Fireplace insert

Wayco Wayne_2

Our house came with a fireplace insert of the cheapest variety. We used it when the kids were young for having a fire and making smore's but since they've grown I've sealed it up tight, since it leaked air pretty bad. Well now we are wanting to have a fire now and then and are considering upgrading to a nicer insert that might give some heat too. I went to a wood store shop not far from us and when I told them what I had, they wanted nothing to do with it. Apparently there are clearance issues with combustables and such things. I got the feeling they only wanted easy jobs. (I could be wrong.) I got to thinking. (always trouble in my house) Why couldn't someone make an insert with a loop for hot water so I could feed some hot water to the top of my Solar storage tank when watching some nice flames. I gots lots of wood out back. Why not? What's out there? Has anyone seen something like I'm describing? WW 

Eric_32

Nice idea

I also heat with a wood stove in my living room and have had the idea of a couple of different exchangers off it for hot water, but have not found any manufactured and would have to monitor it like crazy so It has held me off as of yet. Expansion and hi temps have kept me at bay...



Had tossed around the idea of bolting a flat plate exchanger to the back of the stove and see how it does. Have also considered a roll of 1/2" soft copper wrapped around the flue piping of the wood stove to extract what it could without being in flue passage.

I won't be doing anything crazy this winter either, but am interested in any other ideas that might be out there and do work.

Gordan

In a word, creosote

Anything that reduces the temperature of a regular wood fire is likely to result in an accumulation of it. Think of it as running a cast iron boiler at condensing temps... only what's condensing is not water.

TonyS

Wood burning

This is the first year I am burning wood. I had to have a chimney erected this summer and do some remodeling inside to accommodate the new wood stove. After reading tons of opinions and looking at different models we purchased a Quadrafire cast iron stove. We have not turned on our heating system yet. In 1988 the EPA got involved with these things and have really improved the efficiency. It injects air above the fire and burns the smoke. On average they are 30 to 40 percent more efficient than the older stoves. We are getting near the end of December and I have burned about a half chord.

I was looking into the hot water thing too but I already have solar panels and a Navien backup so it just wasnt worth it. There are companies that sell stainless loops you can install in your stove to circulate water through but then your going to have to install heat dumps and relief valves. Unless you have a basement below you could pipe up a coil in a drainback configuration. This would go a long way in making the system safer and automatic.

Quadrafire makes some nice inserts. http://www.quadrafire.com/en/Browse/Inserts.aspx



http://www.woodheat.org/dhw/dhw.htm

hot_rod

Hydro Hearth

was a product built back in the 70's. It was basically a grate that you built the fire on top of and you could circulate water through it.



A good relief valve piped to a drain was important as wild things could happen if you lost pump power.



I build a few homemade ones for those barrel stove conversions. Just a loop of 1" steel pipe in around and back out of the barrel.



Too much surface area could drag down the flue gas temperatures, but a single loop worked fine.



Blazing Showers was another type that went inside the flue pipe.



Water Type was yet another hearth grate product.



Hydrostove was a Buck Stove looking heater with coil built inside, @ 40,000 BTU/hr.



I have a 1978 catalog with all sorts of these devices.



Central Fireplace had a product called the Millennium I think, that was a glass front, gas fired, parlor stove with a hot water coil for hydronic heating.



hr

TonyS

Another link

http://thermacoil.com/