OWB or hot water storage

[nolaluhillbilly]

Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum.I have been reading it for quite some time now and there is a ton of great advice. I am looking for some opinions on my new heat system for this winter. Currently I heat with just a reg woodstove in the house,house is about 1000sq feet or so.For the most part its fine but on the real cold days ( I live in northern ontario) Just the living room and dining room stay comfortable.Anyways I aquired 5 new 700 gallon fuel tanks. I had 2 thoughts for these.One was to build a reg OWB or Run a stainless coil in the stove that i have in my shop and just heat the water then run off the stored energy. What do you all think would be the best way to go?

thanks

 

[user 19670]

Hey neighbour,
I live in Nolalu too.

You might find that it takes more energy to heat the water than you might think and would increase your wood consumption. I am not a fan of OWBs but that might be the way to go as long as you have lots of wood. After all, they have quite the appetite in this climate.

 

[nolaluhillbilly]

Well fancy running in to someone else from our little area,lol.

At first my thoughts were towards the OWB as I have alot of wood but then after reading up on solar heat and solar sheds I thought I may be able to do a hybrid type system Where I could heat the water in Storage tanks with wood then run off the stored heat.I am not sure how long I would get off of 700 gallons.I could tie a couple tanks together for more but im not sure how efficient that would be.

 

[user 19670]

Well, you have the tanks already. The coils and some tubing shouldn't break the bank. A pump might not be too expensive.

Maybe you should just give it a try for next winter and see what you think.