Small Thermosiphon Circuit

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varg

New Member
Dec 2, 2017
1
Sweden
Hey there,

I hope you can bring some practical knowledge to my theory. Not sure if I ever will build it, even if it would work. But I can't stop thinking about it and need clarification.

I have a small caravan with a wood stove, on the opposite side of the stove is the watertank and the kitchen. So I neither have the space to make a real boiler solution with radiator nor a lot of weight to sacrifice. Further, the whole circuit needs to be somewhat frost-proof, hence I don't want to bring pipes to the stove (too far away).

Target: Having steady warm water to wash the hands and do the dishes during the day, small amount at a time.

So, I can't stop thinking about a little circuit with "boil-prove" coolant (Evans and the like). Heating it smoothly up on a little tank above the stove (below 100 C, 210 F), going up to a little overflow tank and circle it below the caravan in a isolated pipe to a plate heat exchanger. It would be a massively overdrone one which either would be connected to a small boiler (2-6 liter, 60-200oz) or I would just stick to that, depending on the output.

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It is pretty much what you see on the drawings. Besides of, that all the pipes go behind the stove etc. It goes straight up to the overflow tank, straight down, then horizontal to the other side, straigt up to the heat exchanger and vice versa.

Would the thermosiphon effect pull enough to get it horizontal and then a little up again? I could make the pipes as big as 1", everything bigger is a overkill. I would prefer a mild heat up over the stove, cause I can't see how I could cool it elsewise.

Greetings from Sweden!
Varg

PS: I am standing off-grid, solar + generator, no electricity to waste on water heating beside of preventing my tanks
of freezing.

PPS: In case someone wants to draw:

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