What is an Ethanol Fireplace?
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- Ethanol Fireplaces are a viable alternative to Gas and Log fireplaces. They use less fuel, are more efficient, put more heat into the room and cost less than their gas and log counterparts to install.
For further information on Ethanol Fireplaces in Australia call 1300 866 933 or email contact@formanddesign.com.au
NSW (State of New South Wales - Australia) Department of Health information about unflued gas heaters www.health.nsw...
FORM + DESIGN have been selling Ethanol Fireplaces since 2005 and can ship all over Australia.
We love our fire we have it in our conservatory in winter.
Nice informative professional advice from a expert in this field. Thanks .
Thank you
Great info and thank you - from the UK. Not very much information on this at the moment over here and, what with the troubles in Europe, people are looking for alternative, secondary heating sources. Thanks once again and all the best.
You’re welcome. Try ecosmartfire.co.uk
Great video, very well done with tons of important information. While growing up we had a fireplace in my parents house and many outdoor fires while camping. I've always missed that because up till now I have always rented or been in military housing where its against rules or regulations. Well now I own a home, but rent the land it is on and fires that produce any type of burning embers aren't allowed, only gas or liquid fires. So I ordered a 43" bio-ethanol wall mount which I've been using off and on for about 3 weeks now. I was hazmat while in the military, so have a decent respect and training experience with volatile fluids. These are also nice when burning a couple cans of gel fuel in the spill reservoir, (In the cans of course, not pouring the gel into the container) some brands make the popping and crackling noise of a real fireplace and enhance the ambiance. I've noticed you got a few comments from other parts of the globe, so here's one from New England :-) These are also nice to have as a back up heating source when the power goes out, as the old power lines here tend to break with a good amount of ice and snow weighing them down as well as the high winds. Noticed someone also mentioned the water vapor. To low a humidity level in doors can also be detrimental to your health. I believe 30-58% is a the healthy range. Right now, mid-winter its 28% in my home, so some extra vapor along with the heat would be very much welcome, as well as the CO2 for my happy plants ;-) I have mortared red veneer bricks to the painted steel back of the fireplace, which also absorbs and restricts some of the heat getting to the wall and the yellow reflected flames are much more pronounced than the black painted surface. I also nailed a 3/4" thick sheet of high heat wool ceramic fiber cloth between the back and the wall, which reduces another 40% of the heat reaching the drywall to just be wisked away to the outside. Now in the process of mounting a small smart blower above it, just to help circulate and reduce what little heat makes it to the mantle/shelf above. I didn't mount it below as I think that would pull the heat towards the reservoir and the warmer the fluid gets, the higher the flame and the faster it burns. Not a bad little project for a retired veteran :-) Thank you again for your time and effort in creating this informative video. Hope all is well.
Beautiful...I love them x
Me too!!
Hi and really good video and thanks for making it available as it has convinced me to buy one and I am waiting arrival but I have a question about the Ethanol as in are we doing the planet any harm in the making of this fuel ,best wishes Brian
Thanks for your comment and that is a good question. Ethanol (or as it is sometimes called bio-ethanol) is produced by fermenting any plant matter. Typically however, any excess capacity wheat, barley, corn, sugar cane etc is used to create the ethanol. During combustion a small amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and steam are produced as well as heat. However, whilst the creation of CO2 from combustion happens at the end of life of the ethanol, the grains or plant matter that have been used to make the ethanol have spent the entire part of their lifecycle up to that point converting CO2 to oxygen (O2) through photosynthesis. This is where the “bio” part of “bio-ethanol” comes to play. The plant, as its growing, converts CO2 into O2 over 6 to 9 months and then through combustion creates a much smaller quantity of CO2 that then cycles back to plants for them to convert the CO2 back to O2. This is distinctly different to fossil fuels that are a non-renewable source of energy that only release CO2 and do not play a part on the conversion of CO2 back to O2.
I hope that answers your question, regards Andrew from FORM +DESIGN
@@FormanddesignAu Hi thankyou so much for your kind reply and its good to hear that we do no damage to the planet but gain such a lot , I have been using my Ethanol heater now for a week and it is awesome and a beautiful way of heating my home whilst watching the calmness of the Dancing flames ,wonderful and a huge thanks Brian
with all that combustion air does that mean for the whole night thru must a window be open fresh air
Each Burner size has minimum room size that they can be safely used in. Check with the manufacturer for this information
So informative. I will have to try find this here in the UK. Do you have any collaborators her in England that you would recommend? Thanks
@Rose Musa try this ecosmartfire.co.uk
@@FormanddesignAu thank you for the link. You have certainly inspired me 😁👍🏾
Thank you - enjoyed the vid & your presentation. However, may I suggest turning the background music down on future vids - it was a bit overwhelming & distracting. Thank you, & Cheers!
Love the idea of such fireplace in my house one day. Do you guys operate in Midlands? Rugby area to be more specific.
We are located a little bit south of you so no help there. I recommend looking up “Ecosmart” in the UK.
Very informative video. Can this same fuel, Bio-ethanol, be utilized in a Coleman portable single burner stove where you manually pressurize the fuel tank to allow for burning the vapors as opposed to the liquid? If it could, then it could be a huge boon to camping as well as emergency heating and cooking. Thank you from Canada.
I doubt it. You would need to check with Coleman. There are specific camping stoves designed for use with Bio-Ethanol. Usually they use a gel form of Bio-Ethanol available from camping stores. Thank you from Australia.
