diy bio ethanol heater feasible?

[Yorkshire Andy]

Having seen thesehttp://www.diy.com/departments/heating-insulat ... 580836.cat

Am I right in assuming that they are just a metal dish/tray with some fancy base and glass?

Seen ceramic "sponges" on eBay could glass fibre be used instead


Or are these burners something special?

Anyone made their own?

Thanks

[Yorkshire Andy]

Oh and would a u shape of gauze over it help with heat distribution by making it glow red?

[jansman]

NickDutch is yer man. He has been using these heaters for some time. Even makes his own bio ethanol.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Best hope he see's this then

[dannytsg]

The one we have is literally a stainless steel base/container where you pour the bio-ethanol fuel topped with a glass surround to act as a separator between open flame and prying hands.

It would be easy enough to make one. We paid £10 for our from a home bargains which is a good deal.

[nickdutch]

Recommendations:

1) Buy bioethanol burning tins off ebay from Germany. They are made from the correct material and aren't likely to give you nasty metal oxides in the air as the burning happens
2) Buy commercial grade bioethanol for bioethanol fireplaces. Magiflame is a good provider.
3) You can buy a cheap chiminea in a budget shop that would be large enough to put the tins in (this is what I have done)
4) Only burn three tins at a time.
5) Only put in enough ethanol to burn for about an hour at a time to make sure that its mildly safer
6) Ideally create some kind of rig to hold the tins stable incase of knocks
7) If you stuff the tins with bioethanol fireplace "wool" which wicks that will prolong burn time (I think although I haven't tried it)
8) There are round things that you can put on top to reduce fuel consumption which is ok but that will also reduce temperature so be aware of that.

Problems:

1) It doesn't produce carbon monoxide, but does consume the oxygen indoors so watch out. Its not a permanent or long burning solution really unless the house is massive and the living room open plan big time.
2) Humidity will go up a lot and there will be condensation.
3) BIG fire risk. Use all precautions you can and never leave it unattended.

Benefits:
1) Useful emergency heat (but not massive amounts being only 800 w per tin depending on tin size).
2) Its pretty as heck!

I love mine, but it does worry me with all that open flame burning fuel and such

[Yorkshire Andy]

Thanks chaps....
Seen one or 2 fire services warning of their use fire ect but like anything a bit of common sense and a nice big Foam extinguisher to hand just to cover all bases should be fine

Was wondering about moisture seen the chemical break down and seen CO2 and water listed..

Will look in home bargains

[ForgeCorvus]

Click Here

My version of the link will work.

When you come down to it, a Bio-Eth 'fireplace' is just a stable base to hold a burning vessel with a guard around it for safety. I'm sure you can come up with a DIY version

Nick's probably right about buying the burning cans in though.

Post pics when you give this a go

[nickdutch]

Thanks chaps....
Seen one or 2 fire services warning of their use fire ect but like anything a bit of common sense and a nice big Foam extinguisher to hand just to cover all bases should be fine

Was wondering about moisture seen the chemical break down and seen CO2 and water listed..

Will look in home bargains

Yes the moisture is a problem. You could (if you still have electricity but no gas heating) run a dehumidifier at the same time as the ethanol fireplace and thus get the benefits of heat from the fire and the heat that is naturally given off by a running dehumidifier. But the cost of running the dehumidifier can be rather a lot (I only use mine when things are really starting to get damp anyway, not every day).

If you are planning on using the bioethanol fireplace in an emergency power down situation, you may just have to put up with the dampness until the emergency is over and enjoy the slight increase in temperature.

It takes time and a lt of ethanol to raise the temperature up from freezing though and that would be undesirable to just rely on large quantities of ethanol. There are some ethanol fireplaces (fix to wall types) that run on very small quantities of fuel but have small flames. now that could be a solution to trickle charge the room (so to speak) with heat and thus maintain a liveable temperature without having to rely on the fossil fuel heating that is candles and flowerpots thus allowing the air quality to be more beneficial.

You have to think though hat kind of solution you want to provide for what kind of problem. Just burning all three tins (800w X 3) on max can be great and sure looks pretty, but it will give you the moisture issues. It could be good to have ventilation to help you with the 02, but that might defeat the purpose as you will be letting in cold air.

Ethanol is supplemental heating not full on permanent heating (unless you have the burner outside the property heating up a coil of piping and that is connected to a boiler that then delivers the heat to a radiator and the like, but that would take a lot of ethanol to generate the thermal power yo would need to heat a place and would also waste some heat to the outside.)

Burning ethanol inside is 100% efficient though, so its all swings and roundabouts with this issue.

You have to think it through and use the ethanol in a manner that works for your needs.

[Yorkshire Andy]

If we still had electric we would just use electric blow heaters..

If we lost electric we have 2 gas fires that have pizzo ignition...

The girl friend only has gas c/h (modern combination boiler ) and electric heaters

If the electric goes off I can't have her getting cold

Might have to invest / point her towards a calor gas heater

Seen this http://www.diy.com/departments/la-hacie ... 337_BQ.prd#

Offering 1.5kw output which I'm not sure how accurate it is least it would keep a small room warm