Before the heating season had started up, I had considered installing a coil in my Buckstove where the heated air blows thru and comes out. I was going to install a tank above it and set up a gravity siphon system, but never had time to do it.
Just wondering if any of you have set up your inside wood furnaces so you can have "free" hot water. I figure if I install something like a 1/2" x 50' roll of copper tubing in the ducting shortly after it comes off the furnace, it should do a very good job of heating water. I would stretch this tubing out some and it would be something like a slinky so it would not reduce the air volume coming from the furnace. I would then do the gravity siphon with it feeding to a storage tank above the furnace. My cold water line would feed to this tank and the hot side of this tank would feed to my electric water heater. If it didn't bring the temps up enough, at least it would act as a pre-heater and supply warmer water to electric tank. I am on a deep well that is about 320' deep and the water during the winter is around 36-38 °F when it comes into the house. This means I am having to heat it nearly 100°F before we can use it. If it would just raise it by 50°F, this should nearly cut my hot water cost in half. I know this is an advantage with an outside wood boiler, but I don't want to have to go out and feed that monster 2-3 times a day during the winter.
Just wondering if any of you have set up your inside wood furnaces so you can have "free" hot water. I figure if I install something like a 1/2" x 50' roll of copper tubing in the ducting shortly after it comes off the furnace, it should do a very good job of heating water. I would stretch this tubing out some and it would be something like a slinky so it would not reduce the air volume coming from the furnace. I would then do the gravity siphon with it feeding to a storage tank above the furnace. My cold water line would feed to this tank and the hot side of this tank would feed to my electric water heater. If it didn't bring the temps up enough, at least it would act as a pre-heater and supply warmer water to electric tank. I am on a deep well that is about 320' deep and the water during the winter is around 36-38 °F when it comes into the house. This means I am having to heat it nearly 100°F before we can use it. If it would just raise it by 50°F, this should nearly cut my hot water cost in half. I know this is an advantage with an outside wood boiler, but I don't want to have to go out and feed that monster 2-3 times a day during the winter.