Secondary heating from your stove
Wet Stoves, Boiler Stoves or Back-Boilers are all expressions used to describe a wood burning stove that can also heat water. The water will be used to ‘exchange’ heat to various other areas of the home.
We all want to save money on electricity. In fact, we are all so nervous about the lack of electricity these days that more and more people are sourcing alternative means to ‘get off the grid’ and heat their homes with other methods.
The wood fired boiler stoves do exactly this. They heat water which is circulated in a sealed ‘loop’ system and can be used to transfer heat in a variety of ways :
1) Your hot water geyser.
A 200 litre geyser with a starting water temperature of 15⁰ will require approximately 9.33 KW to heat the water to a temperature of 55⁰ within a period of 60 minutes. If you are happy to wait a little longer, you can heat the water using less energy. As a comparison, your average electricity powered geyser has a 4KW element and so it will take just over 2 hours to perform this task.
A skilled technician will provide you with a tank (buffer tank) that will incorporate a heat exchange coil that the heated water from your boiler passes through. This will then gradually heat the surrounding liquid. The tank will regulate the temperature of the water and monitor it until it hits temperature. This can then be used to fill the geyser or tapped off for other purposes.
Once this task is completed, the energy being produced in the system can continue to be used as follows:
2) Radiators.
The heated water (in the exchange system) can be channelled through a network of radiators around your home. These will rise to temperature and radiate heat as the hot water flows through them.
Radiators can also be fitted in bathrooms as ‘heated towel rails’.
You can choose radiators that are the appropriate size for each area. Depending on the output of your wood burner with boiler, you will have a limit on the number of radiators you can utilise.
The output temperature of water flowing through radiators will normally be in the region of 55⁰. Hot to touch!
3) Underfloor heating.
If your floor is insulated to the latest standards, you will require approximately 6KWh for every 100m² of underfloor heating. It is crucial that you invest in good insulation if you want to get the best out of your underfloor heating. Failure to do so will mean that much of your energy is wasted heating your concrete slab beneath your flooring.
The temperature of the water in an underfloor system may not be as high as the radiators or your geyser (remember, you are walking on it and you don’t want to burn anyone’s toes) so you would rely on the ‘regulator’ in your buffer tank to ensure that the appropriate temperature is achieved.
This is a great idea potentially but requires good planning and a competent installer.
4) Excess hot water.
In the winter months, you do not want to be worried that you will need to ‘switch off’ your fireplace once it has heated the various elements around your home.
Charnwood boiler stoves have a safety thermostat mechanism to avoid damaging your boiler or pipework should your boiler continue to rise in temperature with no way of ‘releasing’ the energy.
However, another way to use this energy without the need to reduce the output from your stove is to ‘dump’ any excess heated water into a Jacuzzi or pool.
This way, with some clever planning, you can utilise every KWh of energy that your fireplace produces.
Charnwood (www.charnwood.com) have over 18 years experience in the ‘boiler stove’ market and are considered the market leaders by far in the UK.
For more information contact us
*Please note that all images used in this article are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended for technical consultation purposes in connection with any installation type.