winter water heating

[2manytoys4me]

i am wondering if anyone has ever tried this. i was thinking of installing a car or truck radiator (thoroughly flushed) on the ceiling over my woodburner that would preheat the inlet water to the water heater. your thoughts. superdad49 (aka trial and error)

 

[habanero]

I'm not sure that's a great idea. First, I'm not entirely sure how much heat you'd really pick up. My guess is not a lot. When you're actually using hot water, the residence time in the radiator wouldn't be long.

Second, I'd never run potable water through a radiator. First you'd need to be 100% sure there was no ethylene glycol left-not a simple task with all the tiny passages and such. Then, you'd have to be sure there was no lead soldier used in the construction. That's going to be tough to confirm unless it's a pretty new radiator.

 

[olyman]

i rebuild rads--and i only test them to a max of 20 lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!! so--youd get it all hooked up--only to blow--also--air convection across it would heat very little---most of the woodstoves that preheated water--had a length of black pipe inside the stove to heat the water--and a tank before the heater--with a circulating pump--so the water in the stove doesnt turn to steam---there are still some made to this day that have that option--could also mount the black pipe inside your stove also---want all welded fittings even a ways from the stove--why??? because the constant hot and cooling of that pipe would make sealant on threads leak--further from the stove it would be ok---

 

[2manytoys4me]

thanks guys for your insight. after further thought i am considering constructing a grid of plastic or copper pipe probably 100 ft by 3/4" total hung from the ceiling if it warmed it to room temp seems it would be worthwhile going from 40 deg to 80 deg should help a lot on saved electricity

 

[1wildthing]

thanks guys for your insight. after further thought i am considering constructing a grid of plastic or copper pipe probably 100 ft by 3/4" total hung from the ceiling if it warmed it to room temp seems it would be worthwhile going from 40 deg to 80 deg should help a lot on saved electricity

Stay away from plastic. It is an insulator, and therefore will not lend itself to heat transfer very well. Copper is a little more expensive, but will work a lot better. Also be prepared to mop the floor a lot. You may get quite a bit of condensation on the pipe depending on the humidity in your house.

 

[ciscoguy01]

Ceiling

Make sure you really reinforce the heck out of that ceiling. 100' of 3/4 inch pipe full of water is probably a couple hundred lbs of weight bro. Good luck and let us know how it turns out eh?

 

[2manytoys4me]

another brainstorm lol

ok guys how about this idea, setting a 20 gallon well water pressure holding tank directly on top of the stove with a pressure relief valve, im pretty sure the stove can stand the extra weight (fisher) or i can reinforce the legs or concrete blocks under the stoves bottom. thanks again for the comments, bill

 

[highpower]

Pressure tanks have a rubber bladder inside them that probobly would not take the heat.
How about a copper coil laying on top of the stove? That is how my OWB works.

 

[2manytoys4me]

i will try to find an older style tank or how about a small gas water heater, a copper coil directly on the stove, wouldnt it just steam constantly? a suspended copper coil would seem ideal, do coils come in 3/4" , thanks for comments

 

[wdchuck]

1/4, 3/8, and 1/2" copper tubing in 25', 50' lengths coiled in a box are pretty common, 1/2" would heat faster, although it wouldn't match the volume of the 3/4, but should still work well for what you want. If you want to contain the heat around the coils, a stainless sheet metal tube around the outside of the stacked coils would work well, and look nice too.

Shoot us a pic when yer done.

 

[ericjeeper]

Please make sure you spend the extra 10 bucks

and put a pressure relief valve somewhere that it can dump into a drain. Just tee it into the line close to a drain.
Not every house system incorporates an enpansion tank. Lots of folks on rural water do not have expansion tanks. Your new source of heating water might cause issues. So you might want to put a ST-12 in the line somewhere as well.
I am no expert. Just like to be safe

 

[highpower]

My OWB has 110 gallons of water that is heated by the fire and my cold water supply goes through that water in a 50' coil of 1/2" copper then to the water heater. You could do basicly the same thing by building a shelf out of expanded metal and placing a small tank from a 10 gallon water heater on it. Run the cold supply into the bottom and the hot out the top. The hot water tank should come with the pressure release, just pipe it to a drain. You can regulate the heat by the hight above the stove. Too close and you will have scalding hot water or steam and a potential bomb if the release fails.

 

[2manytoys4me]

thanks so much for you input and comments, i will look at tank prices and copper coil prices, im definately going to try something, will let you know how it turns out, bill

 

[2manytoys4me]

ok folks here is what i wound up doing. my stove is heating water as i type this. i bought a new 12 gal electric water. i constructed a platform from angle iron. i suspended the platform from the ceiling floor joists with chains. i removed the isulation from the bottom of the tank. i drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom cover. i then mounted the tank on the platform, cut the cold line to the regular 52 gal electric heater, rerouted the plumbing to go to the stove tank first then back to the main heater. the bottom of the stove tank is 25 inches from the top of the woodburner, the bottom of the stove tank is exposed to about 150 degrees during a normal fire. even if i dont have a fire the incoming water will be warmed 20 to 30 degrees just sitting in the tank, cant wait for the next electric bill, thanks for your help on this, bill

 

[2manytoys4me]

Finally Some Pics

 

[ericjeeper]

Remind us again?

How does that insulated tank pick up any heat from the wood stover?

 

[2manytoys4me]

i removed the insulation and cover from the bottom of the tank. also removed the outer shell and insulation on the stove pipe side. i added the pvc pipe as an afterthought. is approx 120 ft of 3/4 in. this holds about 2 gal of water. the water in the pvc pipe heats very quickly to about 100 dg. i believe im getting about 25 gal hot water per day, which is more than i normally use.

 

[HUSKYMAN]

So how much did you save in electricity with this setup? It seems to me just getting away from electric water heaters all together would save as much money in the long run.

 

[2manytoys4me]

i would guess that the savings is modest maybe $20 per month maybe less i dont use a lot of hot water.

 

[drizler]

My neighbor has something similar to this just bigger. He is heating most of his big place using a barrel stove of unknown age. Must be a special drum its made of as its many years old. He has a 40 gallon stripped hot water tank setting about 8 inches off the top of the barrel's center. He made an enclosure for it all using steel studs and some sheet metal sides and its open on the front. He feeds that into his main supercell which is heated by the oil boiler. How much it does actually I don't know but the tank must get around 150 plus and the steel sides of the enclosure keep the heat in where it can be absorbed by the tank. Sorry I can't post a pic or 2 of his rig but I never got any yet.

I like the chain rig you have there. What is it tire chains from a tractor? Looks like you might get more heat by lowering it some as you have quite an air gap there. Easy to do given the suspension you have there.