Wood Stove Heat Reclaimers?

[cowboy]

Great thoughts and info. I wanted to do like Bill and use a hot water system but that stove will never come out of the basement as I had to jump on it and kick it to get it down the stair well. And do not feel like trying to get the welder and torches down there. I am looking for a easy "cheep quick fix" to sending excess heat up the chimney

Thanks Billy

[beaconlight]

Mine in the country has formed loops of 3/4 inch Black pipe in the fire box. It was made by Thermo Conrol in Cobleskill NY. Last I heard they were making tthe loops from Stainless but that was 10 years ago. I don't know if they are still in business. Their origional model used elbows and street el's. The pipes exit through the rear of the stove. The one for the right side is much shorter in length and is intended for domestic hot water and the other 2 for radiators. I put the right side and one in the top in series and step up to 1 inch where the 3/4 one from the left joins them. there is an aquastat tee'd in as well as a temp gauge, a pressure relief and an expansion tank.
The one in my house in Staten Island has 3/4 inch black with ells and street ells. The pipes are bolted to the outsides and on top and T into 1 inch. I have gate valves to let either the wood or gas burner do the job. I probably should have done it with flow valves but had none at hand.

Bill

[Rudi]

Bill and Cowboy:

My father-in-law has a Kerr Scotsman - 125,000 BTU wood furnace in his house. He modified the furnace to work in conjunction with his hot water oil fired heating system about 30 years ago using sked 40 pipe, elbows and asbestos gaskets. The pipes enter and exit the firebox and take the heat with them throughout the house sort of helping passively the forced air system and of course supplying hot water to the sinks and such.

Has been working like a top for years.... with some work this might be of use to you, but then again, it might not.......

I personally do not bother much with trying to extract anymore heat from my wood fired furnace. It is a Kerr Scotty 2 - 75,000 BTU forced air system and the furnace is in the basement. The excess heat passively heats the basement and the underside of the main floor, and the ductwork takes care of the main and second floor heating needs.... Not much to reclaim after that.

In my case, or a similar case, it would cost much more to run a reclamation system than the recovered heat could pay for... especially when I can heat for less than $200.00 to $300.00 Cdn per year.....

Even if I had to buy my wood cut and split, I only burn about 5 cords per year to heat 3600 square feet of house, so it would only cost about $600.00 to $800.00 per year depending on price - varying from $125.00 to $175.00 +/- per cord delivered.... still cheaper than anyother method bar none.. and less poluting to the environment versus fossil fuels or coal....

Now, if it is actually a wood stove and not a wood furnace, then you could construct out of duct sheeting, a bonnet or hood which would encase a couple of high velocity muffin type fans (use very little electricity), or even those duct fans that you can get for about 20 bucks each that go into either round or square ducts to help the air move. This would capture and disperse upstairs excess radiant heat rather inexpensively and you would probably reduce significantly the amount of lost/somewhat less than useful radiant heat..

Oh, these muffin fans can actually be powered by DC as well... either 6 or 12 volt so that might be of use to you as well. I seem to remember you saying something about a 12 volt generating system you have in place now..

[beaconlight]

You need filters on a hot air system or it gets to be quite a dusty mess. Especially boing wood fired. One way around the ash problem might be one of those vacumes you put out side and uase stainless steel flex pipe to move the ash. I have never used one so I can't do any more than mention that they exist.

bill

[Rudi]

Bill:

Actually, my furnace does not create a lot of ash. I probably will fill up 4 or 5 - 5 gallon steel pails overs the course of a winter. Depends on how much banking I do. One nice thing about it, the ash sure does provide nutrients for the garden. Over the winter, I will spread the ash on the snow over the gardens, and come spring, most of it will become mixed with the soil, and a lot of the nutrients will have already leached into the ground deep enough to do what it should...

The rest goes on just before turning under.. so there is a plus there. I keep forgetting to put it on the flower gardens though.....

With a good forced air setup and todays improved waffled filters, dust is no more a problem in a forced air system than it would be in a propane, natural gas, oil fired or electrically driven forced air system. I find more dust in my Mom's apartment which is electric baseboard than I do in my house or my in-laws... and it ain't cause she doesn't dust..

As for wood stoves, well that be a different animule.. and I ain't goin down that road... dust and ash problems become an individual thing then.

[400lbsonacubseatspring]

outside chimneys are definitely more of a problem for any sort of buildup than are their indoor counterparts.

For many many years my grandparents ran 3 devices off their unlined internal chimney, heaterola in living room, coal stove in kitchen, and water heater (coal) in basement. We often burned wood in the kitchen stove.

Never a problem. Checked up the chimney once a year with a mirror, and rarely had to clean it.

Outdoor chimneys are a disaster, unless they are kept constantly hot. But unfortunately, insurance companies, and fire codes prefer them, as they seem to do less damage to your house when they actually do catch fire.