Has anyone converted a pellet stove to heat water as well

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kimbre

Member
Dec 7, 2010
27
ont. canada
I was wondering if anyone has converted a pellet stove to heat water for a floor. What ideas do you have and what suggestions do you have i was thinking about using the whitfield in the basement to do infloor heating. I also have oil backup furnance so no worries about freezing.
 
A member here named rona has info on kits for the Harman PC45.

There was also another fella that made one for an Englander stove. I don't remember his name though?
 
Do a search under stove modifications, mods, etc. There was a guy that put coils on the sides of his Englander and did something with the heat. Can't rememebr if he pre-heated his hot water or just used the excess heat but he ded a pretty nice job of it.

the link:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/48073/
 
There is a very lengthy discussion on doing something like this over at the iburncorn.com website. In my opinion, I would just get a pellet boiler to do that job rather than trying to mod a pellet stove that was never intended for it.
 
I bought a hot water kit for a PC45 last Nov and it works good. The hot water travels from the PC45 through a heat exchanger on the domestoc hot water heater and from there to my fuel oil boiler. From the boiler it can go through zone valves into baseboard heaters or back to the PC45. There is more to it then that but that gives you a idea.
I know I have doubled the output of the stove plus eliminated the cost for domestic hot water in my situation.
This also can be used for in floor heat or forced air with different exchangers.
 
hi rona where did you purchase this from and would it work in a whitfield.. My idea was to lay piping down on my cement floor in cement and run the hot water from the stove thru it to heat the floor thanks for any info you could give me kim.

whitfield III
Harmon
 
Hello

No, but the cold water in the bathroom came out warm for a couple mins this morning because the water pipe runs over the pellet stove in the basement!!!
 
I guess for more info you can send me a pm as I don't want to be accused of advertising.
 
I am in the process of making one for my stove. There are a couple of issues to deal with, mainly steam. I am bending a coil loop of 1/2 inch stainless to slip around the first foot of flue off the back of the stove. This way it is hidden. On my hottest burn, ny flue at that section never got past 175 degrees. I will put this on a low flow pump to another heat exchanger to a 50 gal storage tank. At this point I will zone it out with valves to feed a base board for the basement and a water coil for the forced air furnace. This is a work in progress, and it wont be operational until next heating season. I'll post my results and kit cost for others to try.
 
The water temp can be controlled by flow and distance traveled. The stove should also be controlled by a aquastat and the water temp can also be controlled by how fast it circulates through the system. There should also be pressure relief valves located in the right positions.
There is a lot more involved then just a coil inserted into the burning chamber.
 
Ho do you like this to heat some water?
Works the same as a solar hot water panel, it captures the radiant heat and warms up the water in the copper loop
Don't forget the safety accessories!!!!
 

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Very interesting posts!!!
Thanks indeed!
I want to try the same thing if I can the Wife onboard to the idea of a second stove for the basement.
If oil prices continue to rise, it may get easier to convince her!
 
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