Hydronic coupled woodstove

[Rearscreen]

I installed radiant heat in my newly bought home and asked for estimates on installing a new oil fired boiler to feed it and to feed other baseboard loops. While waiting for bids (which only 1 company got back) a friend of mine said read "Pumping Away" by Dan Holohan. Well, that sent my head into curiosity mode. Fast forward 3 months. I installed my own boiler the pumping away way (reverse of what the system originally was), no leaks, and with my new combustion tester I am ready to be self sufficient in that regard. Now my curiosity is looking into coupling serpentine piping to the underneath the Progress and seeing how much BTU's I can deliver out of that either in a closed system or tying into the existing radiant loop. Anyone out there done anything like this?

 

[blades]

its been done many times in various ways over the years, just about any description/installation you can think of has been used by someone somewhere. for Idea many many moons ago Popular mechanics- long length of copper tubing coiled around flue pipe to heat water- one open tank -both ends of pipe connected to tank you get the drift I'm sure, was for a hunting shack. Closed system of course you would need pressure relief of some sort.

 

[Rearscreen]

Yes fishing around the internet mostly points to heating domestic hot water. And yes, if not gravity circulated safety issues arise. The point for me would be just to keep a small part of the house above freezing and not for comfort. I'd have to think long and hard before doing something like this. Planning on going to the Woodstock open house next month when I get back maybe I can talk to folks there about this. In Saudi Arabia right now...no wood stoves here! Or beer. Or movie theaters. Or...

 

[electrathon]

The trouble with hydronic heating from the woodstove is it is very difficult to get enough BTU's into the water to warm the floor. I have a hot water coil in my house woodstove and it will keep the house in hot water when I am burning constantly. I have a write up on here about it. Out in my shop I have another system, similar but different. The shop has a small bathroom to the side of it, cement floor with hydronic loops in it. If the shop stove was running constantly it would be good, but it takes many, many hours for the system to get enough heat into the floor to make the room comfortable. I am not familiar with the "pumping away" book, so I will have to look into that. I can give input if interested, but many on here are pretty concerned about the safety of heating water, so I have shied away from it. Water heating can be dangerous, just as wood stoves can be dangerous. You have to be cautious and alert to what you are doing.

 

[begreen]

It's a good idea to discuss this with Woodstock. The Progress is a finely tuned hybrid burner. Scavenging too much might disrupt or degrade its clean burning efficiency.