I forgot to say I do not operate the fan at III merely I on COLD. Otherwise heat transfer of the air does not happen as airflow is too fast.
Ted, no one want's dust and like anyone we try to minimise it but in the course of using the fan, don't forget I have tried this too, it was noticeable so I slowed down the fan a bit and found a happy medium. I am completely sold on forced convection and then of course with a really good fire you can burn cheaper softwood.
Thank you for your suggestion John but I'm going to stick with my aesthetically pleasing stove top fan. Not a George Clooney fan either... (pun fully intended)
Any chance of a profile picture of your good self please Ted? It does make for a much more pleasant atmosphere when we can all see it other. And I promise not to say anything if you do happen to look like Mr Clooney...!!
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Someone wrote - The point is that heat from the stove rises so that in theory the fan heater at the side the fire or across the front of the door area should not work in the same way - unless of course you forgot to say that it should be set on a table above the stove height. Set on COLD too - are you taking the mickey or have I missed a trick.
The other point is that the stove fan do not consume any electricity. We have a small house and ours works very well making a vast difference from the first year when we didn't have one.""
Turning electric motors takes very little energy and costs practically nothing. If you are trying to get every ounce of heat distributed rather than 1x 300 deg C block of metal in the room, then blowing at lower level across the door area corner towards the area you want to blast will set up a nice current. I can tell the difference when I do it. As for dust...... pffffffff your problem, we make sure our fire area is dust free as much as possible by daily cleaning. Wood is not cheap any more, why not warm that house even better, and use less wood.??
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My point is not about aesthetics, but to move low level air around and heat it, making it penetrate the lower floors and upper floors.
Maybe sticking a picture of George Clooney on the fan heater would help?
Plus....the stove fan looks nice and fan heaters are (generally!) REALLY ugly :)
You're right Doreen and so is Ted, For a fast blast a fan heater can really move the air/dust and everything else but it gets the job done by drawing the cold air and pointing it towards the hot spot and then around the room but they are noisy, blow dust around and can cause annoying draughts but when you want a quick warm do work.
The subtly of the stove top fan is more pleasant but takes longer but they work nevertheless. My homemade one is somewhere between the two, a bit more movement but not dust shifting.
I started experimenting with a fan heater on cold behind my mum's radiator and it warmed the room very quickly but the rad couldn't keep up and your nose starts to twitch ready to sneeze. I down graded the fan and found a balance that worked well, heated the room and didn't disturb dust. Yes I know there shouldn't be any dust but I can assure you there is.
If I am honest, the one I have is weedy and does not do much. You are better blowing a fan heater set on COLD at the side of the fire or across the front of the door area from the side at an angle. This is much more robust a solution, the fan heater on COLD does not get hot but it has a much greater throw. I know it may not look very aesthetically but boy does it heat the house well. It looks like the blades on one of the ones featured here look quite chunky, however the diameter is not that great, compared to a fan heater's. By all means have them out for show, or a talking point, but when people have left, get the fan heater and set it to cold.
A friend from the UK brought one over last week and it's working a treat. It's the latest version which is slightly different and two bladed. Cost £99.99 from a shop in Edenbridge, Kent. Possibly quite expensive for what it is but it drives the heat across the room and I would recommend.
We have a stove fan and it works very well moving the heat around the room,we also had a problem with losing the heat in our other house as it was a very high ceiling so we put in a ceiling fan to push the air back down and this worked really well too.
We leave the stairs door open hot air rises so its a natural circulation ,the landing is comfortable with the bedrooms having the edge taken off them but as Doreen and John have suggested ducting through the floor is not so far fetched there are kits available depending how your chimney is build
cut a hole?
Very interesting - will look into it.
We have a kitchen / living room with a wood burner (old Godin). We sleep in the room above (wooden floor) and would like to find a way to move some heat into our bedroom - Anyone got any ideas ?
We bought the Ecofan two years ago and have found it extremely good at distributing the air. As our stove is in an inglenook the hot air collects at the top this helps to draw it out and send it where its needed the far corners of the kitchen used to be cool if not cold now they are pleasantly warm.
David, the heat distribution matrix at the top you speak of, The only thing that happens at the top is the cooling fin arrangement to ensure the TEG unit is cooler on one side so it generates power. Improving that would make it more efficient so powering the four bladed fan.
There's a new, improved and more expensive version of the Invicta out. Comes in at about £100 in a shop in the UK. It has a four bladed fan and slightly more complex heat distribution matrix at the top. I have a friend bringing me one out next week to save on the postage. I'm holding out lighting the fire for a little while yet!
We have had a 2 bladed ecofan bought from Ian Parrington, warmastoast, in 79, for 2 years now, these type of fans are brilliant and ours is in use and circulating heat in our large living room throughout the colder months. We are big fans!
I’ll let you lnow… 
If not Claudia, I don't mind popping round LoL ;-)