heating cattle water tanks with a loop from my outdoor wood boiler

[wrightk20]

hey guys, i'm just looking for some opinions. i have 2 cattle tanks that i would like to keep heated this winter with my outdoor boiler. i have a heating loop running to my shed in 1 inch pex to a hanging radiator heater. i was thinking of teeing off of the loop and running 1/2, or 3/4 inch pex off of it and running a loop in the bottom of each water tank. I'm thinking that i can do this without a pump by installing a valve in the 1 inch pex after the supply run to the tanks to be able to vary the flow through the loop to the tanks. i would appreciate and comments on this. thanks. Kevin

 

[woodman6666]

should work half inch pex should be plenty using the T off another circuit may be troublesome as your never quite sure how much flow you may have. I think a very small pump on its own loop drawing water off a cooler place on your boiler may be a more constant that would be more reliable through different outside temperatures. You would probably only want 80- 100 degree water in that loop maybe you could pull off your return header. It may take some tinkering to find a happy medium in burning the cows tongues and freezing the water Ha Ha.