Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: Toecheese90 on March 13, 2015, 07:35:52 PM
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I would like to know how to install solar to my OWB. This would help heat my water year around and cut my wood consumption.
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So would I.
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Mee Tooo.
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Are you talking about a solar hit water heater? I'm in the process off making one mlw. Just going slow.
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Give us the details.
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I'm fabricating it to preheat the water before it goes into my hot water heater, when the boiler is shut down. I'm using the inside of an old 50 gallon hot water heater painted flat black with high temp paint. I'll be building a housing for it and using an old sliding glass door for the top. Lines will be plumbed with isolation valves so I can shut it down and drain it for winter.
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SOLAR BATCH WATER HEATER "PART ONE": https://youtu.be/C2Xe_glVoqc
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Goto Natures Comfort website, they sell solar water heaters and have complete instructions on how to plumb it to your OWB.
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Goto Natures Comfort website, they sell solar water heaters and have complete instructions on how to plumb it to your OWB.
Yep, they have a kit that connects to OWB's and also one that is stand alone for DHW. The DHW only is nice because it has it's own storage tank and requires no pumps. It does need to be near the house though instead of near the OWB.
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Goto Natures Comfort website, they sell solar water heaters and have complete instructions on how to plumb it to your OWB.
Yep, they have a kit that connects to OWB's and also one that is stand alone for DHW. The DHW only is nice because it has it's own storage tank and requires no pumps. It does need to be near the house though instead of near the OWB.
I'm quite surprised with the cost of the one that connects to the OWB; it's cheaper than I thought it would be. That's all I want to do is heat the water in the OWB to heat my DHW during the summer time and not go broke doing it. Because my younger bro and I don't use that much water, the Natures Comfort unit may be the best bang for the buck. Does anyone have one set up and using it? What's your opinion of it? Thanks...Roger
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That natures comfort one looks nice. I would like to here some real world results. I would be real nice if during the summer you could run that through your OWB and heat domestic water.
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That natures comfort one looks nice. I would like to here some real world results. I would be real nice if during the summer you could run that through your OWB and heat domestic water.
12valve - That's what I intend to do (as soon as I save my pennies to buy one) is heat the water in the OWB and have that heat my DHW during the summer. Because I don't use that much water (I don't believe in wasting natural resources) the water in OWB "should" stay pretty danged hot for a long time. Roger
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That sounds great Roger. Cant wait to see your results. Are you planning on this summer or our you not sure when you will do it?
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That sounds great Roger. Cant wait to see your results. Are you planning on this summer or our you not sure when you will do it?
I doubt it will happen this year unless I win the lottery. :)
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Lottery, a tax on those who are incredibly bad at math, look at your odds and where the profits go, by the way I think it has been 10 years or more since I bought a ticket!
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Oh c'mon Slim. You're looking at this all wrong. We hit the lottery every time you post something.
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How nice!
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Oh c'mon Slim. You're looking at this all wrong. We hit the lottery every time you post something.
:post: :thumbup:
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Goto Natures Comfort website, they sell solar water heaters and have complete instructions on how to plumb it to your OWB.
http://naturescomfortllc.com/products/sm-h60-solar-water-heater (http://naturescomfortllc.com/products/sm-h60-solar-water-heater)
Anyone have on of these or seen on in action?
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I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.
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Max haha auto correct. I talked to nature's comfort the other day and I talked to a guy named Mike. This will work and will cut down on wood consumption.
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Hey sent me some pics but I can't seem to be able to put them on here. It says upload folder is full.
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Hey sent me some pics but I can't seem to be able to put them on here. It says upload folder is full.
Uploader has been full for awhile, post the pictures to something like Flickr or Photobucket then paste the links here.
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I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.
The one issue I can think of is since it is designed to not use a pump, in the winter you will either have to have antifreeze in your boiler, or heat tape the supply, return and manifold going up the center. Otherwise at night when the water in that puppy stops moving you would be frozen solid. I guess you could also put a small circ pump on it in the winter also.
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Has anyone looked for used solar panels?
