Storage tank

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KellyB

New Member
Oct 28, 2011
2
ME
I'm looking for a 30-ish gallon steel tank to store water from the wood boiler.

Live near Bangor, ME and can't find any sources for such a thing.

Any ideas??

Thanks.
 
If you're only looking for 30 gallons, I would think an electric hot water tank would work? Should be lots of those kicking around, used. Craigslist? Local Buy & Sell? Yard sales?
 
KellyB said:
I'm looking for a 30-ish gallon steel tank to store water from the wood boiler.

Live near Bangor, ME and can't find any sources for such a thing.

Any ideas??

Thanks.

Why only 30 gallons? It does not seem like you would gain much. You can get a good 80 gallon hot water heater that is slightly used pretty cheap. What are you trying to do? I have also seen tanks around 100 gallons that were air pressure tanks for different applications. You could store 2.5 to 3 times as much energy and that would give you more capability. Just a thought.
 
Thanks for the thoughts.

The reason for only 30 or so gallons is that this is intended to take the overflow when heating with wood. Normally the output from the boiler is used immediately to heat, and then when idle, just sits there until it is either called for, or triggers the overheat circuit and heats up the garage.

This tank would store that overflow and use it when called for. It's also a matter of space available.

And yes, a water heater was my first idea as well, and until I wanted one, I'd see them everywhere! Now that I want one, they have vanished!

I'll keep looking for them, though.
 
Sounds like available space is your limiting factor.

Do whatever you can to increase that space, and use all of it, because 30 gallons of hot water is not really a lot of heat when it comes to space heating.

You could also use an oil or gas hot water tank too, if you cap/insulate the chimney holes to limit heat loss.
 
30 gallons is about 3 to 6 minutes for most wood boilers @ 10 GPM to 5GPM. (a little longer is return = 100F, delta 20F through boiler, 180F use = 4 cycles = 12 to 24 minutes) Most people use a few hundred gallons.
 
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