Tell Me It Was Worth It.

Just installed a hilkoil hot water coil in my Harman Mag Stoker. Should have priced copper pipe before I ordered the coil. $28.90 a 10 ft length. Needed 8 lengths to get back and forth to the 40 gal. tempering tank which is next to my 40 gal. oil fired hot water heater. Preasure relief valves up at the coil and on the tempering tank, all vented to the outside. All pipes are insulated. Had the tank, circulator, relay to turn the circulator on/off and some fittings. Total cost around $500 That would buy alot of oil. Have yet to fire up the stove yet so I don't know how the performance is yet. The only saving grace is I won't be flipping every time the girls take 1/2 hr showers. 8)

Sure it was worth it, may rake a few years before you get you money back but it's all gravy after that.

Once you have that preheat tank warmed up, you can grin every time someone is using hot water, instead of cringing when the oil heater kicked on.

Make a small fire on 'laundry day' and preheat the tank, even if it is not really needed for heat, the savings will add up.

It was worth it, my water/water heat exchanger for the domestic hot water and the tempering valve cost close to what you paid. I figure it has paid for itself in one year.

Take care,

Greg L

I would like to know if anyone set up baseboard heaters on a zone with a circ. pump using this hotwater coil, a large hot water tank and their stoker.
I would like to look into it because 1) the heat is already being generated and 2) I may be able to run the stoker on its lowest setting to heat the basement and first floor while circulating hotwater to the second floor.

Well stove has been running with coil since Oct 20 and is pumping out the hot water. Oil fired hot water heater has not kicked in since. Wife and daughter taking 1/2 hr showers. What a good feeling!!! My oil supplier called and said check the tank I'm due. Still have 95 gals. hope to get me to April. Only keeping boiler warm. Tried to keep the pipes as tight to the stove as possible. Called Hilkoil and had them put shorter threads on when I ordered the coil. They added a 1/2" so I would'nt have any problems????? wish they would have went with what we said. It's working just as I hoped it would. Painted all exposed pipes by stove with high temp flat black so it would maybe blend in. So far so good. No complaints from the bride. Jimmy

Hey Chris,

I have a few questions. I have the coil installed but not plumbed to anything yet. Are you using a standard water heater? Are you using natural circulation? What size water heater and do you have issues with too much hot water and need to expell it from the system somehow? Before I call a plumber wanted to get details. I currently do not have a hot water heater. So before I buy all that stuff, I want to make sure that is worth it.

Jimbo

Looks like a nice job. It really doesn't stick out too much either. I was thinking of gettig a coil too. My plan was to route it through the back of the hopper and into the basement. My wife convinced me to run it one season before takling this job. Maybe next season. It sure makes sense.

Used a ripped out gas hot water tank as a tempering tank (Storage) this has the cold water supply feeding it. The water heated from the stove is stored here. When I use hot water from the oil fired hot water tank it is replaced with hot water from the tempering tank. Both tanks are 40 gals each. Thats 80 gals for the girls to use. The tempering tank is in the basement next to the oil fired hot water tank, about 25 ft. away from the stove on the first floor. Using a ciculator to move the water. This is controled by an aquastat. When the water heats up in the coil the circulator kicks on. There is a relief valve at the stove and at the tempering tank that are vented outside. Has not blown off yet, but I am not running the stove that hot yet, as it is still not that cold during the day. I would think once it going full, and no hot water is being used it will blow off some. But thats what the relief valves are for. Better that than a bleve/steam explosion. Its a work in progress. Talked to the guy at Hilkoil about setup and he said to talk to your plumber. So I talked to myself and this is what I came up with. Not too much info except this forum (thank you admin). As I learn more I will keep ya posted. Stay warm, Jimmy
Here is some good info I found to give you some ideas:
Check out: http://www.therma-coil.com/
http://www.hilkoil.com/
http://www.green-trust.org/2003/fireandwater.htm
http://www.green-trust.org/2003/fireandwater2.htm

Jimmy, that is a very nice, clean install. Do you have any indicators [temperature gauge] for when the hot water is getting too hot?? If you have an aquastat in the system, usually they have an 'over heat' circuit too.

If you end up having the overheat/overpressure valves opening a lot, you can do a few things to take advantage of the excess hot water.

One is that our homes are often very dry in the winter. You can run a bathtub full of hot water or run a shower on hot, this will add an equal amount of cold water to your tempering tank, and add humidity to the house. I've done this once or twice when I got carried away with a fire in my boiler and it was approaching it's boiling point. [My boiler is not pressurized, technically a hot water furnace]

If you end up with an overheat often you can add a length of baseboard finned tubing to the return line and put a zone valve that operates with the aquastat's overheat circuit and circulates the water through the finned tubing to drop water temp and recover some of the heat into the house.

Just some ideas, Greg L

I guess its not really an aquastat. I'm using a snap-disc control made by White-Rogers attached to the pipe up at the coil. Kicks on at 130 deg and off at 115 deg. This is hooked up to the low voltage side of a boiler relay that turns the circulator on. Had the relay,and the snap-disc control was 8 bucks. Home Chepo wanted like $75 for an aquastat. Waiting to come across a ripped out boiler that has an aquastat with my name on it. I have short arms. This set up cost me enough already. So far its working as designed. No regrets. If I get too much hot water I have some left over cast iron raditors that will be put to good use in the basement.

Yep, an old cast iron radiator would draw a 'few' BTU's out of the water.

Can you get a snap disc that comes on at say 200*, off at 190*? That could be your 'high limit' and open the zone valve to your radiator.

Looks good.

Greg L

Greg, highest they come is, on @ 180 off @ 160. But there are other places I can look. Thanx Jimmy

where can you buy these on\off relays you ar talking about?

Grainger Indust. supply. If I had more time I'll find the link right now off to work for 24. Stay warm Jimmy

hi did you use a bronze or cast pump on your domestic water loop? thanks cougar