I bought (6) panels and controller for $75.00 each. It's all been mounted on my shed and uses a goldline controller
http://shop.solardirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=154 (http://shop.solardirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=154)
This controller includes (2) sensors and runs the panels when they are hotter than the stove.
My setup includes (6) panels, Tubing, pump & solar controler.
The setup is pretty easy for older panels and the price can be very budget friendly.
My manufacturer builds his stoves sized appropriately so I'm able to use all the free energy
during the summer and shoulder months to help with heat and DHW.
I've been around hydronic solar panels 20+ years, all the same setup, no solar tubes.
I'm not sure of the benefit some will receive though, I believe the solar storage will be a limiting factor.
I have 650 gallons of water, it serves my purpose with a family of (4). My wife can wash our clothes and fill
our 70 gallon bath with no problems. I've turned my water heater off and had no problem but normally I just leave it on .
If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I believe solar panels are worth the investment as long as you have enough storage.
Look up my previous posts to find my setup.
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I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.
The one issue I can think of is since it is designed to not use a pump, in the winter you will either have to have antifreeze in your boiler, or heat tape the supply, return and manifold going up the center. Otherwise at night when the water in that puppy stops moving you would be frozen solid. I guess you could also put a small circ pump on it in the winter also.
I read the manual from NC and if you can't set it up to thermosiphon then they also have a pump you could use. They also recommend wrapping the supply and return line with heat tape too prevent freezing.
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I see PM has some solar panels on there site, links don't work but I'm wondering if they offer a hookup to there boilers.
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I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.
The one issue I can think of is since it is designed to not use a pump, in the winter you will either have to have antifreeze in your boiler, or heat tape the supply, return and manifold going up the center. Otherwise at night when the water in that puppy stops moving you would be frozen solid. I guess you could also put a small circ pump on it in the winter also.
I read the manual from NC and if you can't set it up to thermosiphon then they also have a pump you could use. They also recommend wrapping the supply and return line with heat tape too prevent freezing.
I haven't looked at the manual lately so it may have changed but if you use fitting they show for boilers that don't have the port for the solar hookup, the pump will pull some water through the solar system.
There may be an issue connecting to a P&M boiler though if the supply is at the top and return is at the bottom. Nature's Comfort boilers have the return at the top so the hot water out of the solar system goes into the return. If you have available ports and don't have to tee into the supply and/or return then that probably doesn't matter.
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I've been thinking about this a bit and if I'm wrong please feel free to correct me, but I can't see either system from Natures Comfort doing much good in Northern Indiana when you don't see the sun for three days, it doesn't get above zero during the day and is well below zero at night those three days. I could actually see losing quite a bit of heat out of them.
Now maybe drain em once the hard part of winter sets in then refill and use them come spring to add some heat to the system and come high summer letting them heat your DMH.
Maybe for hard winters fill the system with antifreeze and have a small circulating pump running at all times and a zoning valve, temperature gets above a certain point, zoning valve kicks in and runs the antifreeze thru a 30 plate heat exchanger at the back of the boiler that the return water from the house circulates thru the other side of the fphe.
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Actually Marty you pretty much hit the nail on the head with how most solar thermal systems work, the biggest difference being instead of using a zone valve, they typically monitor the differential and turn on the circ as needed. I have set a few of these up and they work very well in tandem with an OWB, perhaps I should take some time to look at the Natures Comfort system?
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I've been thinking about this a bit and if I'm wrong please feel free to correct me, but I can't see either system from Natures Comfort doing much good in Northern Indiana when you don't see the sun for three days, it doesn't get above zero during the day and is well below zero at night those three days. I could actually see losing quite a bit of heat out of them.
Now maybe drain em once the hard part of winter sets in then refill and use them come spring to add some heat to the system and come high summer letting them heat your DMH.
Maybe for hard winters fill the system with antifreeze and have a small circulating pump running at all times and a zoning valve, temperature gets above a certain point, zoning valve kicks in and runs the antifreeze thru a 30 plate heat exchanger at the back of the boiler that the return water from the house circulates thru the other side of the fphe.
