Heating Water for Domestic Hot Water or to Heat Your Home

Water is heated for two purposes in residential applications. The first is to heat water for domestic use. Such a cleaning, washing, cooking, showers and bathing. The second is to heat water to be a medium for carrying that heat to a room then releasing the heat into that room to keep us warm.

Heating Water for Domestic Hot Water or to Heat Your Home

Heating Water for Domestic Hot Water or to Heat Your Home

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Heating Water for Domestic Hot Water or to Heat Your Home

Heating Water for Domestic Hot Water or to Heat Your Home

Water heater| hot water tanks

Heating water for domestic use is done with hot water tanks, tankless water heaters, or indirect water heaters.

Tankless water heaters

Tankless water heaters are becoming more common in North America, although these have been used in other parts of the world for years. This kind of water heater does not have any water in a tank. If you do not have a tank then you will not have to continually keep that water heated as the water will always cool even when not in use. The cooling process is caused by heat from the water warming the air in the flue, then the hot air rises and is displaced by cooler air which is in turn heated by the hot water (convection heat just like baseboard heating). This air will flow up the flue and spill out into the room. Also the water in the tank will cool as heat conducts through the tank and into the room. This cooling process is called standby loss and because of this process your water heater is at best 55% efficient.

Tankless water heaters are more efficient than hot water tanks because of the heating process. A hot water heater will heat the bottom of the tank and the center of the tank, with most of the energy leaving the tank up the flue. Where as a tankless water heater heats a coil of pipes inside of a heat exchanger similar to that of a boiler. This heat exchanger is made up of small tubes that heat up very fast.

A tankless water heater will also modulate the burner. So if you need only a small demand the tankless heater will only give you a small flame. And if you need a larger demand a tankless water heater will give you a larger flame.

Hot Water Tanks

Hot water tanks are the most common form in North America to heat your domestic water. These tanks have been around for a very long time and have not changed much until recently. Most homes use a 40 to 50 US gallon water heater. Between high energy costs and pollution many people are switching to better ways to heat there water.

A hot water heater requires a chimney for the flue gases to flow to the outside (except power vent and direct vent water heaters, these can be piped out the wall). Water heaters also have an anode rod to protect the tank, a dip tube to allow the cold water to flow to the bottom of the tank, a gas valve, burner and a relief valve. NEVER plug a relief valve. This is the largest cause of water heater explosions. Water when heated to boiling changes to steam. When this happens the water expands 1700 times and with no where to go the tank has to blow up. Usually the bottom is what bursts and the water heater becomes a rocket shooting through the roof in a two story building.

For more info got Hot water tanks:

Indirect water heaters--An indirect water heater uses a boiler to heat the water that flows through the inside of a coil of pipe which in turns heats the domestic water through conduction. These are very efficient, have a fast response time and out last a standard water heater more than three to one. The response time is very quick giving you more than enough hot water. In my opinion these are the best water heaters on the market. The biggest problem is that you need a boiler to heat the water therefore the cost can be high compared to a normal water heater. If you are renovating and going to install hot water heating of any sort, such as a fan coil instead of a high efficient furnace, then this is the way to go

Water heating | Heating your home

Heating water to heat your home is best done with a boiler. The reason I say this is that a boiler is meant to heat water in an efficient manner, while your water heat is not. A standard water heater has an efficiency of 65% to 70% including standby losses. A standard boiler runs at about 80%. The boilers I install have an efficiency rating of between 85% and 98% depending on the system and time of year. So you could use a water heater to heat your home (check with local codes), but the lifespan is much less and your heating bill will be much greater. Not worth the 00 to 00 difference between the two. (my opinion). You could use a tankless water heater, but you will need two or three if you are heating your domestic water as well. Still compared with a condensing boiler you are only saving less than 00

Heating Water for Domestic Hot Water or to Heat Your Home

Heating and Cooling Your Log Home

Needless to say, our forefathers didn't worry too much about heating their log cabins. Big fireplaces had no problem warming up the one or two rooms they lived in. Of course now that log homes are family-sized, people often have the impression that there is something different about how they are heated, and the good news is that a standard system will work as well in a log home as a traditional structure.

Heating and Cooling Your Log Home

Heating and Cooling Your Log Home

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Heating and Cooling Your Log Home

Heating and Cooling Your Log Home

Almost all log homes are built with at least one fireplace. Initially, we thought that our beautiful soapstone woodstove would heat the whole house, and we would use our forced-air Propane heat as a backup. Alas, we were all wrong. Because we have a cathedral ceiling with a big loft, the heat from the stove goes directly upstairs, requiring two ceiling fans to recirculate the warm air. We expected this, but we also thought the heat would expand sideways into the rest of the open floor space (dining room and kitchen). Not on your life! Even sitting on the couch about 15 feet from the stove, I need a Coverlet. I'm uncomfortably chilly in the kitchen. I think that if we had a regular ceiling, the heat might have gone where we expected it, but the volume of the cathedral ceiling threw off our calculations. Also, the soapstone stove is designed to be run 24/7, and because we both work for a living, the stove doesn't get fired up until the evening. This woodstove needs to be heated up slowly at the risk of cracking the stone, so by the time it's really cooking we're ready for bed.

