I am still in the construction stage of a new shop with living quarters which I pan to heat with an OWB. So far I have 1/2" pex in the main floor slab, ThermoPex from the OWB slab into the building where the plumbing will be, and have a Heatmor OWB ready to go.
From what I have learned on this site, I plan to run the water from the OWB to a heat exchanger for my DHW first. Since I don't expect abnormally high hot water usage (just 2 people) I was thinking of a sidearm on a standard electric water heater. The reason I am thinking sidearm, is less head pressure for the circulating pump which will run 24/7. I am considering building the sidearm because I have the pieces to make it with 2"CWP for the outside, 3/4" for the center DHW loop, and 1" inlet and outlet for the water from boiler.
Does anyone have an idea how the head pressure of the sidearm I described would compare to a 5x12" 20 plate with 1" fittings? (the brazed plate being about 5' head at 5gpm) I'm sure that at the end of a day either exchanger will have the water heater at near boiler water temperature and require tempering.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions and many thanks for this forum.
Author
Topic: Sidearm vs. brazed plate (Read 1399 times)