plumbing antifreeze in lines instead of antifreeze?

No significant difference in carrying the btu's, but the safety factor of using non-toxic easily could save a child or animal from a horrific death.

browne2095 said:

Howdy, I am making up a wood boiller system for my chicken coop and was thinking about using plumbing antifreeze as the fluid instead of standard antifreeze for incase of a leak it is non toxic. my question is woulkd it displace heat as efficiently in a radiator as regular antifreeze does? any thoughts and/or ideas would be appreciated

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Some antifreeze is alcohol based.

jebatty said:

No significant difference in carrying the btu's, but the safety factor of using non-toxic easily could save a child or animal from a horrific death.

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I've been told that hydronic system antifreeze is more efficient (for reasons I don't really understand), but I agree with what jebatty said. It's worth the extra expense from a safety and environmental standpoint. That's not to say the hydronic stuff is benign. I spilled some on my lawn once, and it killed the grass.

Just be aware that the non toxic RV antifreeze is premixed and intended for freeze protection, in cold conditions it doesn't freeze solid but will turn to slush. If you want to pump it when real cold you may have to upsize the pump to accommodate the higher viscosity of cold glycol. I had to go to a stronger blend on my SHW system to keep it from slushing up. I have a DC circulator pump and its obvious at some point in cold conditions the pump stops pumping. I just let it run and eventually when it warms up its starts circulating.

In heating systems Propylene Glycol is the antifreeze to use, most times the container will have a delusion chart. The average heating system (2 story 2000-2500sf) will need 20-25 gallons to get the freeze protection down to -25th (standing) and -100 or so flowing. Typically the heat transfer will be slightly less then straight water, not enough to notice.