Heating water

[EastwoodGang4]

Today I was talking to a fella with an OWB, and of course he heats his water with it. After reviewing his setup, I had an idea! why couldn't a guy with an indoor woodburning furnace make a similar water heating setup. Have similar plumbing on the water tank itself, with the exception of a water circulator and just run a loop of pipe into the plenum of the woodburning furnace. I'm sure this has been thought of before and has been done before also so i guess it's not really a new idea. did anyone try this?? how well does it work? how do you regulate the temps?

 

[ericjeeper]

Think big boom

It can be done. But it will need proper expansion tanks and temperature and pressure releasing safety devices.. Without all of these in their proper place you are building a bomb.

 

[EastwoodGang4]

No Bombs!!!!!!!!!!

No bombs please. at least not in my house. Where do the expansion tanks come into play? and also why doesn't the pressure relief of the water tank limit the system? does anyone have a diagram of all the components and how they work??

 

[rx7145]

The hot water tank T&P valve is for the water in the hot water tank. What would happen is the water in the pipes in the stove would boil and turn into steam and pressure would go up untill somthing blew. A pressure tank would help somewhat but I think the water would keep boiling away in the lines and pressure would go up. This is why it would be hard to make it work. In a OWB the water is never boiling so this is not a issue.

 

[Sprig]

Been around for a long time bro!

Hot water add-on type systems have been around for ages on wood, coal, oil etc. etc.. My moms old Monarch kitchen range (coal, wood, sawdust burning) had a heating coil (sort of like a coil spring but bigger) in and over the firebox, there was a two tank system (I think one recirculated, one was a pressurized electric hot water tank) and it not only helped heat a big ol' house but provided massive amounts of hot water when running the stove.
Tons of info out there for various systems and if you shop around and DIY it doesn't break the bank and the over-all savings can be huge. Years ago I had an idea to mount a convection heating system to a stovepipe to take advantage of wasted radiant heat loss, basically a coil going around the outside of the pipe in the attic of a house I lived in, never did it, but the technology is old. Do an hour or two of googlin' "stove heated hot water" or "wood-fired hot water systems" and you'll see what I mean, plenty of forums and free info out there.
Here is a link to Popular Mech.'s forum on this very topic which should lead you to some good stuff (great site too for many tech Q's and the curious minded).
Here> http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/energy_family_news/4204882.html

Personally I'd like to see more heating setups take advantage of the wasted exhaust from wood or oil heating, seems a shame to have it all go up with the smoke The answers are out there however, and very accessible.

I'm cruising the boards right now but am curious about this so if I find any interesting links I'll be sure to post them here.

And let us know whatcha find too eh!]


Serge

 

[max2cam]

In my old indoor woodstove I had a DIY coil/pipe running thru it to heat water. Since the tank was not pressurized (and vented) there was no danger.

It worked okay but when I got a new stove I abandoned the idea and went even simplier. Now I just heat water on TOP of the stove.

For summer use I have a separate outdoor woodstove (with lids!) that I heat water by burning otherwise wasted twigs, branches, bark, etc. This had cut my propane bill in half!

Old saying is true: KISS

 

[EastwoodGang4]

that sounds like it

Sprig... your link sounds exactly like what i'm thinking of taco pumps and all! thanks for the link!! i'ts getting the creative juices flowing! some pics would help too