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Tiny Hydronic System?

Tenally
Tenally Member Posts: 1
What I want to do is put a very small hydronic heater into the wall/ceiling. I just discovered that the water pipes freeze when it gets cold enough, and there's simply no way to either properly insulate to stop the air leak, or to apply heat tape to the entire length of pipe.



The hot water pipes are right there. Can I build a very small system that would suck in a few gallons of hot water from the hot water heater, circulate that through a radiator/fan combo(like this one <a href="http://smithsenvironmental.com/html/quietone.html">http://smithsenvironmental.com/html/quietone.html</a>) until the water temp gets down to a certain point, and then call for more water? It would have to dump the cooled-down water into the nearby soil pipe.



What would I need to buy for such a system? How can I circulate a few gallons of water through a single radiator without having pipes that are extremely long, which would make things more difficult? I'd like to have a reservoir tank of some kind, if possible, rather than long pipes.

Comments

  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,611
    Heater

    Those heaters are made to have water circulated through them. It would take an incredible amount of water to do what you are proposing.

    I assume you have a sink with hot and cold at the end of this vulnerable section.

    You could install one of these http://us.grundfos.com/products/find-product/comfort-pumps-up-10.html  It would keep a little hot water circulating all the time.

    Carl
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein