceramic fiber a bic lighter will not singe!

[cjraabe]

What a great idea.  I stupidly put in a gas fireplace without a fan.  The cost to add one now is ridiculous!  I've been using a small fan in front of the fireplace and running my ceiling fans to pull the heat through the house.  I hope to try this, as well.  Thanks!!!

[lemonie]

It's a good start, but you'd be much better off just blocking the chimney to keep heat in the room. Why that's not a good idea has already been discussed though.

The problem with those fires is the pretty-flames, if you modified it to heat some kind of mantle and have an exhaust to room heat exchanger, like ugly gas fires (pic), you might feel it a bit more.


L

[Warlrosity]

How is that ugly?

[lemonie]

Perhaps "unfashionable" would have been a better word then.

L

[Warlrosity]

Yeah, but still retro-coolness

[lemonie]

Yes, they might come back in, designed to be effective rather than pretty I think.

L

[Warlrosity]

Yeah. Fair enough

[ktalex]

stop hating...

[lemonie]

I'm discussing gas-fire design - what are you talking about?

L

[joshcube]

I've been thinking about doing this, but with two fans connected by a duct or some kind of pipe running through the firebox.   Basically one fan pulls cold air into the duct where it is heated, the other fan blows out the hot air.  This would eliminate any carbon monoxide concerns since the air you're circulating and the air in the firebox would not be mixing.  There are commercially available products that do this, but I've been wondering about how PC fans would stand up to the heat... especially the conductive heat from the duct itself.

[Yerboogieman]

My dad made something like this out of a big 120V fan and an old ice chest for our pellet stove.

[fireman115]

 Nice :)

[commando1225]

cool idea in theory except i have a real fireplace,
its a puzzler that they don't melt!

[ANDY!]

I thoght of this but involves heatsinks too. maybe ill make an inst.

[crapflinger]

i would be concerned about the fans melting that close to the fireplace. i'd also worry about the possibility of the fans spewing carbon monoxide into your room from the fire. most forced air heaters that are gas powered don't have fans that take air directly from the "firebox" (where the combustion occurs), and carbon monoxide is heavier than air, so placing the fans near the bottom of the fire only increases this chance

[fireman115]

I looked into the carbon monoxide problem, and i found out that my gas fireplace has a automatic shutoff when there is a dangerous amount of carbon monoxide

[crapflinger]

sorry to harp on this...but carbon monoxide is no joke.

the carbon monoxide sensor in your fireplace is probably to detect an excess of CO in the firebox itself (i.e. the area immediately around the fireplace). which is great if your flue or exhaust system breaks or clogs up and CO starts backing up into the fireplace...HOWEVER, you're forcing the air from the firebox out into the room, by the time the CO levels in your room get high enough to trip the sensors IN the firebox, you're probably at a toxic level in the rest of the room (or god forbid the rest of the house). you should put a CO sensor (they make CO/Smoke/CO2 combo detectors) somewhere in the center of the room

[Suarve]

I was thinking the exact same thing as soon as I saw it and your description about how the CO detectors in fireplaces work is pretty much spot on as far as I am aware.

All fires like this produce CO so the detectors are pretty much tolerant of a certain amount - as far as they are concerned the fumes are being vented up a flue so a certain amount is fine.  They only trigger when the amount of CO goes up a LOT signifying a blocked flue.

Fireman115 - you are effectively diverting some of the gases which would normally pass up the flue into the room, the CO detector is not going to spot this and will assume all is OK.  Since you are taking some of the gases away from it my guess is you will actually lower the effectiveness of the detector in the event of an actual blockage.

Sorry to seem down on your idea but seriously you could, in theory, kill yourself.

[fireman115]

Thank you for your concern

As for the melting of the fans, heat rises so the fans don't melt but it still allows for the hot air to be pushed out.

As for the carbon monoxide i am not sure...

[jeff-o]

Agreed...  you may be blowing combustion products into the room.  I'd plug in a carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide detector in the same room to monitor influx of toxic gas.

[fireman115]

I looked into the carbon monoxide problem, and i found out that my gas fireplace has a automatic shutoff when there is a dangerous amount of carbon monoxide

[mikelz]

Nice work. I have something else in mind for my fans but I give you the credit for the idea.

[fireman115]

Thank you

[junits15]

alienware fans?

[fireman115]

Yes, those are my spare fans