OWB distance ?

[Backwood]

I was talking to my neighbor about how I would like to get a owb so I would only have to load the heater every 12hours or so. and was wondering what the max distance could be from owb to house ? Maybe possible to put it between our houses and heat each ? You guys have any idea?


Is this how it works ?? you get the heat from water lines that run through boiler and to house ? then through heat excanger and ductwork?

 

[modn]

I was talking to my neighbor about how I would like to get a owb so I would only have to load the heater every 12hours or so. and was wondering what the max distance could be from owb to house ? Maybe possible to put it between our houses and heat each ? You guys have any idea?


Is this how it works ?? you get the heat from water lines that run through boiler and to house ? then through heat excanger and ductwork?

I'm at 100' or so....I think I have seen people 200' though.

 

[iCreek]

Mine is 65' from the house, and then another 40' run in the house to the utility room (forced air furnace). My buddy just installed one between his house and new shop, probably 180' to his house and another 30' inside, and then the other run is 150' to the shop, seems to be working fine. I would say 100' total run is optimal, but you will see many exceed that distance with using good quality pipe and insulation.

My biggest concern would be sharing a stove, who owns it, who loads its, what if someone dies, moves, etc. etc. I live next to family and would consider it if another structure was close enough, just not sure I would want to get involved with a neighbor, but only you know that answer.

So yes the concept would work, most OWB have 2 pumps, one to your house, and one to his. PEX pipe to exchangers is what I am thinking, depends on the current heat, forced air, radiant, etc.

 

[rx7145]

You could go a mile or more. The problem is cost. Most good underground pipe cost about $11.00 a foot. If you use the cheap stuff for a 600-700ft run there might not be much heat left. Also a good high head pump would need to be used. So $11.00+ a foot plus $300+ for a pump, do the math and see if it works for you.

 

[Butch(OH)]

You could go a mile or more. The problem is cost. Most good underground pipe cost about $11.00 a foot. If you use the cheap stuff for a 600-700ft run there might not be much heat left. Also a good high head pump would need to be used. So $11.00+ a foot plus $300+ for a pump, do the math and see if it works for you.

X2:agree2: There is no max distance. Now if you mean practical distance most say 200' is strecthing things. There is some heat loss in any underground system so distance = more loss. Also distance requires HP to maintain GPMs and that is $. Given no other factors to consider 60' or so is far enough to get youaway from smoke and fire dangers and far enough to walk to fuelit when it is 0 and wiind is howeling IMO.

 

[fletcher0780]

the longer the run, the bigger the pipe you need (to be efficient). I'm at 150 and used 30mm wirsbo pex, which measures like 1.27" I.D. I could have used 1", but would have needed a bigger pump. I also benefit because my pipe is poorly insulated, but I can move lots of water fast, so I see very little heat loss. FYI, my pipe was about $7/ft delivered.

 

[jmcguiretree]

I'm at 122' with 1" thermo pex and no problems. Same water temp at the boiler as at the house.I would think 200' would be max but find someone who has done it and ask them.

 

[Scootermsp]

Central Boiler

Manufacturer claims in it's brochure up to 500' for what it's worth. Mine is 65'.......much less walking!

 

[Slick]

I'm about 185 from house, over 200' before it gets to the hot water tank then onto the furnace. First 85 feet are out of the furnace and through my shop (which is heated to 50-60 deg by a different output from the OWB). That pipe is insulated with 1/2" self sealing pipe insulation, each pipe seperatetly. THe final 100 ft is underground (trench isn't covered up yet so it's exposed) in $11/ft central boiler thermopex.last 20 or so is in a crawl space so it's seeing cold weather, again 1/2" self sealing insulation.if my house furnace isn't on (still going to side arm on hot water heater though so some BTU's there) I see 2-3 degrees drop between leaving boiler and coming back...that's pretty good to me, that's almost 400 ft round trip...I know I can do more insulation on the pipes inside the shop and in my crawl space, you can feel heat coming through 1/2" pipe insulation when it's 180 degrees inside...I planned on getting to that but since it's only 2-3 degrees...that might be a next fall project, I'm about sick of working on this install
I have 1" pex from ebay...and a Taco 0012 pump, the biggest in that Taco 00 line, was $250 from grainger and alot more from some places...I did the numbers and a smaller pump just didn't cut it.

