Wood-stove powered water heating

HeatingHelp

This discussion was created from comments split from: Closed loop woodstove powered water heating loop.

Siloah04

I have a Heco 520 wood cookstove that has an option to put a water pipe into to run hot water to a tank or somewhere in the house. It is in my dining room. I have a basement (stove cannot go there), and an upstairs. The propane gas furnace and ductwork are all down there. I want to run a water pipe into wood stove and then run it down stairs to the water heater 50 gal and then run it right into ductwork which is right by the water heater. My question is that normally the water heater would be upstairs Heat rises. Can I run the hot water from the stove down in the basement and then into the ductwork given it is going down first? thanks

Jamie Hall

If you're using a pump, the hot water will go wherever the pump wants it to go. Up or down won't matter.

Now. If you have a closed loop water system such as you are describing, you have a potential safety problem — so you MUST — no option — have a pressure relief valve on it, with a relief pressure of no more than half of the pressure rating of the weakest link in the piping. Further, you be much better off if you also had an expansion tank on there. The water will expand as it is heated in the stove, and can reach remarkably high pressures without an expansion tank.

HeatingHelp.com

@Siloah04, welcome to Heating Help! I've created a new discussion for you here so that your post doesn't get lost at the bottom of an older discussion.

hot_rod

if the tank were above the stove they can thermosiphon. In that case you would not need a circulator pump

With the tank and ductwork below you will need to install a circulator and other components

Is the stove large enough to supply a voil in the duct? You may need to run it fairly hot to get adequate temperature to a coil, the dining room may “cook”

Does the pipe that goes in the stove have any capacity ratings in the manual?