Moving heat from my outdoor charcoal maker into storage and then heating the house and water is something I been trying to find the best way to do. Since this is a charcoal maker and does other things too I do not want it close to the house, plus it will be in use all year, not just winter. So I am looking at around 50-100' underground piping each way.
By doing so much reading here I get alot of ideas how to do things differently than I originally planned or find sources for parts etc..
Thanks everyone.
Anyway, I will check out the $60 pump at lowes. Now for my thoughts on the systems.
Why not use Vegie oil as the heat transfer fluid?? I think I saw something mentioned about high cost of the fluids? Well cooking oil gets pretty darned hot in normall use. Not sure exactly how hot it should get as a max, but my deep fryer goes to at least 400F I beleave. So I will be looking for a few 55gal barrels of fast food oils to strain and use at a cost of FREE for the taking
I figure I should be able to heat the oil to around 200-300F safely at the charcoal maker then pump it to an insulated storage tank. At the storage tank I will either pump it directly through the baseboard type heat exchangers in the house or other ways to heat the house with it. Maybe a couple things at the same time like radient under floor heating and base board heater, and maybe even a large radiator with fan forced air.
Or I may use the oil only as far as the storage tank, then use water and heat exchangers for the actual house heating system. Still I could go 250gal free oil in the storage tank for temps up around 300F and that would heat alot of water for along time!!
Although cooking oils thicken when cold, I don't think they actually freeze to apoint they would bust a pipe, like severe cold durring a 2 week vacation when no heat source would be in use. Also I think a really good firing before leaving for a week or two oil would be good. Get a very well insulated 250gal tank of cooking oil to about 300F and it should hold heat for a very long time. Then using a small heating system just use enough heat to keep the house above freezing. One thing I hate about traveling as a family in the winter is no-one has a fire going to keep the house warm. My daughter had some very nice Water Globes that have froze and busted in the house. 300F oil might prevent that in the future. My water pipes were safe, but the globes broke, go figure.
As far as various coolants, non-toxic is important to me for this system also. I plan to have animals again later (pigs, goats, chickens, etc..) and most will be down hill (and down wind) of the house and storage system, so if a major leak should happen I don't want to poison the livestock (or pets). Cooking oil should pose no problems other than a mess should a tank burst or crack.
I think in a sealed looped system bacteria in the oil would not be a problem. Heating the oil 300F or more should kill them off and if done in the open also boil out any moisture. Strained and filtered well and placed into a clean sealed system I think it would last for years. Since it's most likely free for most people to get then filtering/flushing and replacing the oil if needed would not be that big a deal.
Last thing I am thinking of also is it should not be corosive to metals. Not rust out steel pipes, safe for copper and aluminum, maybe even keep the pump lubricated well also
Might be worth checking into.
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