Free Hot Water!

waldo lemieux · Post by **waldo lemieux** » Tue. Jan. 28, 2014 8:08 am

Free? Absolutely not! Cheaper..... most likely

Post by **Lightning** » Tue. Jan. 28, 2014 8:18 am

Well, I have two coils, one for hot water and one for hot tub. Cuts my electric bill $90-100 per month with a negligible amount of additional coal. It's free enough for me haha!!

titleist1 · Post by **titleist1** » Tue. Jan. 28, 2014 8:21 am

I bet that is one fast trot from the hot tub to the door in this weather! Do your wet feet freeze to the deck on the way back??

Post by **Lightning** » Tue. Jan. 28, 2014 8:28 am

We go out to it in robe and boots. I've been known to sprint back and forth to the fridge in bare feet wet shorts, on snow and ice for drinks haha ..

stokerstove · Post by **stokerstove** » Tue. Jan. 28, 2014 10:01 am

No such thing as free hot water but I figure that my system, similar to op's except running a small pump, is as close to free HW as I can get. If I disconnected the water coil chances are that I would run the stove @ the same setting as I am now...so maybe it would be 75 degrees in the living room instead of 74. I have no fancy temp controllers on the old stove, just the threaded rod adjustment so I pay close attention to the weather conditions and watch the thermometers we have inside. Judging by neighbors bills in all elec. houses, I would be paying at least $100 - $200 more per month on my elec. bill (that is way on the conservative side) if I didn't have the stove/water coil setup.

So when I shut off the elec. to the water heater at the start of the heating season, in my mind, I'm thinking its the start of the "free" hot water season. Problem I'm having now w/ the temps outside so low & running the stove high, is too much HW. Used to have a HW baseboard plumbed into the sys. to pull excess heat, but had to remove the baseboard due to remodeling. Now I'm running the dishwasher, taking showers before bed and using the HW as much as possible to keep the temps down as the safety valve has been getting a workout (have 2 of them plumbed into the sys.) Over the summer I'd like to install another baseboard unit in the family room (coolest room, farthest from stove) to remedy the excess heat problem. Its a problem I'll gladly deal with!

philthy · Post by **philthy** » Tue. Jan. 28, 2014 8:39 pm

Lightning wrote: Did you install any valves so that you can bypass the furnace in the summer?

Just need one installed between the holding tank and regular tank and system would be isolated. By the way Lightning, I sorta modeled my set-up off of yours as it was what best suited my needs. Not including the hot tub of course.

Wanna Bee wrote: You have a thousand pounds of water on top of them. Chances are you won't have any issues. If down the road you drain down that tank I'd fix those blocks.

Its actually closer to 420 lbs but yeah, I'll do some correcting once shut down.

stokerstove wrote:No such thing as free hot water but I figure that my system, similar to op's except running a small pump, is as close to free HW as I can get. If I disconnected the water coil chances are that I would run the stove @ the same setting as I am now...so maybe it would be 75 degrees in the living room instead of 74. I have no fancy temp controllers on the old stove, just the threaded rod adjustment so I pay close attention to the weather conditions and watch the thermometers we have inside. Judging by neighbors bills in all elec. houses, I would be paying at least $100 - $200 more per month on my elec. bill (that is way on the conservative side) if I didn't have the stove/water coil setup.

So when I shut off the elec. to the water heater at the start of the heating season, in my mind, I'm thinking its the start of the "free" hot water season. Problem I'm having now w/ the temps outside so low & running the stove high, is too much HW. Used to have a HW baseboard plumbed into the sys. to pull excess heat, but had to remove the baseboard due to remodeling. Now I'm running the dishwasher, taking showers before bed and using the HW as much as possible to keep the temps down as the safety valve has been getting a workout (have 2 of them plumbed into the sys.) Over the summer I'd like to install another baseboard unit in the family room (coolest room, farthest from stove) to remedy the excess heat problem. Its a problem I'll gladly deal with!

Exactly! I realize "free" isn't actually true but the strain on my heat is not even noticeable. Hitzer 82fa in a 1800sqft rancher equals an occasional windostat which I'm fine with. Sure beats my oil furnace or cutting wood! Like Stokerstove I pay close attention to the weather and try to plan accordingly. It's been quite cold here over the last couple of days and have noticed no drag on the stove if you will. So the benefit of additional hot water comes pretty close to being free for me. I realize I didn't reinvent the wheel, just wanted to share the knowledge I gained from so many of you fine folks!

ASea · Post by **ASea** » Mon. Dec. 23, 2019 8:03 pm

Philthy,

wondering if you still have the HW coil in the hand fired? How has it worked out?

philthy · Post by **philthy** » Mon. Dec. 23, 2019 8:14 pm

I actually sold that house over the summer but, yeah it worked out pretty well. I’d say it easily knocked $50-60 off of my electric bill monthly. Maybe slightly less in the shoulder months.

ASea · Post by **ASea** » Mon. Dec. 23, 2019 8:20 pm

philthy wrote: ↑
Mon. Dec. 23, 2019 8:14 pm
I actually sold that house over the summer but, yeah it worked out pretty well. I’d say it easily knocked $50-60 off of my electric bill monthly. Maybe slightly less in the shoulder months.

I heat water with my oil burner so it's not all that bad because it heats as needed. thought maybe I could put a Hitzer 82 down there and throw a coil in it and a super stor but not sure what I'd do when there isn't demand?