hot water from fireplace
By jeffbirkle, Section Diaries Posted on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 06:32:45 AM MST
jeff

I have an off grid non-winterized cabin up in the woods up north.For my hot water i installed my electric hot water tank (elec in summer)on the roof (gravety feed) with an additional 6" of insulation and an outer shell.I did all my plumbing so when i leave for the week during the freezing months, all i do is open 4 valves and all the water drains from the entire system. When i go back up, i fire up the wood stove and fill the tank. There is a "low cold" side under the kitchen sink and there are 6 pieces of 3/4" 3 ft long copper tubeing running up the flue (my own heat exchange design) then the tubeing continues in an upward direction to an extra hole i put just above the lower output side of the hot water tank. As the water is heated by the wood stove it rises naturally up the tubeing and flows into the tank pulling the cold water from under the sink faucet. The water coming from the well is 10 deg and in 4 hours the 10 gal tank is 40 deg (ready for a shower). Also because it circulates its self the water is allways warm instantely at the sink. If anyone wants more info just let me know. Off grid and love'n it. Jeff

hot water from fireplace | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: hot water from fireplace (3.00 / 0) (#1) by tecker on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 05:11:30 AM MST (User Info)

If you would do a rough pictorial of the system and post it It's always nice to compare notes especially on a convection gravity circulation .

Re: hot water from fireplace (3.00 / 0) (#2) by elvin1949 (elvin1949@yahoo.com) on Sun Nov 25th, 2007 at 07:29:24 PM MST (User Info)

I agree  A rough hand drawing will do fine. later Elvin [ Parent ]

Re: hot water from fireplace (3.00 / 0) (#3) by jeffbirkle on Wed Nov 28th, 2007 at 12:11:06 AM MST (User Info)

Hope this helps. Jeff

Re: hot water from fireplace (3.00 / 0) (#4) by framistan (framistan(at)sbcglobal(dot)net) on Wed Nov 28th, 2007 at 05:23:44 AM MST (User Info)

Your idea is very interesting to me.  I especially like your method of using copper pipes that you didn't bend and placed them in the FLUE of your fireplace!  Very creative of you.  I know from doing a little plumming work that the solder joints will not melt as long as water is in the pipes.  The water limits the temperature to waters boiling point. But.... if you ever just ONCE start a fire and you forgot to fill the pipes with water,  Then a hot fire may heat up your pipes to the point that the solder joints may unsolder and cause you problems.  You might be able to eliminate that problem too.... by using silver solder or having the pipes brazed instead of soldered.   "There are no IMPOSSIBLE PROBLEMS... only WELL-HIDDEN-SOLUTIONS."

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