Heating using the hot water tank.

[MtnDon]

 

[Shadow Catcher]

Yep merit badge
I will be playing with it, I am thinking of using a PWM to regulate pump speed.

 

[Iconfabul8]

I just finished reading this whole thread, congratulations on your working confabulations! One question that I still have is, have any of you documented how often the water heater is cycling? How do you think this will affect the longevity of the water heaters? By the way I have a 6 X 12 on order and am looking forward to posting a few pics of my own soon.

 

[Shadow Catcher]

Since there are far too many variables as to how much heat will be needed vs insulation and volume of the space to be heated I don't that that can be answered. The water heater however I would think will not be affected a huge amount. Since it is a closed loop scaling should not be significantly increased, the burner is simple and easily replaced, as are the electrical components.

 

[bonnie-TNT]

subscribed

 

[lrrowe]

Since there are far too man variables as to how much heat will be needed vs insulation and volume of the space to be heated I don't that that can be answered. The water heater however I would think will not be affected a huge amount. Since it is a closed loop scaling should not be significantly increased, the burner is simple and easily replaced, as are the electrical components.

I agree.
And with mine, My very unscientific opinion is that it really does not cycle that much more as there is very little water being circulated. Also the temperature you set your water heater on makes a difference also. I keep mine on the lowest level.

 

[Iconfabul8]

I still think someone should be able to count how many times the water heater cycles in an hour vs when the heater isn't running.

 

[lrrowe]

For me, it is too warm to fire it up and I know mine works and am not inlined to sit and count. There are also too many variables to consider. Wind, temperatures outside, window or vent openings (amount and frequency) how many people are in the cabin, how big is the circulating fan, what type of heat exchanger are you using, how fast is the fluid flowing and how much volume are we talking. And so fort and so forth. Again for, why bother?

 

[ELM-TNT]

We'll be in Yellowstone in a week for four days and will be giving our heater a good test. It looks like the temps will be in the 40s and 50s for a high and 20s to 30s for the lows. I will report back to let you guys know how the heater worked and how many times the hot water heater cycled and how often the heater comes on.

 

[lrrowe]

We'll be in Yellowstone in a week for four days and will be giving our heater a good test. It looks like the temps will be in the 40s and 50s for a high and 20s to 30s for the lows. I will report back to let you guys know how the heater worked and how many times the hot water heater cycled and how often the heater comes on.

ELM, how did you make out?
Last week while in hunt camp, I kept mine at 60 F and we were very comfortable. In fact I had to remove my sweats for warmth and open the sleeping bags up with 2 and three persons inside. The temps ran in the 60,s during the day and one night got down to 24 F.

I do need to work on my fan. It is my second (first broke-actually I broke it) one and the same model as ShadowCatcher uses. The air flow seemed a little slow last week. Do not know what the problem, if any, may be.

 

[lrrowe]

To Shadow Catcher, Mtn Don or anyone else who has tried the hot water tank heater hack for trailer heat, I just had a thought that if I could find a used fantastic fan ceiling pan, that I could use it behind my water radiator to have plenty of variable CFM power. I say "used" because it might get the cost down to a low level as I do not need all the trim, hood and all that.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

 

[Shadow Catcher]

I used a 100 mm case fan and at seven or eight bucks I do not think you can do much better. you can go to 160 mm if you have that large a radiator. You can vary the speed using a cheap Chinese PMW controller.

 

[Socal Tom]

We'll be in Yellowstone in a week for four days and will be giving our heater a good test. It looks like the temps will be in the 40s and 50s for a high and 20s to 30s for the lows. I will report back to let you guys know how the heater worked and how many times the hot water heater cycled and how often the heater comes on.

ELM, how did you make out?
Last week while in hunt camp, I kept mine at 60 F and we were very comfortable. In fact I had to remove my sweats for warmth and open the sleeping bags up with 2 and three persons inside. The temps ran in the 60,s during the day and one night got down to 24 F.

I do need to work on my fan. It is my second (first broke-actually I broke it) one and the same model as ShadowCatcher uses. The air flow seemed a little slow last week. Do not know what the problem, if any, may be.

Can you post some pictures of your setup? Perhaps we can make suggestions on ways to improve the airflow?
Tom

 

[lrrowe]

Sure...will do it when I get home after this weekend. I am in Arlington, VA getting ready to help lay reefs at the graves of our fallen heros at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday.

 

[bdosborn-SMB]

I do need to work on my fan. It is my second (first broke-actually I broke it) one and the same model as ShadowCatcher uses. The air flow seemed a little slow last week. Do not know what the problem, if any, may be.

There are two kinds of PC fans, one that is made to be used in cases with very little air restriction (air flow fan) and one that is made to push air through a radiator (static pressure fan). A case fan won't be able to move much air through a radiator.

Difference between fans linky

Here's the best static pressure fan that all the PC modders use: Noctua Fans. With Noctua, a P in the catalog number indicates it's a pressure fan. Noctua is super quiet and kind of expensive but the high quality makes them worth the price IMHO. I've been building home servers lately and I put them in all my machines.

Bruce

 

[rjgimp]

Holy hot water, Batman!!!! I just stumbled across this bastion of brilliance this evening. Several years late to the party yet again, but great information nonetheless. I could only make it through page ten before the sandman got to me at 1:30 in the morning... Adding it to my 'must read' list. For now, bedtime!

 

[PrivatePilot]

Hey all - got directed to this thread from another post...this is EXACTLY what I was thinking of doing for a few weeks now. Awesome - glad to see others have actually done it.

There's a local liquidation place where I can get one of these brand new for $120.



Copper and aluminum with the fan built in and ready to go.

I'm pretty sure I have a PWM kicking around somewhere in my garage from a previous project and pumps are easy to find.

My camper actually has the vents roughed in for the furnace that was never optioned by the original owner and the hot water tank and electrical are super easily accessible. It might not be super pretty but I can certainly rig up some sort of ducting that will hookup to the roughed in venting so it would be super clean aside from everything hidden in the existing cabinetry.

Is there a more recent post with updated "I found this works best" information (on pump GPM, etc) that someone can point me to versus going back through a million posts trying to find the needle in the haystack?

Count me in on someone who will be setting one of these up in the coming weeks!

 

[Socal Tom]

The pump that seems to be most popular for the recirculating the hot water is this one.
https://www.amazon.com/bayite-BYT-7A006 ... L55G&psc=1
Its very quiet, uses little power. The flow rate seems to be adequate for those that have tried it.


FWIW I tried this pump with my Triton instant hot water heater, and the flow rate and pressure aren't adequate to get the water heater to kick on. Not really a surprise, but I tested it.