Combination Wood Stove and Gas fired Boiler?

jmddab asked:


Would it be benefitial to run a loop of pipe through my wood stove to heat the water the boiler would normally do? My wood stove is burning 16-18 hours a day anyways. Would this work on gravity (since the wood stove is directly above the gas boiler) or would I need to put a pump in?

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4 Responses to “Combination Wood Stove and Gas fired Boiler?”

  1. Capt says:

    Telecom Auditing Guide

    You have an interesting idea but not completely logical. As hot anything rises YES you need a pump. Is the boiler hot water or steam…makes a big difference.
    I wouldn’t mess with it if its steam…too high a temperatures involved.

    A better idea might be to run copper pipe around the top of the wood burner and perhaps the flue pipe to the chimney. No direct fire and with a pump the pipe will stay cool enough to stay safe, and you will preheat the water.

    Question to benefit is you REALLY need to run the pump all the time the wooder is fired.

    Could also rig up a 55 gallon barrel and next to the wooder but you would need to maintain some kind of positive flow and I don’t know how without firing up a pump.

  2. Bob G says:

    Nokia 5800

    Be careful running a water loop thru a wood fire,,, a water boiler is exactly that.. a water boiler, not a steam boiler. If you cannot control the heat input to the water in the pipes, it can flash to steam,,,, that could get ugly..Water boilers do have a safety pop off valve that will release at 30 PSIG.. Hope yours has been tested and working…

  3. michael g says:

    Garden Hose Guide

    Without a pump the water will boil in the pipe and explode from the pressure. To do this right, you’ll need a pump, a relief valve, and an expansion tank. Since the heat source has no control over its temperature it puts a danger factor of overheating the water in the system. Is it worth it to jeopardize your home owners’ insurance?

  4. diSota says:

    Nokia 5800

    There are kits available, to do just as you asked. The tubes are pre-bent stainless steel, c/w compression fittings, there are allowances made for pressure regulation, expansion, pumps, tempering valves and a mulitude of gizmo’s.

    It has been a few years, since my interest in such things urged me to seek answers, they were on the internet, but I could not be precise…sorry! start at: radiantcompany.com a lot of the parts were there…because of there similar applications

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