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[cartod]

How much if any heat loss is lost at the water to water heat exchanger when the house is not calling for hot water?   Seems to me that there would be a good deal of heat loss at the exchanger when the wood stove water continues to circulate while heat isn't needed?  Is insulating the 80 plate heat exchanger a waste of time? 

[AirForcePOL]

I put some of the foil bubble wrap insulation around my plate exchanger.  I don't think it would make a big difference but you are still losing some heat with it being exposed. 

[cando attitude]

There absolutely would be some appreciable heat loss; however, as I've given this some thought in my own setup, I've come to the following conclusion:  as long as I'm trying to heat the house, then losing heat to the space that I'm trying to heat anyway, is not a real concern.  If this were in the off season and let's say I was only trying to heat my DHW, then this heat loss would be more meaningful because I probably don't want to be dumping heat into the house.

In the end it's probably best to simply insulate it.

Cando

[aries9245]

There has to be heat loss running through the HX ... But does wrapping with insulation make that much difference

[lmann]

I've been batting around the idea of wrapping mine in a plastic bag then put it in a box and fill it with spray foam.
It currently acts as a space heater. 

[woodywoodchucker]

I did the bubble wrap thing. not sure about how much it does but it must help some

[aries9245]

I'm sure it will make some diff but is it enough to see any changes being that most of the loss is done inside the HX but it's an interesting thought.

[slimjim]

How do you figure there is any heat loss inside the heat exchanger?  That is something I hear often from companies that promote installing without a water to water heat exchanger, there is no loss of actual heat in the exchanger only a loss of efficiency in transmitting that heat to the other side of the exchanger, the unused heat still goes back to the boiler and gets reused.

[atvalaska]

I put some of the foil bubble wrap insulation around my plate exchanger.....

bubble wrap is a waste of time an $$ at a   1.1 r value  (IF it is NOT touching said object) it has to be -   1.2 to 2" away from what ever u wrap to get the reflective R-value>   best to get some foam and build a box around it and fill with spray foam the "yellow, door and window" is best ..don't use any water based crap!!  do not apply on hot/while hot pipes/whatever, it will not "set"...have a spray bottle of warm water /set on very fine mist  and spray item before u apply the single component cans of foam ,and mist it when done ! = more volume = harder texture= 50+ more useable foam per can !!........I have spoken !!!  lol.......

[LittleJohn]

....It currently acts as a space heater.

This is how the old man runs his, all his lines are insulated (HE not so much) and the pumps turn off when there is NOT a call for heat.  But his mechanical room still gets to about 80 or so, water heater and well tank both sit in there too.  So "cold" in the winter is about 70F or so 

[mlappin]

If you're that concerned about how much heat is radiated off the HX then by all means insulate it, but I would use blue board, cut to size then use long zip straps to hold it in place or even tape. If it's loosing heat to inside your home, then that is that much less your fan has to run in the water to air HX.