wood stove, will this work?

Tom_53

1. I have a wood stove. Iam thinking of cutting a hole in the side and installing a tankless 5 gallon coil,and stretch it out to try to avoid ash from clogging the outside of the coil.
2. Install the wood stove next to the boiler (in basement).
Connect a circulator to run constant to just keep the boiler hot. (4 section Utica Starfire 3)
3.The only job of the stove is to keep the boiler hot so my thermostats will operate normally and if the fire dies out the oil burner will come on.
4.I have everthing to do the job without buying anything so this is a job i would call "tinkering".
5.I think the boiler holds about 14 gallons of water and the house is a small cape.
6. Will it work?
Thanks for your thoughts
Tom from long island

hot_rod

a closet bomb, in other words

Risky at best.. cutting and sealing that coil could be a CO issue. I doubt the copper will like the wood fire surrounding it. If it ever lost circulation it would flash to steam in a few seconds time. A gallon of water flashing to steam= a stick of dyamite! under the wrong conditions.

Enjoy the wood stove for what it is and was designed to do. Stay safe.

hot rod

realolman

I agree

I don't think copper would be a very good choice in a fire box.

Tom_53

closet bomb

Hot Rod,
Your opinion is well respected. i will scrap that idea. Now you understand what i would like to do, do you have suggestions on how i can do it.

Tarm makes a boiler for that purpose, iam trying think of another way, without the worry of a bomb.
Thanks,
Tom

hot_rod

wood stove to hydronic

is always a challange. You don't want an over-heat and have a flash to steam episode. And you don't want to cool the flue products and cause creasote problems. It's hard to gauge how much is safe to pull from wood stoves, especially since the fire varies so much.

In my younger days I built some barrel wood stoves. 30 or 55 gallon drums with those doors and leg kits from Popular Mechanics ads...

I built a few with external HXers fastened to the outside of the drum. This keeps the HX out of the red hot coals, eliminates going thru the shell of the firebox, much easier to control and keep an eye on. Yes a bit less HX but safer overall.

One was a continous loop of K copper wrapped around the barrel Another was a bunch of 1" black nipples and a handfull of ells in a zigzag fashion bolted against the back of the drum.

I think in your case some schedule 40 steel pipe bent into a pattern to fit whatever flat surface area you have available. I'd add an additional pressure relief at the HX if possible. pipe it to a drain or safe location.

Earth Stove and a few others offered these external coild many moons ago, for their stoves. Maybe some still do? I suspect corporate attornies put the nix on that concept.

I know the wood and tile stove hall at ISH had hundreds of stoves, some with hydronic or DHW components. Beautiful stuff from all over the world. Works of art much of it. I need to spend more time in that hall next time

A simple setpoint control would turn the separate circ to the HX on to feed into the exisiting system. Possibly an overheat control to start the circ should the HX get hot with no call for heat in the system

Just some random thoughts.

hot rod

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Glad you mentioned "Closet Bomb" Hot Rod! Was going to say similar early this morning but you're a much more experienced source. I hardly want to imagine the sorts of things you've seen E of Springfield, MO but know they're similar to what I've seen W of Cape Girardeau, MO...

Tom_53

Thanks HR,....nm

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