Two DHW storage tanks, is it worth it?

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infinitymike

infinitymike

Minister of Fire
Aug 23, 2011
1,835
Long Island, NY
I still don't have my DHW heated by my wood burner. I do have a coil in the Wood Gun and ran 3/4" pex from the basement to the garage where the unit is, but haven't hooked it up.
I won a bid on ebay in Nov. for a new Weil Mclain Gold Plus 40 gallon. ($177.50)
Thats sitting in the basement. I was planning on hooking it up to the Primary/ Secondary loop I have as another zone. I've considered running the cold street water through the pex out to the WG so it would fill the tank with heated water.
Then last week my installer gave me a one year old Super Stor Contender 50 gallon for FREE. He took it out of a house that the people wanted a larger one.
Sooo, now I'm thinking of hooking them both up to have 90 gallons of DHW. It's probably way to much storage for our needs, especially since the recovery is quick on both tanks.

But you know how it is, gotta have more and more and more. Just look at my wood inventory!

What I am thinking is to have the hot water supplied from the primary/secondary to the first tank and then flow into the second one. Then the second one would supply the house. I would use the aqua stat on the first tank so that it would have to use all of the second tank and some of the first tank before the zone switched on.

Does that make sense?
 
Thats way to much. Just send the 50 gallon to me and I'll pay the shipping to get it out of your way.
 
ok I just packaged it up! where should i send it?
 
Kidding aside do you use a lot of hot water ?
 
woodsmaster said:
Kidding aside do you use a lot of hot water ?
Click to expand...
I don't know. I never had a storage tank before. My oil burner has a coil. There are 4 of us in the house, 17 and 15 year old kids. We run the DW every other day and do a load of laundry almost every day. We usually use about 200-250 gallons of oil over the summer heating water. So I thought since I don't have storage setup yet,(Hopeful to have 1000 gals by winter) that having 90 gals of DHW would last at least 2 days over the summer and then I would burn wood to heat it again.
 
Use one for a solar pre-heat tank. Find a collector, pump package and control, you already have the most expensive component. One 4X8 collector with a 40 or 50 gallon tank should supply near 50% of your DHW.

hr
 
I like the solor idea. In a few years when I get cought up on my priority projects I plan to build a collector. Idealy you need some storage and just the one indirect. I think with the 90 gallon you will probably have to do a small fire each day. Baths use more water than showers and girls tend to use more either way. Laundry will put a hurt on your supply if you use hot water especcialy if it's the old non efficient type washer.
 
I would run them in series, both charge loop and DHW supply. But in opposite directions so the first to be cooled during use is the last to heat up during charge. This gives you a time advantage if / when using a wood or biomass heating system to charge the tanks. And in series it matters not that they ar sized differently. Don't forget to mix the output, as most folks with wood / biomass run high temp storage. Enjoy!
 
Still looking for some advice.

My plumber said to put them in parallel. Each one would be its own zone, but the two individual tank supplies would get teed together into one supply feeding the house.
 
I have 2 electric water heaters hooked up to the coil in my oil boiler. My wood boiler is hookep up in series with the oil boiler. When the boiler is above 160 I have a circ pump hooked up to the switch on 1 heater to come on until the tanks are both hot. So that being said on any given day I have 90 gallons of hot water stored up. I think with just me and my wife it should last 2 days in summer . I usually use 1 electric heater during the summer for DHW
 
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