The tubes are vacuum insulated so there is no heat loss there. The pipe and header are the only places that might freeze. They supposedly put out some heat with very little light so probably never make less than they lose unless covered so no light at all gets to them.
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Actually Marty you pretty much hit the nail on the head with how most solar thermal systems work, the biggest difference being instead of using a zone valve, they typically monitor the differential and turn on the circ as needed. I have set a few of these up and they work very well in tandem with an OWB, perhaps I should take some time to look at the Natures Comfort system?
I take it those come with a port to monitor manifold temp? Or do you just glue an external sensor to the manifold to run the circ?
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according to Natures comfort the ideal way to run there is without power and let thermo-siphoning move the water. This would be ideal in the summer. Then maybe run a small circ pump in the winter.
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according to Natures comfort the ideal way to run there is without power and let thermo-siphoning move the water. This would be ideal in the summer. Then maybe run a small circ pump in the winter.
This is from Natures Confort install manual.
"• All water lines for the solar system are required to be a minimum 1” for proper flow and the best thermo-siphoning
performance and must be super insulated. Heat tape will be necessary to install BEFORE you super insulate. Use a
heat tape that has a thermostat so it will only turn on if it gets cold to save energy. This is required to protect your
system! If a line freezes, thermo-siphoning cannot take place and boiling can occur, possibly pushing out and
breaking a glass tube or a line can break, draining the system which can also result in damage to your SM-H60 or
your boiler."
So ya just gotta "super Insulate" after you heat tape..
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according to Natures comfort the ideal way to run there is without power and let thermo-siphoning move the water. This would be ideal in the summer. Then maybe run a small circ pump in the winter.
This is from Natures Confort install manual.
"• All water lines for the solar system are required to be a minimum 1” for proper flow and the best thermo-siphoning
performance and must be super insulated. Heat tape will be necessary to install BEFORE you super insulate. Use a
heat tape that has a thermostat so it will only turn on if it gets cold to save energy. This is required to protect your
system! If a line freezes, thermo-siphoning cannot take place and boiling can occur, possibly pushing out and
breaking a glass tube or a line can break, draining the system which can also result in damage to your SM-H60 or
your boiler."
So ya just gotta "super Insulate" after you heat tape..
This is all based on if you can place the solar panel relatively close to your boiler.
The yard slopes of pretty steep to the east of my boiler, to the North is the fruit trees and the wife's lilac bushes so that side is definitely off limits. To the south is where I stack the wood and also plant the wife's Canna's come warm weather so that's off limits as well. To the west is the sidewalk and where I park my Cummins and the plow truck...
In an earlier post I was using antifreeze, a small circulator, and FPHE so the fluid would always circulate and reduce the chances of freezing.
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according to Natures comfort the ideal way to run there is without power and let thermo-siphoning move the water. This would be ideal in the summer. Then maybe run a small circ pump in the winter.
This is from Natures Confort install manual.
"• All water lines for the solar system are required to be a minimum 1” for proper flow and the best thermo-siphoning
performance and must be super insulated. Heat tape will be necessary to install BEFORE you super insulate. Use a
heat tape that has a thermostat so it will only turn on if it gets cold to save energy. This is required to protect your
system! If a line freezes, thermo-siphoning cannot take place and boiling can occur, possibly pushing out and
breaking a glass tube or a line can break, draining the system which can also result in damage to your SM-H60 or
your boiler."
So ya just gotta "super Insulate" after you heat tape..
This is all based on if you can place the solar panel relatively close to your boiler.
The yard slopes of pretty steep to the east of my boiler, to the North is the fruit trees and the wife's lilac bushes so that side is definitely off limits. To the south is where I stack the wood and also plant the wife's Canna's come warm weather so that's off limits as well. To the west is the sidewalk and where I park my Cummins and the plow truck...
In an earlier post I was using antifreeze, a small circulator, and FPHE so the fluid would always circulate and reduce the chances of freezing.
Got it Mlappin, It is nice that it is designed to be powerless, but I think running a small pump and either a heat exchanger, or antifreeze would not work just as well.