DHW how to??????

I was wondering how to circulate my dhw form the stove to the water heater? I have searched but not found anything. I want to know how with my setup. The water comes in to the house from the meter and then i picked up a cold line under the house to go to my stove. It then goes through the coil in the stove to be heated and the returns back to the house. It takes about 3 minutes for me to see the hot water from the stove start coming into the water heater. Is there some sort of simple way to fix this or not?

Thanks Mac

Heat exchanger and a small pump.
Give us some details.. What sort of stove?

My stove is homemade out of a 500 gal. propane tank with a 1/4" thick firebox in it. The coil is 3/4" copper tubing submersed in the water.So what you are saying is that it will not circulate in the coil right.


Mac

On your hot water heater you have a pop up pressure valve and a drain.

Unscrew the pop up valve and replace with a T fitting. Screw the pop up valve on one side of the fitting and put a pump on the other. Attache the pex to the pump. This will be the out going water.


Unscrew the drain valve and add a T fitting there also. Put the drain on one side and attach the pex to the other. This will be the incoming water.

Remove the lower access plate on the bottom of the hot water heater. Find a place to put another thermostat. (get thermostat at a hardware store)

Use silicone to hold the thermostat in place by putting silicone around outside edge. ( It may be easier to attach wires first)



I used Sharbite fittings everywhere to make things quick and simple.



Wire it so 110V is on one terminal and the pump is on the other.

It will now work like a light switch turning on the pump when water temp in heater is below your desired setting and kicking pump off when temp is reached.

Basically the water circulates out of the water heater and out to wood burner, then back to water heater. Water is heated through the copper tubing inside your wood burner's water jacket.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part...........Throw the breaker to the hot water tank into the off position:greenchainsaw:

I took a pic for you to see

Thanks Windwalker, that is what I wanted to know. What kind of pump did you use?

Mac

I have mine hkup to a propane water heater that had heating ports to circ water and just bought a new heater double the size without the heating ports and you just saved me about $50 in fittings coming out the relief port THANKS

I have a Taco 007 Bronze.

Was told Bronze would be better for that application. Not sure if that's true or not but used one anyway.

I'd of been better off with a bigger pump (130 ft to OWB) water would have circulated faster too, with quicker recovery.

Does your setup get the hot water to the faucet any faster? We have to let the water run a good while for it to get hot now.

Thanks Mac

I did notice that the water takes about a minute till its hot. I honestly don't understand why. Its still coming from the hot water heater.

If you have an electric hot water heater, you will notice a difference on your electric bill.

Worth the wait in my opinion.

Windwalker7,

Your setup is almost identical to mine and I don't know of anyone else that is similar. Who built your boiler and where in PA are you?

Mac B., the time to get hot water at the faucet should be no more time than it did when the hot water tank was powered by the power company only now you should never run out of hot water no matter how long of a shower you take.

Keith

Mine is a Shaver 165. I'm from Westmoreland Co. Between Mt Pleasant and Norvelt.


I did a few mods to mine, thanks to ideas on this forum.

I can't recomend the Ranco thermostat enough. It, along with the flapper mod in my other thread, makes my unit run like a different machine.

Shoot, I lived in a log house on Brinkerton Extension between Norvelt and Hecla for seven years. Nive to meet ya (sort of)....

Keith

Sorry Mac B., not trying to side track the thread, I'll get some pictures of my set up too.

Keith

kzack said:

Shoot, I lived in a log house on Brinkerton Extension between Norvelt and Hecla for seven years. Nive to meet ya (sort of)....

Keith

Click to expand...

LOL! Small world isn't it.

I live right outside of Laurelville if you know where that is.

My owb is rectangular in design and has a domestic coil on the top. The domestic coil is right on top of the water jacket and under the insulation.

I did not add a separate thermostat in my set up. In the pictures you can see that the factory thermostat that used to 'tell' the electric heating element to come on, now tells the pump to come on. I have a switch that will allow me to switch back to the factory method if ever required. The pump simply circulates the cold water at the bottom of the tank out to the owb and dumps hot water in the top. The drain valave and the pressure valve are both retained and as Windwalker says there is no reason to have the circuit breaker on to the hot water tank. And as stated, this sytem only circulates when the hot water tank needs hot water, it doesn't circulate continuously. I have a large boiler (holds 550 gallons of water) and I don't know exactly what the domestic coil holds, but I have myself and three ladies in the family and never run out of hot water and have saved considerably on the electric bill. We run the owb year round and my run is about 200 feet each way.

Keith

Kzack thanks for the pics. You and Windwalker have told me exactly what I wanted to know.

Kzack how did you wire the switch & thermostat?

Thanks Mac

I almost forgot to ask what Grundfos pump is that?

Mac

I was also wondering if you guys knew how much just the water heater running off your stove saved you on your electric bill ? My friend says his bill runs around $70-80 a month. His water heater is set up like mine with no pump. The only way the stove helps us is when the hot water is running out of a faucet. This is my first year with my stove so this is all new to me.

Mac