With the current prices on soft copper pipe I am not excited about making a heat exchanger for a storage tank. I could go with a aluminum heat exchanger and sacrificial rod, but that requires more maintenance and more failure possibilities.
It looks like a 3/4" x 60' coil is about $150 and need 4 coils comes out to $600 to make two 120' coils. That has a surface area of 105 sq inches. That is crazy to me. A copper sheet measuring 12"x24" and is .080" thick costs $110. I could TIG weld a box that is 4" x 4" x 12" using the plate to get 192 sq in total. That is a higher surface area than two 180' coils which is 160 square inches.
The box would be equivalent to two 3/4" coils that are 218' long each!
I am thinking of going the copper box route. Any thoughts on why it would be a bad idea?
EDIT: Corrected box size
It looks like a 3/4" x 60' coil is about $150 and need 4 coils comes out to $600 to make two 120' coils. That has a surface area of 105 sq inches. That is crazy to me. A copper sheet measuring 12"x24" and is .080" thick costs $110. I could TIG weld a box that is 4" x 4" x 12" using the plate to get 192 sq in total. That is a higher surface area than two 180' coils which is 160 square inches.
The box would be equivalent to two 3/4" coils that are 218' long each!
I am thinking of going the copper box route. Any thoughts on why it would be a bad idea?
EDIT: Corrected box size