Noctua starts advertising its fans as home heating upgrades to reduce bills and prevent mould

[Redaktion]

PC fan specialist Noctua has started advertising one of its multi-purpose fans for improving the efficiency of convection radiators. While the company claims an 'estimated 5-10%' heating cost saving, it has not provided any facts or figures to back up these claims.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Noctua-starts-advertising-its-fans-as-home-heating-upgrades-to-reduce-bills-and-prevent-mould.952197.0.html

[gjbkgjb]

In the photos the fans aren't connected to a power source. Does that mean that it's enough to just put it on the radiator? :-)

[Swizzy]

In the photos the fans aren't connected to a power source. Does that mean that it's enough to just put it on the radiator? :-)

Do you think every product you've ever seen not physically connected to an electrical outlet works via magic or something?

[Vlad238]

In the photos the fans aren't connected to a power source. Does that mean that it's enough to just put it on the radiator? :-)

Do you think every product you've ever seen not physically connected to an electrical outlet works via magic or something?

Have you ever heard about sarcasm? If that's a product presentation I was expecting them to show a PSU-like device to power them

[Fa]

Noctua themselves haven't given information on why this works, but it does work.

A condensing boiler is very efficient at heating up water at a low temperature. Normally, if you lower the temperature you're gonna heat the room up less so you either need a bigger radiator, or something to extract more heat from the colder metal. A bigger radiator IS in-floor heating! Think about it, instead of the small thing attached to a wall, the whole floor is the radiator. That's why it's more efficient.
Forced convection is the other solution. In other words, a fan on the radiator. No need for it to be a noctua but noctuas are nice :D

TL;DR: it's actually a viable solution if you have a condensing boiler and traditional radiators. Put a fan on it, and lower the temperature of the heating water by a lot, to like 35-40C. Same amount of energy in the room, but the boiler is more efficient.

[Africangunslinger]

It's a bit strange to criticize the lack of supporting evidence for the efficiency enhancement claims as this is common knowledge and is widely applied by plenty of people (and 5 minutes of googling nets you plenty of supporting evidence). The are many similar solutions like this available commercialy (at least where i live) that do the exact same as this. Active convention increases the efficiency of heat transfer from the radiator to the air which increases the efficiency of the system overall.

[Terren.net]

Incredibly STUPID and DANGEROUS, as depicted laying on top is a fire hazard.
DON'T DO THIS. This article should be removed for suggesting potentially deadly activity.

The top of an oil room heater typically reaches a temperature around 130°C (266°F), 

A typical PC fan can operate within a temperature range of around 40°C to 65°C (104°F to 149°F)

THE FAN WILL FAIL AND LIKELY CATCH FIRE.

The melting point of a "PC fan," which is typically made from polycarbonate (PC) plastic, is around 295°C to 315°C (563°F to 600°F). 
So the plastic won't melt strait away until it catches fire.

Use any normal fan blowing on the heater from a cool safe distance, from the SIDE.
DONT EVER PUT ANYTHING ON A HEATER.
YOU WILL DIE.