Hypothetical buffer tank question

Unknown

underneath my stairs . Its a Peerless WBV3 with a 5 gpm coil . The hot water output is fine , but if I decided to add extra , I have some room behind the boiler for an indirect or an aquabooster .

When I was peeking at the flame the other day , I noticed , not for the first time , that it gets pretty hot in that tight area - probably around 90 degrees all the time . And then I thought - what about using a 30 gallon tank before the coil - one thats not insulated , maybe - as a buffer to pick up all that residual heat just floating around the air in there ? Which brought up more questions -

How long might it take to bring up 30 gallons of water in the buffer tank to 90 degrees , just by sitting there ?

And how efficient is this way compared to just converting the tank to an aquabooster , with a bronze circ ?

With all that extra heat floating around in that tiny room , I thought it might be a good idea to put it to use .

Frank_17

If you have no complaints , why fix it?
you wou never notice any gain if you just put a tank there, If you are thinking about a tank as in an indirect, or electict tank, they are so well insulated that there would be close to no heat transfer. Just a tank is not a hx.
BTU= 1 # h20 1 degreeF

Unknown

It was

hypothetical , Frank . I might add another bathroom someday . Its not that I will notice any gain , but instead of sending 40 degree street temp water through the coil , I would feed 90 degree water - without using energy to heat that water 90 degrees - I might just save some fuel . Im sure they have uninsulated tanks made for well pumps and such ?

Boilerpro

Ron, I believe these were once very common in Chicago

There was this galvanized steel, about 40 gallon tank sitting between the furnace and the water heater in my mom's home. It was a tempering tank for the water heater...your idea makes alot of sense to me. In the summer, you could put a black tank just outside probably on the south side, and pick up some free heat from the warm air outdoors and the sun.

Boilerpro

Unknown

Yeah

Knowing how hot the water in a garden hose gets sitting in the sun , an outside black tank would work good .

Something we dont see too much and I had a question about . When using solar heat , on a real hot sunny day , how was the excess heat dumped out of the system ?

J.C.A.

Ron Jr. ,

I saw the "black tank" set up alot in the carribean and Mexico . Most were just a black plastic tank on the roof or a purpously built stand . Most have a float switch hooked to a pump that fills the tank and the water is then fed by gravity to the (minimal usually) fixtures . The rich folks do get a mixing device as the sun can get those tanks pretty darn hot ! I'm gonna have to agree w/ Boiler pro , I remember a lot of buffer type tanks when I first started but don't see them anymore . Take care , Chris.

Earthfire

steel tank

galvanized stl. pump tanks are still available.If the local supply houses in the city don't have one in stock head out of town and hit any of the rural towns around the windycity or farm supply stores.