Hi.
I am new to the forum and have been enjoying looking through the archives. I have a specific question about my system that I've tried to find the answer to on my own. So far, I haven't found what I've needed. So please bear with me if this has all been covered before.
I have a large, two story home in Northern Michigan. It was built in 1907. Overall it is in good shape with a respectable amount of installation. I have an older Peerless natural gas boiler, with updated honeywell electronics (Aquastat relay and ignition module). The whole house is on just on zone, with only one circulation pump. It is a hot water radiant heat system ( not steam) with cast iron radiators in each room. All of the return lines from the radiators funnel down into just one 1" copper line going in to the boiler, and correspondingly there is just one 1" copper pipe coming out of the boiler that supplies all of the delivery pipes to the radiators.
Recently I acquired a large wood burning stove. Natural gas prices have been a struggle since they've gone up so much. So my thought was to put it in the basement (which is unfinished w/ a cement pad), and to benefit from the radiant heat off it. I cut a whole in the 1st story floor and installed a register, and we leave the basement door open. This seems to allow a decent amount of heat up to the 1st floor. I installed the wood stove next to my gas boiler. This of course is what got me thinking, what motivated me to find this forum, and the motive in asking these questions...
1) Can you semi convert a wood burning stove in to an indoor wood burning boiler? Will it make enough heat?
I'm not concerned about making too much heat. If that happens I'll open the window. Just will there be enough?
2) What kind of heat exchanger would be best in the firebox?
I've given this a lot of thought. I have a good idea of how I would plumb it, incorporating shut valves and a pressure relief valve to keep it safe. The configuration would also allow me to preserve my stock system so that I can completely issolate one side of the system from the other.
Please let me know your thougts as to how realistic this is. Thank you very much.
Damon
I am new to the forum and have been enjoying looking through the archives. I have a specific question about my system that I've tried to find the answer to on my own. So far, I haven't found what I've needed. So please bear with me if this has all been covered before.
I have a large, two story home in Northern Michigan. It was built in 1907. Overall it is in good shape with a respectable amount of installation. I have an older Peerless natural gas boiler, with updated honeywell electronics (Aquastat relay and ignition module). The whole house is on just on zone, with only one circulation pump. It is a hot water radiant heat system ( not steam) with cast iron radiators in each room. All of the return lines from the radiators funnel down into just one 1" copper line going in to the boiler, and correspondingly there is just one 1" copper pipe coming out of the boiler that supplies all of the delivery pipes to the radiators.
Recently I acquired a large wood burning stove. Natural gas prices have been a struggle since they've gone up so much. So my thought was to put it in the basement (which is unfinished w/ a cement pad), and to benefit from the radiant heat off it. I cut a whole in the 1st story floor and installed a register, and we leave the basement door open. This seems to allow a decent amount of heat up to the 1st floor. I installed the wood stove next to my gas boiler. This of course is what got me thinking, what motivated me to find this forum, and the motive in asking these questions...
1) Can you semi convert a wood burning stove in to an indoor wood burning boiler? Will it make enough heat?
I'm not concerned about making too much heat. If that happens I'll open the window. Just will there be enough?
2) What kind of heat exchanger would be best in the firebox?
I've given this a lot of thought. I have a good idea of how I would plumb it, incorporating shut valves and a pressure relief valve to keep it safe. The configuration would also allow me to preserve my stock system so that I can completely issolate one side of the system from the other.
Please let me know your thougts as to how realistic this is. Thank you very much.
Damon
