Wood Stove Heated Radiators

[k3c4forlife]

Anyone have any experience with Wood Stove Radiator combos? I know it's quite a while down the road but trying to figure out if I could put a stove in the basement that could heat a few radiators upstairs. I know I saw a Jotul setup that could do that. Any chance it would work with a Waterford 104?

I'm sure I'll have 15 people pointing me in the right direction within an hour.

 

[rowerwet]

there is a seller on ebay that has a radiator collector for a set up like you want to do, I don't know how efficient it would be though.
any piping inside the stove to collect the heat would tend to cool the fire and cause creosote. I don't know if you could collect enough heat to heat more than one radiator with out getting a wood boiler.

 

[BrotherBart]

I am moving this to the "Boiler Room" where the guys have a lot of experience with heating radiators without blowing up things.

 

[Gooserider]

There are lots of reasons, but bottom line is that you will probably not be happy trying to do this with any stove that was not specifically designed to do this... You will probably get less than stellar performance, are likely to find your stove will burn a lot worse in terms of creosote making and fuel consumption, AND if the system is not very carefully designed, you stand an excellent chance of blowing yourself up... In addition, anything that goes into the firebox of the stove will probably void any UL listings, which could cause you to have problems with your homeowners insurance...

IOW, if you want to run radiators, get a boiler that's designed to do so...

Gooserider

 

[DenaliChuck]

Water tubes in a wood stove have the potential to make steam pockets that go boom...

On the web somewhere I've seen someone coil tubing to fit into a cookie sheet, in-fill it with a masonry type material and attach it to the side of a woodstove. Using convection you could make some hot water, probably not enough for a radiator.

 

[Gooserider]

Water tubes in a wood stove have the potential to make steam pockets that go boom...

On the web somewhere I've seen someone coil tubing to fit into a cookie sheet, in-fill it with a masonry type material and attach it to the side of a woodstove. Using convection you could make some hot water, probably not enough for a radiator.

That approach is safer than putting tubes IN the firebox, but it can still go boom if not properly designed... (Definitely must have proper expansion tanks and pressure relief valves, and also must have provision for enough convection to avoid overheat in the event of power / pump failures...)

In addition, it could adversely affect the stove's ability to burn clean... Part of the stove design process is determining just how fast heat will leave the stove, and this is figured using normal figures for convection and radiation into air. If one slaps what amounts to a big heat sink on the side of the stove, and starts pulling more heat out of it than it was designed for, you MAY end up pulling the firebox down below the temps it needs to maintain secondary combustion...

Gooserider