wood burning water heater

[aceman]

I'm new to the forum today, and thought I'd present a rough description of
my project and welcome any experienced comments to help my design steps.
I'm in the early planning stages for a remote log cabin which will be completely off the grid, and using a combination of wind and solar power.
Heating will be a quality wood stove, with no septic field, only using a
composting toilet and some plumbing for grey water drainage. I'm still looking
at how the water well will be rigged, probably brought up into the kitchen with
a combination hand/electric pump system.
There will be NO gas lines, power lines, water or phone lines into the cabin, so
we could hook up an electric water heater and use it modestly, but I'm told
that this alone will draw alot of energy from my system! So, how about a wood burning system? I'm thinking of using a heavy 18-22 gauge 55gal barrel wich would be secured on circular firebricks built up about 1ft high, and the bricks would be cemented onto a poured concrete slab on the floor.
I was thinking of cutting out the base of the barrel and welding it about 1/3
way up inside the barrel, where the top 2/3's would hold water, and the bottom 1/3 would be the heating area. I would cut out a fire door in the
bottom portion and hinge it for feeding wood, and a grate on the slab for the
wood. I'm neither an engineer or plumber so my ideas still lack the technical
and safety expertise which I'm hoping to fine tune from some expert ideas.
The big concern is venting the barrel if the water reaches boiling pressures!

Look forward to any input, Earl.

 

[ericjeeper]

Buy a used propane water heater.

easy enough to hook up to a 20 pound grill tank. And easy enough to drain when you leave.,
You will need some sort of pump/pressure tank setup to use though.

 

[Husky82]

how are you going to t move the hot water, by pressuer or what. if you are going to build one i would recomend building it out of stainless steal anywhere the water and metal meet.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Most wood cookstoves have provision for heating 20-30 gallons of water built in or as an accessory. It uses the waste heat from your cook stove to heat your water.

One member mentioned last year that he put one (or 2) 40 gallon water tanks very near his wood stove and they absorbed some of the heat from the stove. I don't recall if it was to pre-warm the water for his DHW or just to store heat overnight. He said they were still radiating heat in the morning.

Plumb in a 'sidearm' on a tank that gets heated by the flue of your heating stove. I'll bet you won't be short of hot water in the cold months. Make sure it isnt a closed system.

 

[CowboyAndy]

I'm new to the forum today, and thought I'd present a rough description of
my project and welcome any experienced comments to help my design steps.
I'm in the early planning stages for a remote log cabin which will be completely off the grid, and using a combination of wind and solar power.
Heating will be a quality wood stove, with no septic field, only using a
composting toilet and some plumbing for grey water drainage. I'm still looking
at how the water well will be rigged, probably brought up into the kitchen with
a combination hand/electric pump system.
There will be NO gas lines, power lines, water or phone lines into the cabin, so
we could hook up an electric water heater and use it modestly, but I'm told
that this alone will draw alot of energy from my system! So, how about a wood burning system? I'm thinking of using a heavy 18-22 gauge 55gal barrel wich would be secured on circular firebricks built up about 1ft high, and the bricks would be cemented onto a poured concrete slab on the floor.
I was thinking of cutting out the base of the barrel and welding it about 1/3
way up inside the barrel, where the top 2/3's would hold water, and the bottom 1/3 would be the heating area. I would cut out a fire door in the
bottom portion and hinge it for feeding wood, and a grate on the slab for the
wood. I'm neither an engineer or plumber so my ideas still lack the technical
and safety expertise which I'm hoping to fine tune from some expert ideas.
The big concern is venting the barrel if the water reaches boiling pressures!

Look forward to any input, Earl.

How much space are you going to have? You could also consider a small wood boiler and install a few hw baseboards, or in floor radiant heat. The boiler would produce more than enough hot water for your domestic hw needs too.

 

[Husky82]

How much space are you going to have? You could also consider a small wood boiler and install a few hw baseboards, or in floor radiant heat. The boiler would produce more than enough hot water for your domestic hw needs too.

Great idea check out the harty heater

 

[urhstry]

Could you add a water coil to your woodburner and have it circulate into a tank?

 

[irishcountry]

I am just butting in never done a project like this although I think its very cool I'd would love to have a rustic cabin that still had some ammenitties but just no bill to go with them, anyway I was searching stuff a few years ago and I remember seeing a store called Lehmans out of Ohio that sorta caters to the Amish and they have everything you could think of including a booklet that is titled something like "all you need to know about hot water" don't quote me on that get on their site and check around but it pertained to heating water with a wood stove safely they also have wood cook stoves that have room for a jacket in front for hot water. Might be a good starting point just throwing it out there good luck sound nice!! Happy New Year irishcountry

 

[Billy_Bob]

I assume you would be using this cabin year round, so probably best to stick a wood fired water heater outside.

Might get a natural gas 50 gallon water heater, strip the gas stuff from the bottom, then just weld/build a firebox under this.

If the water temperature reaches 212 degrees, then this makes boiling water/steam, and KABOOM!

So be sure to install a T&P pressure relief valve and to have a temperature indicator on the outside tank.

Then a regular insulated water heater will hold hot water for a day or more. You can get a circulation pump to circulate the hot water you make outside to a 50 gallon insulated water heater tank inside. Then once this water is hot, turn off the pump.

So build the fire, get water hot in outside tank, then turn on circulation pump to get the water in the inside tank hot as well. When inside tank hot, shut off pump and let fire die down. (Or if you want to take showers, keep fire going and keep pump on).

You can get used 50 gallon electric water heaters at recycling places. Usually an element is out, but the tank is perfectly fine. So you could use this for the insulated inside tank and of course don't connect it to the electricity. You could even get two tanks installed in "series" and have 100 gallons of hot/warm water stored up. So fewer trips outside to make hot water.

Before doing any of the above, I would highly recommend reading a book on steam heating and maybe another on plumbing. The steam heating book will educate you about the dangers of steam, tank explosions, and various safety devices to prevent this.