Outdoor Wood Furnace Info

All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Plumbing => Topic started by: rclay1981 on April 25, 2012, 05:44:56 PM

Title: heat exchanger
Post by: rclay1981 on April 25, 2012, 05:44:56 PM: i'm going to start building my boiler soon and just wanting some opinions on the dhw. just want to know which is better a heating element in the boiler its self or a heat exchanger and which exchanger is better a side arm or plate style.
thanks for all your help
Title: Re: heat exchanger
Post by: muffin on April 26, 2012, 07:05:38 AM: Quote from: rclay1981 on April 25, 2012, 05:44:56 PM
i'm going to start building my boiler soon and just wanting some opinions on the dhw. just want to know which is better a heating element in the boiler its self or a heat exchanger and which exchanger is better a side arm or plate style.
thanks for all your help

I would stay with a Hx seperate. I think it is betetr to have it a seperate entity so they are not tied together. You also want the Hx central so you do not have to wait a long time to get your hot water. I like the plate exchanger I have and you never have to worry about running out as it is an on demand heater. I believe the sidearms will run out, but only after a ton of hot water.
Title: Re: heat exchanger
Post by: HandyMark on April 26, 2012, 07:25:56 PM: I like the idea of the sidearm keeping the water hot so I never use electricity but I too bought a plate exchanger mainly for the simplicity of the install. My brother in law uses a Taylor OWB which has a coil in the boiler for DWH. I never could understand the logic of heating the water 50 feet from the house and having to run it all out of the line before having hot water.
Title: Re: heat exchanger
Post by: tbone on April 30, 2012, 08:09:06 AM: I have a coil in my OWB and use my water heater tank for storage...so I have instant hot water as soon as you turn on the faucet. My water just gets hotter and hotter the longer you run it. Not arguing that its a better set up than a plate exchanger...just saying, for my application that it works very well, and my OWB is 100' from my house.
Title: Re: heat exchanger
Post by: muffin on April 30, 2012, 01:24:30 PM: Quote from: tbone on April 30, 2012, 08:09:06 AM
I have a coil in my OWB and use my water heater tank for storage...so I have instant hot water as soon as you turn on the faucet. My water just gets hotter and hotter the longer you run it. Not arguing that its a better set up than a plate exchanger...just saying, for my application that it works very well, and my OWB is 100' from my house.

Do you keep the tank turned on? Otherwise I would think it would cooldown when you were not using it and take forever to get hot again at the tap.
Title: Re: heat exchanger
Post by: tbone on May 01, 2012, 06:58:59 AM: Nope, as long as I have fire in my stove...my hot water heater is turned off. My set up works because my family of 5 consumes a lot of hot water which keeps the tank up to temp. If I was putting in a new system...I would go with a plate exchanger.