Underfloor heating power source

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by PJay, Sep 18, 2009.

  1. PJay

    PJay Junior Member

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    Hey everyone

    It's been a while since I posted. Finally settled on a 3 acre property in Hesket (near Woodend in Vic) and we're busy trying to clear up before fire season.

    The good news is, we've got hydronic underfloor heating which was state of the art in the 80's when the house was built. The bad news is, it used to be run by a diesel boiler which was decommissioned ages ago due to cots. We've thought about the following options for next winter as it does get cold here:

    Solar - isn't powerful enough in winter to power the system
    Gas - we'd need to replace (a perfectly good diesel boiler) with a gas boiler and have gas delivered. Not a great long-term strategy
    Electric - another expensive strategy which doesn't help
    Heat pump - largeish system to power the heating, using solar/battery/electric as ignition.

    There is a heat pump company locally but they're not used extensively and it's a big investment to make without it being proven technology. Does anyone have any suggestions?

    I did daydream about converting the diesel boiler to another fuel e.g. veg oil or some other by-product but maybe it's easier just to stick with our wood burner. Seems a shame not to take advantage of a healthier heat source and warm feet in winter.

    Thanks in advance

    Pj
     
  2. springtide

    springtide Junior Member

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    Re: Underfloor heating power source

    Hiya - when you say "wood burner" do you mean a wood burner with a wet back to run your floor heating? or a standard combustion stove? - we are looking at a super efficient stove in our next house in Tas to run some floor heating and a drying cupboard.
     
  3. foggyforge

    foggyforge Junior Member

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    Re: Underfloor heating power source

    Hi,i have a friend here in Kinglake who got burned out in February.Presently they live in two cabins.He is a European trained master plumber.They have adopted an old Reyburn
    stove to centrally heat the two cabins they live in.
    Perhaps even a rocket type burner would provide enough heat to run your underfloor pipes.Will try to get some info.As long as you are reasonably handy- it could be done.
    There is another - perhaps a bit more exotic -possible solution at this page https://mtbest.net/heat_pump.html
    Regards ,Bela
     
  4. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Re: Underfloor heating power source

    Using a rocket mass heater style setup is a great idea Foggy. These folks have build a rocket stove water heater for their shower system:
    https://www.milkwood.net/content/view/80/49/
    Wouldn't be too hard to adapt this design for an underfloor heating array while getting the benefits of the 90+% efficient rocket heater.
     
  5. thepoolroom

    thepoolroom Junior Member

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    Re: Underfloor heating power source

    If you can get waste vegetable oil, the simplest strategy would be to start making your own biodiesel in a DIY reactor. It sounds like you've already got the diesel boiler, so you wouldn't have to modify anything. Just feed it a more sustainable fuel!

    Failing that, a methane digester might produce some usable gas for combustion, but that'd be a bigger job to construct and get running.
     
  6. MoD

    MoD Junior Member

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  7. Jana

    Jana Junior Member

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    Re: Underfloor heating power source

    BIO-ENERGY PLANT
    Bio-Energy Plants and Soil OM Amendment
    ***There are piles of chicken manure stacked in the US which could be used in methane plants then made into fertilizer. They could also be combined with wood chips from brush clearing and made into bio-energy plants that produce both heated water and methane gas. See the two part video on this…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHRvwNJR ... annel_page —Jean Pain…Heating water and making methane gas fuel from composting woodchips

    GAVIOTAS
    https://www.friendsofgaviotas.org/about.htm —Gaviotas is a 40 year old ecovillage of the imagination…comprising about 200 people in Colombia, South America. https://www.chelseagreen.com/1998/items/gaviotas —Gaviotas, A Village to Reinvent the World, by Alan Weisman
    BLACKENING COPPER: In Gaviotas by Alan Weissman he said they discovered a way to make the copper piping in passive solar water heaters jet black. First the piping is rinsed in nitric acid to clean it. Then dipped into a solution of copper sulphate dissoved in sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid. This black oxidation deposited directly on the copper leads to far greater efficiency in heating the water. In painting the inside of a passive solar heater - iron sand can be mixed with heat resistant black paint.

    You could look into making a mirrored disc for water/steam heating if the sunlight is too weak in winter for the standard flat passive heating system. Also if there is a local source of magnetite iron-sand this could be incorporated into passive heating designs for superheating water. The diesel system you could keep as back up if the weather turns nasty for a prolonged period.

    Also this guy shows old florescent light bulb tubes used to make a solar water heating array.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gzNitOR_Eo
     

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