Temporary Boiler

Dave_35

I plan installing radiant in my current home (electric baseboard now). I have no gas, oil or propane on site. I do have off peak electric rates though (.05 KWH). My plan is to put the radiant in and then install a 50 gallon HWH until I can get the $$$ for a boiler. I want to run the radiant at night and let the tank heat up. The heater will turn off in the morning and then I will draw off the heater until it cools down too far. It will be an underfloor job with plates. Not much thermal mass, but I figure I will give it a shot. Any thoughts about how this will work? I also run a pellet stove, so I have a backup. Thanks ahead.

Weezbo

Dave...

i have a "Tool" i use early in the year and late in the year in new construction...i will explain it and qualify that i am not telling you to do this...i have a 20 gallon H2O heater took the elements out and replaced them with 4500 elements,next i have a sweat bronze body pump,a bypass loop ,a temp gauge in the return,pumping "AWAY" from the return...a taco air bleeder on the top of the supply (which is actually the return in this instance)with a couple of 3/4 wirsbo connectors to connect the slab heat...it ameliorates the climate....it isnt massive amounts of Heat and you need to drive the air (purge)from the radiant Thouroughly fill the system add only water pressureize it to like 20psi let it cirulate first till theres no expecterations from the air bleeder on the baseboard "T"..let it circulate a hour or so add electricty to the water heater...i usually set the temps at low for the first day or so then maybe look at the temp gauge and adjust the termostat top lag bottom lead and let it do its thing. now thats not really what you should do im just saying its real low tech and works on high mass and low mass slabs... could it work for staple ups? well maybe you have to have some idea of btus needed or H.P. and or Watts something to get it to function where the t stat is maintaining a minimum output from the emmitters with out outside input to control it. what you have is basically,low temp water mixing,no outside water make up,nothing to interfere with circulation whether the pump is running or not,a means of determining return temps,and realatively glorified distribution system with a little bit of temp control of your environment.I have used low water100+/- ...40¡ãF waters in staple ups unlike heavy thermal mass and even gypcrete pours staple ups like a bit warmer waters to preform so if you made one of these tools remember it has its limitations..and keep the temps of the water down .Oh NA make sure the t&p is on the tank:)

hr

If

the heater is sized to the load closely, on a design day it will not have enough fizz to warm beyond the operating temperature and store much heat for the daytime. You might buy an hour or so of back up. Hard saying without knowing your load and homes insulation package.

Most water heaters will not go over 130 or 140° these days. (Also multiply the input BTU by 70% to get a "real" output number for WHs. Also take the altitude hit if you are over 1000') So you would not store a lot of BTUs in 50 gallons of 140° water. Just depends how much energy you need to pull out, and how quickly. Try it, who knows the pellet may be the silver bullet to carry you.

Beg, borrow or steal (just kidding)to get the funds to "boiler up" on the first go round if your loads are over 30,000 or so.

A WH running non stop is not a very energy efficient appliance. And if they run cold, non stop, the will soot up, possibly plug the flue and turn into a CO producing monster. Not trying to scare you, of course

hot rod

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Dave_35

Thanks for the input. The water heater would be an electric, so no problems with it sooting up. The load is about 60K on design day- although we don't see too many of them. The pellet stove is the sole source of heat right now and runs around the clock. When it gets cold, it struggles to keep us at 68. I figure I will only run it this way for a year or two, unless I get some kind of spectacular results. By then I should have some fuel onsite and the greenbacks for a nice little condenser!!

Weezbo

I never said it was an inexpensive tool to operate.....

you need 60K btus? you have best 9000 w you might be able to find a stouter water heater.for storage...i dont see that though..high heat at nights to drift down during the day maybe...until you pick up solar gain...it is alot of kw per month couple hundred $ maybe...not cheap to operate.. just a tool to work more comfortable...

joel_19

big store

I think your better bet would be to step up to a 120 gallon water heater or a couple of 50s to get more hot water stored ahead of time for bigger demand days. Your also doubling your BTU electric heater wise for shrt money too.

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