 

[beerman6]

mines about 30'

 

[Backwood]

Cool, guess I need to measure distances and see where we are at ? It is family so no worries there. Thanks.

 

[rhwright]

I'm about 240 feet to the heat exchanger with 1" pex and have very minimal heat loss using pipe insulated very similar to Timesaver pipe.

 

[blakey]

I am around 200ft with no problems, using a Taco 009 pump in the basement and the lines are sprayed with urethane insulation underground.

 

[November Wolf]

Manufacturer claims in it's brochure up to 500' for what it's worth. Mine is 65'.......much less walking!

:agree2:

Mine is 110ft.

 

[stephen44]

I was talking to my neighbor about how I would like to get a owb so I would only have to load the heater every 12hours or so. and was wondering what the max distance could be from owb to house ? Maybe possible to put it between our houses and heat each ? You guys have any idea?


Is this how it works ?? you get the heat from water lines that run through boiler and to house ? then through heat exchanger and ductwork?

I'm right on the VA/NC border - my total run is 200 - (120 outside - 80 inside) - feet and with our weather it is just fine. I know I will be shot - but i just buried the pex wrapped in normal pipe insulation in 8" drain run (i have 6 pipes in all)- 3 feet deep.. I do not notice a temp drop. With insulated pipe I feel you could go further - but would have to maybe uprate the pumps. My hot water is fed direct from well pump - any further and I feel I would have lost too much hot water water pressure.

Hope this helps - ask away if you want any more details. I can have 4 citcuits on my system. Basically I have forced air with heat exchangers in the ducts. The hot water heat exchanger is in the OWB in my Taylor 750

 

[Scootermsp]

serving 2 houses

I was talking to my neighbor about how I would like to get a owb so I would only have to load the heater every 12hours or so. and was wondering what the max distance could be from owb to house ? Maybe possible to put it between our houses and heat each ? You guys have any idea?


Is this how it works ?? you get the heat from water lines that run through boiler and to house ? then through heat excanger and ductwork?

My sister lives next door to me. My BIL and I discussed putting a CB6048 between both houses (about 550' apart). However at $13/foot for the CB thermopex, it was cheaper to buy another OWB than go through the bother. If your houses are only 200' apart or so, it would be worth looking into...how nice would it be to split all that labor and cost?

 

[slinger]

The manufacturer of my stove (Hardy H2) says no more than 100' from furnace. Mine is 60' from my home and ~40' more to the heat xchanger.

I know guys that are 200'+ and heat heir homes and shops (farmers) with a single unit.

Burns lots -O- wood but heck of a lot cheaper than gas/elec.

2 families hookin up sounds like efficient use of resources to me!

 

[projectsho89]

In theory, as long as you can minimize heat losses and can move the heat-carrying liquid, there really isn't an absolute maximum distance to how far away you can locate the boiler from the serviced loads.

However, here's where practicality raises its ugly head.

1) Minimizing heat loss during transfer gets expensive. There are ways of reducing this, i.e., foam-in-place, but you'll have to do the math.

2) Being able to move adequate volume of liquid longer distances requires larger pumps and larger diameter lines. Larger piping and larger capacity pumps cost more to purchase and the pumps consume more power to transport the liquid.

You have to figure out where the costs of the upgrades exceeds the potential benefits of the longer runs. As scootermsp already pointed out, in their case they figured out it was less expensive to run two separate boilers.

Steve

 

[blakey]

Like I said before I am around 200ft, using a Taco 009 pump in the basement. I have 1" lines and I get tons of heat. Putting the pump in the basement is a good way to go, I got away with using a smaller pump because it is only pushing water for 1/2 the distance, it will not pull the water much at all. My dealer said it would work as long as I had 6ft height difference from the outlet on the owb to the pump. Works great.

 

[Marklambert61]

Pipe lenghts

Team,

Please keep in mind that heat loss in the pipe is only one of the factors to concern your self's with.

In wood boilers we don't pump water you circulate water there's a difference. There is no pressure to force water rather it just flows in a loop.The rate of flow is the key. With a 1" pex pipe and a large taco pump at a 100 ft run (200ft total length) you can hope to flow about 8 gpm max. That will yield you about 60,000-80,000 BTU's max. So you need to know your BTU needs for the home.

Flow rate is determined by diameter and distance because of capillary action more than pump size.

With the heat loss in the pipe and flow rates at distance your going to need a very big boiler if you hope to service two homes.

Mark