thermosiphon wood stove

[7/11=12]

Hi folks

iam thinking of building a steel box to sit on top of our wood burning stove to act as a back boiler plumbed through the internal house wall into the dining room/kitchen to a header tank / radiator

this seems to be the way narrow boats have there radiators heated via a wood stove,a lass i know wanted another radiator fitting in her narrow boat & i was amazed it worked,its all on one level
it was litallly filling a high up "Head Height" header tank as like a car system but with out a pump the water been heated did the circulating bleed valves open while the stove heated the water job done,our stove doesnt have a back boiler this is where the fab comes in
ive know worries the stove not heating the water
it will be open vented so theres know way it will pressurise,as anyone on here done this or seen it been done,any views / help would be great
thanks Rick

 

[Shox Dr]

They are a simple system, however their simplicity hides a lot of knowledge. I was going to fit one to my new workshop build, but once I started to look into it, I found it wasn't as easy as it first looks, to build one that works well. So now I'm just going to heat with the stove.

 

[7/11=12]

ive know probs doing it i was thinking if someone else as maybe they can offer some do"s donts so to speak,cheers

 

[pedrobedro]

It will want to be a narrow section box to heat the water up at any decent rate and thick metal to withstand the heat from the fire. If it goes out through the radiator before the header tank it might work otherwise it will be cooling before it starts to circulate. Greenhouses used these kind of systems for years so it should work with a bit of thought into the design.

 

[7/11=12]

hi mate

the stove top is 8mm thick which iam going to use steel of ish the same thickness
the lasses narrow boat i mentioned the set up is:
header tank / radiator / radiator / stove

running a length of around 30ft,it takes about 15 to 20 mins to get temp running round but as the reason iam wanting to do this its "Free" heat so for a bit of lay out cash wise i think its worth doing,thanks for your views

 

[PTvor]

A friend welded a box into a wood burning stove as a back boiler to work by thermo- siphon action. I think the stove had originally had a boiler which had burnt out. I recall that he'd also modified the stove to make it smaller by taking a section out of the middle and welding it back together.

The stove looks right and works, he made a good job of cutting it down.

The boiler looks right, and it works a bit, but the results are definitely disappointing.

I go along with the view that it's one of those things which looks simple, like making a fireplace, but there are all sorts of subtleties which catch you out. If you just build a fireplace, there's a good chance it won't work properly.

It might be better to copy an existing, working design, rather than have a go at it and spend a lot of time making and installing something which isn't up to snuff.