What is a bioethanol heater?
Eco-friendly heating
One thing off-grid solutions aren’t great at is running electrical heating. The heaters are energy intensive, they take a substantial chunk from the batteries just to warm up a small room. That’s challenging during winter when you need heating and sunny days are short.
A great carbon neutral solution to this is bioethanol heating.
What is a bioethanol heater?
Bioethanol fuel
Bioethanol fuel is basically alcohol that has been fermented from crops such as hemp, sugarcane, potato, cassava or corn.
The fuel is truely carbon neutral. Carbon dioxide was absorbed when the crops grew and is released again when the fuel is burnt.
What is a bioethanol heater?
How the heaters work
The fuel is burnt in a reservoir to produce an attractive flame and around 2.5kW of heat for Arada stoves. The heat can be varied by moving a slider that shrinks the flame opening.
The flame is enclosed in a metal stove which heats up and becomes a radiator. No chimney is needed which means all the heat remains in the room.
What is a bioethanol heater?
No chimney?!
Bioethanol burns almost entirely and the exhaust breaks down into harmless water and carbon dioxide. However, just like any burning stove, it does need a little oxygen. If your room is larger than 15m³ and has a small amount of ventilation, such as an air brick or window trickle vent, then you're all set.
What is a bioethanol heater?
What else do I need to know?
There is a slight smell, like hand sanitiser, when you first light the stove and again when it's extinguished. It's completely safe and can be reduced by using high quality or scented fuel.
Fuel cost can be a little higher than some forms of heating but still not far off running a large electric heater.
What is a bioethanol heater?
Attractive as well as functional
Our heaters are traditional wood burning stoves converted to bioethanol, providing all the charm of a living flame without the soot, ash or chimney!
You can place them virtually anywhere in a room and, as there's no flue, you can move them around if you fancy a change.
Additional information
The cost of bioethanol (96% purity) is around £2.50 per litre in the UK, but that's slowly falling as it becomes more popular. As an example of what to expect; 800ml (£2) of fuel produces about 2.5kW of heat for around 2-3 hours depending on fuel quality and room conditions. This makes the running cost similar to a high power electric heater (26p/kWh on 20/1/25). The flame size can be adjusted to reduce heat output which can slow fuel consumption to as low as 4-5 hours.
Disconnected energy doesn't sell bioethanol at this time because other retailers that specialse in the fuel can offer better prices at the moment. Always buy high quality fuel, if the price looks to good to be true, it probably is. A complete fuel burn is essential to maintain air quality.
A carbon monoxide detector should be installed as a precaution, just like all combustion heat sources require.