cheap heatex. for garage

[mjs97]

i want a heat ex. in my garage but don't to spend a fortune doing it. any ideas. i'm running a outdoor boiler to heat water, house, and also want it to heat garge.

thanks,
matt

 

[mjs97]

also pumps runs year round correct. do i need shutoff vlave so water is going thur sidearm and furnace otherwise would lose heat out of water heater and central air would cool water flowing thur coil in furnace.

i'm not much of a plumber.

thanks,
matt

 

[Fish4Brains]

I have been thinking of using an old radiator out of an import with the fan already on it. You would need a 12v power supply to run the fan. I am looking for better ways myself. I spoke with one guy who bought one at a salvade yard from an old steam system and it works for him.
Later

 

[MS-310]

Cheap heat..... thats funny.
Anyways the import RAD. is a good idea but get a fan out of an old forced air furnce (110V) then put it on a line voltage thermostat. Works ok

Matt it will be called an BYpass, just bybass the heat Exchanger so you can heat your hot water all year around, make sure you put your heat EX. below your A-coil air cond., if you have it above the A-coil make sure it is about 5" above so it wont freeze the water in the heat ex.

 

[Butch(OH)]

My cheapo shop heater is a Geo radiator with home made shroud and fan from a junk dehumidifier. Also just happened to have a line voltage thermostat laying around for a total outlay of zero. The thermostat only controls the fan, the pump runs all the time. Has been below freezing here just a couple days so far but the shop is cozy warm. The old cast iron radiators for steam heat are not cheap around here but would work with some kind of thermostat controlled valving. I am not sure if it is on their web site or not but Central Boiler's hand out flier has all of the various systems laid out for easy home engineered installations. A person would be wise to install all of the valving he can afford. My side arm has unions and valves so it can be removed without interfearing with heating the house. Copper fittings and valves are real expensive right now but I have already used both of the by-passes I plumbed into my system to fix leaks caused by my half arsed soldering techniques. I also placed the heat exchanger for the house heat on a set of rails so it can be slid out of the hot air plenum in the summer time when the A/C is on. Not sure if that is needed but the exchanger has to be a restriction to some degree.

 

[mjs97]

already have coil mounted and it is only about 2 inches above ac coil. the air gets that cold that it'll freeze coming off the ac coil. what are my other options.

thanks,
matt

 

[ghitch75]

if your A/C coil is getting that cold you have a problem with your A/C...coil temp should be about 55f outlet temp on a 75f day...should be a 20 degree drop from inlet air to outlet air...so if your indoor t-stat is set for 70 50 should be as low as it gets

and a old rad with a 20" box fan works great and a 3 way zone valve as MS-310 said will do just fine

 

[wdchuck]

Cheap heat..... thats funny.
make sure you put your heat EX. below your A-coil air cond.,

I have issue with this, when freon gets overheated it gets unhappy, when my freon gets warm from the wood fired heater it activates the condenser outside in the middle of winter. So I had to install baffles and relays to prevent warm air from the wood heater getting to the A-coil.

Keep the warm air exchanger from the OWB above your A-coil to prevent this, and have a bypass on the outside of the supply plenum to keep any warm fluid away from the exchanger during warmer months when your goal is to heat water only.

The idea of having it on rails to be removable when not needed sounds like an excellent approach.

something else to consider, many brands/models of forced air furnaces have a plastic secondary and will negatively affected by any high temperatures that go backward as it were. Those with stainless secondaries are not affected by this.

The box fan radiator has worked well in the setups I've observed, shops that were only partially insulated and were 40'x60' with 10' walls.

Another heating/cooling option is to run 4-8" corrugated plastic pipe about 6-8' underground and have both ends in the shop, have a fan on one end and draw or push 50* air all yearound for pennies on the electric bill.

my .02.

 

[MS-310]

if your A/C coil is getting that cold you have a problem with your A/C...coil temp should be about 55f outlet temp on a 75f day...should be a 20 degree drop from inlet air to outlet air...so if your indoor t-stat is set for 70 50 should be as low as it gets

and a old rad with a 20" box fan works great and a 3 way zone valve as MS-310 said will do just fine

I have seen about 15 coil's froze from this problem back about 3 to 4 years ago, central boiler says it needs to be 5" about the A/C coil, I have had many times of calling my AC dude and asking him if this is a problem, A/C units have frost on them some times, trust me seen it so many times.
Most of the time it is cuz of the fillter not letting much air flow though the A-coil, it done it on mine dads about 8 years ago, it was a brand new unit 8 years ago, learn from your mistakes.
Im not saying your wroung but Im not lieing

 

[MS-310]

I have issue with this, when freon gets overheated it gets unhappy, when my freon gets warm from the wood fired heater it activates the condenser outside in the middle of winter. So I had to install baffles and relays to prevent warm air from the wood heater getting to the A-coil.

Keep the warm air exchanger from the OWB above your A-coil to prevent this, and have a bypass on the outside of the supply plenum to keep any warm fluid away from the exchanger during warmer months when your goal is to heat water only.

The idea of having it on rails to be removable when not needed sounds like an excellent approach.

something else to consider, many brands/models of forced air furnaces have a plastic secondary and will negatively affected by any high temperatures that go backward as it were. Those with stainless secondaries are not affected by this.

The box fan radiator has worked well in the setups I've observed, shops that were only partially insulated and were 40'x60' with 10' walls.

Another heating/cooling option is to run 4-8" corrugated plastic pipe about 6-8' underground and have both ends in the shop, have a fan on one end and draw or push 50* air all yearound for pennies on the electric bill.

my .02.

this is why this site rocks,
I never had any issues with any A/C unit like you have...... I would like to know more. I know of some one that has an 10,000 gal tank down in the ground about 10 ft, he heats with it in the winter and cools with it in the summer.

"""Keep the warm air exchanger from the OWB above your A-coil to prevent this, and have a bypass on the outside of the supply plenum to keep any warm fluid away from the exchanger during warmer months when your goal is to heat water only.""""

Yes you need an bypass, or its kinda hard to cool 180 deg water and then cool your house.

 

[ghitch75]

i know what your saying seen a lot of froze up A/C coils in my day ...but like i said if it's getting that cold you have a problem with your A/C.and like you said dirty filters are the biggest problem