Date:         Wed, 16 Nov 2022 00:24:39 +0000
Reply-To:     Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Improve comfort of Buddy Heater
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I know all you guys are familiar with Mr Heater Buddy propane heaters.  If you live in a humid environment, you probably detest them.  If you use this propane heater in winter desert or mountain conditions (like me), you probably love them.  A pretty clever contraption I recently discovered and bought for around $30 is what is known as a "wood stove fan".  Uses the Seebeck principle:  bottom end gets hot, top end is cold, in between is sort of a giant thermocouple (different metals) which produces electricity which drives a little motor which turns a fan blade.  Buddy Heaters produce radiant heat.  But a lot of heat rises above ceramic plate and just floats up to ceiling; here is where the "wood stove fan" works; it takes that rising heat, and blows most of it forward!  So clever YouTube folks mounted one of these units on top of Buddy Heater (I mounted mine with bent coathanger pieces); and yes...it really works!  Kinda magical!  No external electricity source; totally quiet; you can feel a breeze at 2.5 feet and it disappears at 3 feet.  But that's OK, moves a lot of air...now a means of providing convection heating in addition to radiant heating.  Will give it a good test in winter desert Thanksgiving weekend.  (And no....the electrical usage and the noise and hassle of Chinese Diesel Heaters is not for me.)