wood burner water heater

[psycostagnant]

Raising gas prices, due to the hurricane(riiiiight!), has motivated me to find an alternative way to heat my house.  I have Base board radiant hot water heat.  The boiler/hot water heater is from 1973 and is not efficient.  I decided to build a wood burner water heater.  I had a lot of ideas on design, but cost forced simplicity, and K.I.S.S anyway.  This would be a very easy and cheap project for anyone.  Here it be.  Materials needed, more free the better!  55 gal steel drum, 17 gal steel drum, 2 1/2" dia pipe in 2 1/2', 3', 3 1/2' lengths, 9' of 4" duct, 4" duct elbow, 2- 1" pipe thread but conn and 1" nipples, 1' water line, some sheet steel 12ga or better, 4 hinges, a clasp and a welder.

The 55 gal drum sits vertical, I cut a hole 3" from the bottom large enough to slide the 17 gal drum inside horizontal.  Mark where the seam will be on the 17 gal drum.  Cut 3 - 2 1/2" holes in the side of the 17 gal drum in the area that will be inside the 55 gal drum, you will want them a few inches from the sides of the 55gal drum and somewhatt evenly spaced.  Reinsert the 17 gal drum, weld the seam, weld the 2 1/2" pipes into the holes of the 17 gal drum, start with the 2 1/2' on the side where the 17 gal drum sticks out of the 55 gal drum, the 3' in the center hole and the 3 1/2' in the rear(this will make sense later).  cut a strip of the sheet steel 2 1/2" wide and long enought to go across the openening of the 17 gal drum.  cut to fit and weld this strip approx. 1 1/4" from the bottom of the opening of the 17 gal drum.  Cut pieces to fit over the two other parts of the opening, weld hinges so there is a large door opening like a draw bridge and a small door on the bottom opening upward, the small door is a air baffle and the large door the place where you put wood in.  Cut a 3' long piece of the 4" duct, line it up with the 3 - 2 1/2 in pipes and cut holes to fit over the pipes.  The duct will be at an angle.  attach elbow to top side and insert remaining 6' of duct or more if it is inside of an enclosure.  Cut or drill a 1" hole in the top and bottom of the 55 gal drum, weld on pipe fittings, insert nipples, and water line.  Water leak test it, if any leaks, JB weld is good.  I dumped 1/2 gal of high temp paint inside of mine and rolled it around to coat everthing really well.  I installed a 3 valve bypass system on my boiler intake lines and ties the water lines into it.  Insert wood and light it on fire!

I was at work when I wrote this, if you would like pics, e-mail me at divinity@machlink.com and I will send them.

Total spent on project = $84.23

(1" full pass ball valves are expensive)

My last month's gas bill was about $100 and it was in the 40's to 50's F.  I think this project will pay for it's self in less than a month.

[psycostagnant]

oh ya!, the reason for the angle of the pipes is for draft, also cap the bottom side of the 4" duct.  

[crashk6]

Yes I would be interested to see what you have done... as would others on the board I suspect. You could upload photos to your file section on here on otherpower. I'll cc your e-mail with this message too, just in case.

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crashK6

[electrondady1]

i'd like to see it as well but could not get your link to open up

[nothing to lose]

Sounds like a great job there, I would also like to see pictures. Sounds like you built something great that will work very well.

Currantly (for years) I have been using an indoor wood burner, I been planning to build an outdoor wood burner also, and with that I been thinking of using hot water heat too for baseboard heat. Combination of Water and forced air heating.

My plans are to use 55gal barrel ( I use em for everything I think) and old hot water tanks (I use allot of those too). Hot water tanks already have fittings to screw pipe on and can be had for free or $3 from scrap yards. Most I get do not leak, but are full of sediment, sometimes a pain to get that cleaned out if your not cutting them open. Allot of flushing and poking with a stick in the lowest hole normally works though.

So since I was thinking of something similar I really am interested in pics of yours too. I don't have an existing heat system to tie into so I probably would not be using the same size pipes and parts though.

"1" full pass ball valves are expensive"

Yes they are. Harbor Frieght has some brass ones that are not too costly, I picked up several 3/4" ones last trip to the HF store. They have various sizes 1" also and about 1/4 the store is on sale each month, pretty cheap if you catch them 1/2 off

You can order them online too if you know your gonna need some later.

If you want to keep a good eye on your temps, HF has a Non-contact Thermometer on sale for about $50 untill the 28TH, normally $75 or $80 I think. I bought one and love it.

 Can shoot the wall thermometer across the room with the Non-contact one and see what the temp is, then walk over and read the normal wall one and they read the same, pretty darned accurate. I have allot of uses for it myself and just consider it a tool, not a part of a project. Good for checking computer temps, car radiators, blocks, exhaust manifolds, wood burners, coffee, cats, dogs etc...

