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The Heatstick , Does it work or anybody built their own

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never enuf time

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Saw this in another thread. The heatstick is a 12v cooling fan at the bottom of a piece of 3" pvc that draws down hot ceiling air to the floor.

Could make one fairly easy & cheap, just wondered if it would work.

A cool setup would be to have it run off solar power.

www.heatstick.com
 
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e-tek

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I LOVE IT!!! I have an extra duct fan that I could do that very thing with.

Anyone know if it's better or worse than a ceiling fan?

Googled it:

I Have a Ceiling Fan That Does That! No, you don't. You may think it does that, you may have been told it does that, but that is not what a ceiling fan does. Not at all. A ceiling fan can mix the air in the upper half of the room, but trying to put warm air on the floor is like trying to submerge 50 ping pong balls in a swimming pool bare handed. Warm Air is Very Light -- It Floats! What a ceiling fan does is have a chilling effect in the room. Ever hear of wind chill? It is the seemingly lowering of temperature caused by wind evaporating moisture off your skin. Do this, wet the back of your hand with your tongue, then blow across the wet part. Cool, isn't it? Yet the air coming out of your body is 98.6 (I hope) -- that's pretty warm air, warmer, probably, than the air in the room. So why does your skin feel cool? Because you are evaporating the moisture on your skin with your breath, and when moisture evaporates it has a chilling effect. That is how an evaporative cooler works. A Ceiling Fan is Designed to Cool You! They come from the Sahara Desert, Casablanca, Morocco, Egypt! It is 120 degrees inside! and they got the old dusty ceiling fan stirring the air around to evaporate the sweat pouring down your back, sides, face, arms, and all the rest of you. You have been mislead by the ceiling fan manufacturers, who, by the way, really like selling ceiling fans in the winter -- it's their slow season.

From: http://www.heatstick.com/_Heat StkBluBox.htm


Guess what I'm building tomorrow!
 
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malibu101

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41ratrod said:
wouldn't a ceiling fan do the same thing.
Click to expand...

I think so.
My garage ceiling height is not high (about 10').
In the winter when I heat the uninsulated, somewhat drafty place with a kerosene torpedo. On a very cold night it is not uncommon to read 80 up high, but be cold quite cold laying under a car.

I have a ceiling fan and run it when the air stratifies like that.
Works quite well. :thumbup:

EDIT- After reading what e-tek wrote above (while I was slowly typing) maybe I am "feeling" things.?
 
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djjsr

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41ratrod said:
wouldn't a ceiling fan do the same thing.
Click to expand...


I had a ceiling fan but my ceiling is only 10 ft and it seems like I was always hitting the fan with something so I took it down. Installed a wall fan for the summer and the pvc tube for the winter.
 
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djjsr

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If you're going to make one, I suggest that you use a fan or blower that's not real powerful as to create a draft. That one in my picture is just something that I had on hand so I really don't know what the optimum airflow should be, but it works.

I used an infrared gun to check the temperature at the lower part of that square post and it's about 6 or 7 degrees warmer when that tube is running.
 
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jonathan75

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I have a bunch of old humidifiers I was ready to trash. Guess they are going to get a second life now!
 
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Todd.Brock

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Can the guy trashing the toaster In another thread get in on this?? use the heating element along with your trashed humidifier fans ? Need a heat boost and some breakfast!!!

This is a really cool or warm.... Idea!!
 
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tdkkart

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If you use a ceiling fan correctly, ie run it in reverse during the winter so that it draws air up to the ceiling and forces it down the walls you won't feel the "wind chill" and you will still circulate the air.
In the summer you run the ceiling fan so that it blows down in teh center of the room, creating wind chill to cool you.

"Heat Stick", are you kidding me......do we have a face-palm smiley??
 
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djjsr

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tdkkart said:
If you use a ceiling fan correctly, ie run it in reverse during the winter ......

"Heat Stick", are you kidding me......do we have a face-palm smiley??
Click to expand...


Hmmm ........ I wonder if running my ceiling fan in reverse would have kept me from hitting it?
 
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CNGsaves

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What about a "Heat-Tube" that would run across the peak of ceiling with holes in the PVC pipe, then attach downpipes with suction fans where you want the heat??

For cathedral ceilings, this HeatTube idea would be the cat's meow!!
 
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e-tek

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CNGsaves said:
What about a "Heat-Tube" that would run across the peak of ceiling with holes in the PVC pipe, then attach downpipes with suction fans where you want the heat??

For cathedral ceilings, this HeatTube idea would be the cat's meow!!
Click to expand...

And a new industry is born! :3gears:
 
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BigGMC

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Imagine the heat gains if you put a running hair dryer in the top of the tube.... LOL

So what happens once the warmer air is exited out the bottom of the tube.... it rises right back up to the ceiling - warm air is funny that way, it dosen't care if its pushed down by a ceiling fan or pulled down by the fantastically mysterious "Heat Tube".

Clever sales pitch, I give him a B-. You could never "feel cold" from the Heat Tube as it's only a 3-4" fan..... comparing to a 48"+ ceiling fan is silly. Bottom line is, you put your wet hand in front of any moving air, it's gonna feel cool.

I see the advantage of placement, stick it somewhere out of the way - lower ceilings are a pain with fans (hitting the running fan).
CFM's too low to be effective with small pipe and those tiny computer fans he's selling IMO.
But hey, it's a neat idea to experiment with if you gots the time and parts.
 
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dsimatt

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My boss at my old job would read something like that and go full steam into doing something like that but using his own twist. He had like 6 made up and installed in the shop and other than being annoying they didn't do much but being 10ft tall in a 20ft+ tall shop mighta had something to do with that.
 
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jadeagon

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I used this in a two story/lofted "tiny house" and it made a huge difference. The heat source was a wood stove. Before i installed the heatstick setup the loft (my office) would get super hot while the main floor would be chilly. I put the part with the fan all the way down just inches above the floor in the first level. Found some flexible ducting that fit perfectly, plastic with an embedded spiral wire. Used some deck tape to secure it to the box. I hung the top of the flexible tubing so it was all the way up at the peak of the roof, and secured it at a couple places along the wall. Used the flexible tubing since there was a little offset getting to the peak of the roof and around the edge of the loft.

I just let it run all the time. Air coming out the bottom seemed slight and didn't feel warmer. But the effect was that the air temp mixed and was the same in the loft as the lower floor after it was installed. This was moving the air two stories and through a duct that was pretty light weight.

Super simple, but effective.
 
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fitter30

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It's a conspiracy that for over 100 years that the energy companies have selved that idea. Thats why a return in most modern house the return is high with scorched air heating (furnace or air handler). What happens when the fan catches up with all the warmer air when furnace isn't running? Cold draft.
 
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