Combustion also produces water vapor which condenses onto cold surfaces, such as the exposed double brick wall in my Rumpus Room. Won't that moisture promote the growth of mold on the brickwork, black stains etc on nearby drywall ?
@Roman,
Yes - Combustion produces water vapour.
Yes - water vapour condenses on cold surfaces
Maybe - the water vapour will condense on your Rumpus Room wall ... but it would have to be very, very cold for that to happen. The question is how cold does this room get before you put a heater on?
Here in Sydney, Australia we have not found that to be a problem. It is a temperate climate here where we would get daytime temperature ranges in winter of 5 degrees Celsius (41 F) to about 13 degrees Celsius (56 F) outside. Indoor temperatures in the morning might be as low about 17 degrees Celsius (63 F). That's not cold enough indoors to create condensation on the walls when the fireplace is started up. If you allow the temperature to fall to a few degrees above freezing then you would expect condensation on the walls.
I'm talking here about ethanol fireplaces that we sell specifically. In our part of the world you can buy unflued gas heaters for indoor use. I personally think that is crazy! However I do get feedback that those heaters produce so much water vapour, because they are so energy rich, that they get condensation on their walls when using those heaters.
With ethanol fireplaces, I have not personally experienced condensation on our walls in our store or at home, and I have not had that reported to me from any of our customers. I'm not saying that it can't happen, just that it is highly unlikely with this type of heater.
I hope that helps.
@form + design, isn't there a problem with ventilation?
@
Spacebaby21 that is a very big question with a lot implied in it. I read into that question issues on toxicity, oxygen depletion and odour. I might be reading too much into it, but I will answer all of those possible issues. I will only comment on the fireplaces that we sell and not on other brands.
The comments below are specific for the products that we sell in our home market of Australia. Check in your part of the world for specifics relevant to the brand of fireplace that you are using/considering purchasing.
Generally: The ethanol fireplaces that we sell have been thoroughly tested against a number of global standards and are UL Listed in the USA, Certified for EU and UK in accordance with EN16647, and satisfy the ACCC Safety Mandate for Australia. In simple terms that means that the fireplaces that we sell can be used safely, and are designed for use in indoor populated spaces for heating and for aesthetics.
Toxicity: Part of the certification looks into issues of toxicity. When combusted ethanol typically produces steam and Carbon Dioxide. Neither of these are toxic in the quantities produced under normal use circumstances and when the burner is used in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations.
Oxygen depletion: Certification tests for this as well, and you would need to check for size of ethanol burner you are using to see what the minimum sized room is that the burner can be safely used in. If you comply with this, then there should no issues with ventilation.
Odour: The ethanol used in these fireplaces is denatured ethanol. Denatured ethanol has a substance added, called a "denaturant" that provides a taste, smell (uncombusted), orange flame colour and in some markets a colour is added to the fuel to more easily identify it. Uncombusted the fuel has a distinctive smell. When combusted, there should be no smell or odour since the products of combustion are steam and carbon dioxide. At times, in particular when the fuel is running out, there can be a small amount of odour which would smell like the denaturant odour. This happens because the liquid fuel has run out and there is not enough fuel vapour to support combustion. In this case the vapour that is left is what is being smelt. This dissipates very quickly. You can get around this by simply shutting off the burner when it is giving off this odour or in the case of a burner that has a variable slide gate/openning, like the Ecosmart BK5, shut this down to the minimum setting and all the vapour will combust without giving off odour. If you smell an obvious smell during combustion, then you have probably got a burner that is too big for the space and that is definitely a time to allow some out side air in to the space.
@@FormanddesignAu Really helpful answer, thank you.
You’re welcome
burning ethanol puts out carbon monoxide
I think you mean Carbon Dioxide. Combustion of ethanol produces carbon dioxide and steam. It’s a very clean burning fuel. I’m not sure where you are coming from with this blanket statement, but If your comment is related to the environment, then there is a difference between a renewable fuel source and a non renewable fuel source. Oil and gas belong to the non renewable fuel sources. They produce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and once the fuel is used you can’t generate it again (unless you have few million years up your sleeve). Ethanol by contrast is a RENEWABLE fuel source. That means that it is easy to generate new fuel by simply growing more. So the process goes something like this ... you plant something, it could be wheat, barley, sugar cane, almost anything. Then when it’s finished growing you harvest it and ferment it to produce ethanol. You combust the ethanol to produce heat. The IMPORTANT part here is that whilst the plant is growing it is converting a whole lot of carbon dioxide to oxygen through photosynthesis. It does this for months on end. Then for a very short period of time, and in a significantly smaller proportion, it produces a relatively small quantity of carbon dioxide through combustion. The nett result is that much more oxygen is produced by the plant than carbon dioxide released through combustion. This is called a “green renewable energy source”. Now in terms of Carbon Monoxide, it is true that just about all combustion processes create Carbon Monoxide, however the important part here is the volume of carbon monoxide produced. In very small quantities carbon monoxide is relatively harmless. In larger quantities carbon monoxide is lethal. The carbon monoxide produced through combustion of ethanol in a typical closed environment such as a house is negligible and not of concern. I hope that alleviates your concern. Regards Andrew
@@FormanddesignAu I am sure he is super alleviated ;)
@@FormanddesignAu i just viewed your video and enjoyed it , and i like very much the above scientific answer , very informative and convincing even for me as a biologist . Where can i find an ethanol fireplace here in OHIO USA ???
@Jo Sim Thanks for your comments. We sell the Ecosmart brand here in Australia. Try ecosmartfire.com and search for "Retailer" in the top right corner of the web page. I believe there is a dealer in Cincinnati