 Yes it's true dogs have colder noses

[dinges]

CrashK6,

Off topic, but do/did you happen to fly gliders (Schleicher K6 in particular)? Just wondering... :-)

Some friends of mine were repairing a K6 about 6 years ago; I think they haven't finished yet.

Peter,

The Netherlands.

[psycostagnant]

My next one is planned to be a cut down 55 gal barrel with an old water heater tank on the top, Just cut a hole, add hinges and an intake, a little welding an done.  I had also thought of using a 150gal alluminum fuel tank from a semi-truck for the water tank as well.  (I work for a dealership and can get freebee's that have slight dents)

[psycostagnant]

pictures soon, I promise, ran out of those precious double A's!

[nothing to lose]

" I had also thought of using a 150gal alluminum fuel tank from a semi-truck for the water tank as well"

Could be it would work, but might have problems. First I geuss you mean for heating the water cause it would probably loose heat really fast if the storage tank. If you put it  in direct contact with the fire you will proably ruin it really fast. If you just pass heat around it you might be ok, no flames, no really hot coals near it.

For breaking up large chunks for casting aluminum it is fairly common for us home guys to heat a car wheel or such over a charcoal or wood fire pretty hot then when it cools it is brittle, a good whack with a sledge hammer and we got pieces we can melt for casting

 That is a one time heating, not a repeated long term cycle either.

It's good for us to make it brittle that way, not for you of course though. If you have 150gal water it may not heat as well for breaking up, but if in contact with the fire heating it perhaps it will still get brittle at least in spots.

I have several ideas for my heater using a hot water tank. If I have a good gas one out in the yard I am thinking building it up right and use the center hole in the tank as the flue pipe as normal. Just mount it in a 55 barrel standing up, on a little platform, build fire under it, vent through center hole.

Or I may lay it over on it's side welded into the barrel, place a U pipe out of the 55 and back into the tanks center hole. Heat from bottom with fire and center with flue gas.

Either way I would make it easy to get to the center hole for cleaning it out.

A good use for one of those feul tanks might be storage in an area you also need heat.

 One might be nice for in my wells pumphouse and a laundry room to keep things from freezing up out there. Build one good fire and get the 150gal aluminum tank full of hot water, then let it radiate out over night to prevent freezing. Insulated small building one tank might be good for days or a week with one fire perhaps?

I was working down at the old storage trailer house a bit for making a work shop out of part of it. I'll need heat later, one of those tanks in an insulated box with no lid under the floor of the work room might work nice also for radiant floor heat. Keep my feet warm. Lots of uses perhaps, wish I could get some freebies on those myself. That's alot of aluminum, the ones I've seen are pretty thick, scrap yards want too much when I do find them there.

[jmk]

  I bought mine from Centrol Boiler. I spent $9,000 on it. I load it once every two days and sometimes once a day. I heated last year with it and this year so far. I get my wood for free at local lots that are beeing cleared. I went crazy getting wood last year, and now I have about four years suply! It saves me $3,000 a year on fuel oil, and $30 a mounth on my domestic hot water bill. I just unplug the boilers burner in the basement and let the three zones pump the water when they call for it. As for the electric hot water heater I have a water to water heat exchanger,so I just turn the breaker right off on that. I still get a bill for three dollars though. Must be for them to come out and read the meter? With writeing some off in the taxes and riseing fuel prices, I will have it paid for in two and one half years! 500,000 BTU of heat! I love it. Now I am going to hook up my Hugh Pigget 12' turbine to a SW4024 Xantrex inverter. I figure what the hell. One year of heating with the outdoor boiler, and it will pay for my wind system. I live in Michigan where hard wood trees are plentifull. I can burn any kind of tree in it though. I heat in the fall with sticks and branches I clean up from the yard. Its the best investment I have ever owned.  

[crashk6]

Peter,

 Just saw your post, I wasn't ignoring you. I haven't flown gliders in awhile and not that particular model. Most of mine were custom builds.

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crashK6

[Luminosity]

I have built a masonry heater with an internal hot water heat exchanger that is parallel plumbed into the manifold of my mini-lp gas boiler. Only one expansion tank is necessary. The circulator is activated by an adjustable hi/lo limit bi-metal coil switch in the 6 ' metal stove pipe exaust so that any time there is a fire in the masonry stove, the circulator is activated automatically and shuts down when the fire box cools down. The less fluid in the loop, the better the response time.

Only have one zone/ loop on the main living level that incorporates old cast iron radiators and base boards at the hot side output of the boiler and then into a large radiant slab after the water is somewhat cooled to about 120 degrees F. before returning back into the fire box. The balance elimates mixing or tempering valves.

When the house is warm enough, the excess hot water is routed into the insulated domestic hot water tank with it's own internal heat exchanger and circulator, also plumbed in parallel with the mini-boiler.