Pseudo masonry heater "storage"

[Adios Pantalones]

I am planning on buying a boiler before the rebate runs out, but the cost of storage has me hesitant.

I was thinking that if I had a good mass of something to dump heat into- almost masonry heater style- then it could help keep burn times up and even out my home heating cycle while I pick my nose and think about storage. Heat exchange into the material would have to be clever- maybe set fin radiators directly into wet cement to maximize contact. I could make it sexy as hell with home made tile etc.

Has anyone done this? I assume that load bearing on my first floor would be the main concern, as having the heat source in the basement wouldn't make sense.

 

[DaveBP]

Never thought about fin-tube in concrete. If you try it I would suggest spraying some kind of lacquer over the aluminum fins (if that's what you have) before they touch the wet mud. Concrete corrodes aluminum badly.

If you have vertical channels through the masonry mass that can heat air that can rise up into the house why not have it all in the basement. Interesting combo. High-tech and paleolithic-tech

 

[tom in maine]

Fins are on fin tubes for air to convect through them. If you were to try to store heat in masonry, use PEX tubing, lots of it.

The beauty of masonry is that you can heat it up really hot. The bad news is that, pound for pound, its specific heat is a fraction (20%, I believe) that of water.

IF you want to store heat in a house without a tank, any additional thermal mass in the building would work. Double sheetrock, tile floors lots of weight And of course, the old
stand by, insulating your house better so you do not need as much heat.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

The fins increase surface area. because they have a high heat conduction, and they would be in intimate contact, they should improve heat conduction to the mass.

I live in a log home, so there's only so much mass I could add. I'm mostly pondering the idea, not seriously planning it out just yet