Heating my tank with my Natural gas Hot Water tank!!!

[Luke_L]

Yes i finally had the opportunity to hook up a loop between my sump and hot water tank... and it works TOO good! im working on the programming to slow it down a bit... using the osc command i am going to slow down the heating. VERY happy with it so far.... i hate electric heaters with a PASSION ...

i am using a grundfus circulation pump. max allowable fluid temp is 230F
two half inch check valves from amazon.. (designed for Campers) they werent labeled for max temp but they are designed for hot water tanks on Campers so i figured i was safe.
i have two quarter turn valves to i can shut it in.
and a 50 foot coil of 1/2 inch PEX pipe in my sump.

here is the pump...





Here the checkvalve down stream of the coil, going back in to the hot water tank.


this is the cold inlet to my hot water tank. notice another check valve Above my T (stopping flow of warm water from loop going back into the cold water side of the house....)


Here is the loop in the sump.


Below: you can see exatcly when i started testing.... on the sump temp and dt temp...




and finally my attempt to slow it down using the OSC command...

 

[Luke_L]

I forgot to add that I am stealing the hot water from the wifes kitchen sink this will serve two purposes it was close, but also shouldn't have to wait very long for hot water if you're at the kitchen sink or the bathroom sink or the washing machine

 

[Luke_L]

Update: looking at the last 24 hours and the last hour... it looks amazingly stable....
the circ pump is coming on for 4 minutes in total throughout the hour...

 

[Codie]

Update: looking at the last 24 hours and the last hour... it looks amazingly stable....
the circ pump is coming on for 4 minutes in total throughout the hour...
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That’s awesome up load some pics of the actually set up I would like to see it

 

[Luigi]

Wow ..Luke! That's awesome
I do understand that there is a certain
Start up cost?

 

[Luke_L]

Wow ..Luke! That's awesome
I do understand that there is a certain
Start up cost?

One roll of pex, $40
2 check, and 2 quarter turn valves $45
Another $40 in misc adapters.
I already owned the pump.

 

[Luigi]

That's the price of a god heater

 

[Luke_L]

That's the price of a god heater

What now I've dropped six amps on my power bars in the long-term I figure I'm going to save probably close to 40 or 50% the heat my tank

 

[Niagarafirecorals]

I'm doing this aswell this coming weekend all my parts started arriving today

 

[Luke_L]

I'm doing this aswell this coming weekend all my parts started arriving today

Can you let mrs. Niagarafirecorals know that I'm sorry

 

[Luke_L]

sorry, I'm not good at diagrams... I did the best I could.

 

[Codie]

Take the hot line off the furthest tap in the house and you basically will have instant hot water all the time lol love this set up might try it out myself down the road once I and if I upgrade my sump

 

[Luke_L]

Take the hot line off the furthest tap in the house and you basically will have instant hot water all the time lol love this set up might try it out myself down the road once I and if I upgrade my sump

I didn't show it in the diagram just to keep the diagram simple but I pulled it from the wife's kitchen sink so now the bathroom the washing machine and the kitchen sink get instant hot water

 

[Codie]

I didn't show it in the diagram just to keep the diagram simple but I pulled it from the wife's kitchen sink so now the bathroom the washing machine and the kitchen sink get instant hot water

That’s awesome and No issues with flow in the rest of the house while the circ lines running?

 

[Luke_L]

That’s awesome and No issues with flow in the rest of the house while the circ lines running?

No issues so far. Except when the wife is washing dishes by hand and using hot water in kitchen sink. the check valve on inlet side of hot water tank makes a very subtle noise that can only be heard in utility room.

 

[Niagarafirecorals]

So I jumped on board with Luke's idea too! IIt's gonna be so nice not have the heaters driving up the hydro bill and the constant replacement costs. I was running 4 x 300w heaters.









 

[Andrew D]

This is great Luke, I love this sort of innovative problem solving. Pardon my denseness here, but in terms of water flow, you are pulling water from the hot side of the water tank, cycling it through the sump and then returning it to the cold side? Also, would this work on a tankless water heater?

Despite my tank being in the basement I've never had an issue with temp (or maybe I've just never cared enough lol) so I'm asking more for interest than need.

 

[Codie]

So until I get a bigger sump what would you guys recommend for heaters I have three right now 2 100 ehiem and a 150 but finding it hard to get them synced up so no matter what I seem to always have one running or two running any suggestions on a single heater for a 90 gallon DT or ideas how to get them working togather

 

[Luke_L]

This is great Luke, I love this sort of innovative problem solving. Pardon my denseness here, but in terms of water flow, you are pulling water from the hot side of the water tank, cycling it through the sump and then returning it to the cold side? Also, would this work on a tankless water heater?

Despite my tank being in the basement I've never had an issue with temp (or maybe I've just never cared enough lol) so I'm asking more for interest than need.

All year round I have issues with heating my tank I keep my AC pretty cold in the summer and I have a large portion of my basement is unfinished and non-insulated

 

[Cliff]

See I’m totally opposite LOL I love redundancies. Even right now I have two heaters hooked up to my main Apex and one back up heater hooked up to my back up Apex that is on another ground fault circuit in my house. Putting everything on one Apex scares me a little .
I love the hot water heat idea though Luke. For years I wanted to do this to my tank; I even ran hot and cold water into my fish room in anticipation of this. You may have just giving me the nudge to get it done!
awesome job guys! I can’t wait to see how it works out for you and maybe copy your design LOL