keeping hot water hot

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by pebble, May 15, 2012.

  1. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Location:
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    Climate:
    Inland maritime/hot/dry/frosty
    It's late autumn/early winter here and I have the woodstove going in the mornings and evenings. I heat water on the top in kettles, that's my only source of hot water unless i heat on the gas stove. I'm looking for ways of keeping the water hot when the stove is getting cool. Thinking maybe a strawbox type thing that the kettle can sit inside.

    Thermoses are no good (too small and fiddly, and too much work if I preheat them). I did wonder if there are larger thermoses around, esp ones with a tap on them.

    Has anyone done something like this? Any other ideas?
     
  2. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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  3. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Location:
    inland Otago, NZ
    Climate:
    Inland maritime/hot/dry/frosty
    I need something portable Pak. Not very sunny here today either.

    Also on short rations with power and broadband, so would be good to stick to things that are about keeping hot water hot, cheers.
     
  4. Woz

    Woz Junior Member

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    I suppose the obvious solution is a wetback connected to a hot water tank, but failing that, perhaps a metal (Stainless Steel?) container, and old urn?, installed inside a haybox with a pipe/hose leading out to a tap. Boil the water and pour it into the HayboxUrn and cover it up. A few kettles might fill it up giving it more thermal mass to last through the day for washing/cleaning purposes. I wold still be tempted to use a Thermos for drinking water, lukewarm Tea just doesn't cut it.
     
  5. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Just the same as keeping cool get as much insulation as you can . Can you get foam veg boxes , pet shops give away the foam boxes they get fish in they have good fitting lids try getting one and break up another and fit inside , with rag or similiar in the corners . Bigger version might be a cut down 200L poly barrel with roof insulation bats rolled around inside , use your imagination .
    Rob
     
  6. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Location:
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    I have enough hot water, I just need to keep it hot (eg don't need a wetback or other storage at this stage). Although I do have a st st urn with a tap. It's probably about 8 or 10L. I haven't tried putting it on the stove yet. The main issue would be how to insulate it. I have things like wool batts, but the urn is going to get pretty hot so, and I would need a way to protect the batts from water spill or being knocked etc. I should check what the heat rating is on wool batts.

    Not a great fan of polystyrene... but will have another think about it. I think something I can drop the kettles into would be best - if I have to pour the water into something else it will cool down.
     
  7. Woz

    Woz Junior Member

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    Pebble, rather than put the Urn on the stove, I was thinking of putting the Urn in a haybox arrangement purely as insulated storage, and filling if from the kettles on the stove. A bit tedious but safer that having the urn on the stove, and hopefully the thermal mass of the full urn would compensate for any heat loss in transferring from kettle to urn. Worth a try methinks.
     
  8. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Location:
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    Ok, that makes sense, thanks.

    What do you think is unsafe about the urn on the stove top? I think it's actually chrome (on the outside) rather than stainless. The floor of it is raised up a couple of inches, so the contact point on the stove is just around the perimeter of the wall. I might try it tomorrow when the stove is going hot and see how it holds up. The extra mass of the water might be enough to keep it warm, and because of the raised floor I'm not sure the water will even boil like it does in the kettles (it's really only for washing up. If I want to make a cup of tea I have to have boiling water ;-) ).

    It was electric originally I think, as I had to put a washer and bung in the hole in the side where the element presumably used to go. Not sure how the washer will handle the heat.
     
  9. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Location:
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    I think if I was going to do the haybox thing I'd do it with the kettles. With the urn I would have to build something that allowed me to use the tap, which is probably a bit more complicated than I want at the moment. I did wonder if a bit of commercially made hot water cylinder wrap might be useful though.
     
  10. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Remember how warm the inside of a car gets, even on an overcast day? If you paint everything flat black that is exposed to light in addition to the insulation, it will help to absorb whatever heat it can get from the sun. My solar oven is an insulated box with a glass door, so when tipped and facing the sun with a silver reflector collar it directs the heat into it, and the glass door helps keep it in. There are nice portable versions of solar ovens available. Mine gets up to 350 for cooking stews, and I could heat water in it, or if I keep it slightly out of the path of the sun and just warm (not really hot) I can do yogurt in it.

    https://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooking/cooking.htm

    You might not want to get new styrofoam peanuts, but I'll bet you friends and neighbors got it unintentionally in mailing packages. I know I have several bags sitting around waiting for a good use. They could recycle them with you? Use them as insulation?

    You know, my husband joked the other day about the duckweed on our pond, that it could be used as insulation. And as I've tried over the years, unsuccessfully, to compost it, I agree with him. Once dry it still looks like it always did, except brown, it's dense, and could be crammed as thickly as you want into compartments surrounding a box. Even when I've had it under the soil for a year, and I dig up the soil, there it sits, untouched, not even moldy when sitting with compost.
     

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