**owb**whats To Do When Away For A Week?

[jmcguiretree]

holland patent- 10 minutes north of utica-rome

 

[Stein]

If you (I) have a propane furnace and let the OWB go out and just heat the house with the propane furnace, wouldn't the pipes to and from the heat exchanger pick up enough latent heat to keep them from freezing when circulating?

Otherwise, this is coming from an outsider point of view and I may be all wet--Couldn't one wrap the lines in the house with an electric heat tape (or two or three) to put at least enough heat back into the circulating water to keep it from freezing?

Finally, (this is from the farmer in me) what about a farm stock tank heater? They are 1500 watts. They make styles that float in the tank or sit under a raised tank but the non-floaters aren't as efficient. Mine is a floater in a 120 gallon water tank for our horses. It's an open tank with no insulation. Last night it was -8*F and absolutely no sign of freezing. They are only $20 and they are set to maintain water at 40 or 45*

 

[wkpoor]

These are the kinds of things to sort out before entering into OWB heat. I actually have a list of what if's in my case that need hashing out before I dive into OWB world.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

If you leave the pumps running for the OWB - the house will be able to supply heat to the OWB when the house furnace comes on.

 

[Marklambert61]

OWB protection

Team,

Keep in mind if your boiler is hooked to your water heater you have a built in freeze protection.

However I run anti-freeze in mine in case of power failure condition.

Mark