Old-fashioned fireplaces traditionally sucked all the warm air out of the room, but modern designs are more efficient at recirculating the heat. The most energy-efficient fireplace is built in the center of the house, so the stack heat is not lost to the outside. Outside stacks can create back drafts if the fire is extinguished, making a new fire more difficult to light. If you are planning multiple fireplaces, putting two of them back-to-back (facing adjoining rooms) will give you the opportunity to build one chimney with two flues. Or you could put a fireplace above your furnace, again allowing two flues in the same chimney. A direct-vent fireplace will eliminate the chimney, but you'll have to figure out how to hide the vent on the outside wall. Or, if you use a wood-stove, you could run the pipe through the wall and straight up the outside, building a box around the pipe to simulate a chimney. Depending on the look you want, you may want to leave the pipe inside the room and send it through the roof. This will give more heat.

It's a good idea to consider your heating and air-conditioning needs early in the design phase. Although log homes are Naturally energy-efficient, it's not wise to skimp on your system. You may be able to heat your whole house with a huge fireplace or wood stove, but the township will probably have minimum standards to meet before they issue a building permit. Also, you need to consider resale value. I know of one person who tried to sell a million-dollar handcrafted log home without a furnace, and as you might suspect, the buyer never came along. The house was listed as unfinished, and installing the heating system after the fact was too daunting a task. A similar problem exists if you try to get away without central air conditioning. Yes, log homes do stay cooler in the summer, but those "dog days" of August can give you a perfectly miserable night's sleep, and a potential buyer will probably not be as tolerant as the original owner. Indeed, our mortgage company would not consider granting a construction loan if we didn't include central air conditioning.

If you want to preserve ductwork space, you can use forced air heat, with the same ductwork serving the air conditioner. Propane or oil are usually the fuels of choice in rural areas. If your interior wall space is limited, there are companies that specialize in very small, high-pressure duct systems that fit into tight angles; these systems usually require a much higher initial installation cost. When using traditional ductwork, you want to keep the angles at a minimum, so it helps to design first floor walls that will conveniently carry the air straight up to the second floor. An open floor plan offers a challenge, because you must bear in mind that the upstairs rooms need to be heated somehow, and you will need both supply and return vents to create an efficient air flow. If you want to use full log interior walls, you'll have to find another way to run the ductwork, electric, and plumbing. We made that mistake, and there are not enough return vents in our bedroom. The air is stuffy in the summer time, even with the windows open.

Where do the vents go? Since all our exterior walls are full log, many of our vents were placed in the floor. If your interior walls are sheetrock or tongue-and-groove, you can put the vents where they normally go. One thing I wish we had done was go over the plan with the HVAC contractor, because he put the vents in places I found most inconvenient. Some times it can be helped, and some times it can't.

If you are energy-minded and prefer to leave your thermostat at a minimum, you will find that the southern-facing side of the log home tends to be warmer than the northern exposure. Because the sun tends to sink closer to the horizon on a winter afternoon, it's advantageous to arrange your large windows facing south; during the summer, the sun will cross over the roof, so it won't overheat your house. However, you may find that the northern side of your house - which won't get direct sun at all - could be noticeably cooler. The best solution is to install radiant-floor heating (if you can afford it). Although this system requires a boiler instead of a furnace, the in-floor heating spreads the warmth evenly throughout your home, eliminating the northern-facing blues. With radiant-floor heating, you need to keep the thermostat steady all the time; the system is not designed to be turned down when you go to work. Additionally, you can use the boiler to heat your hot water as well, eliminating the need for a hot-water heater. On the other hand, you will still need to install ductwork for the air conditioning.

Overall, the same considerations apply as in regular construction. We thought we could get by with only one zone of heating and cooling, but in retrospect, two zones would have solved a lot of problems. In the long run, it's cheaper to do it correctly in the first place. Retrofitting a log home is not going to be a breeze!

Heating and Cooling Your Log Home

The Joys of a Fireplace

Owning a fireplace is a wonderful opportunity. There's nothing warmer and cozier than sitting in front of a warm fireplace watching the orange flames. Unfortunately, fireplaces take work and regular maintenance. If you've been having problems with the fireplace smoking, you may have some work ahead of you. You definitely should not continue to use it until you take care of the smoking problem. Smoke such as this is not only bad for your health, but will also stain your walls and clothes.

The Joys of a Fireplace

The Joys of a Fireplace

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The Joys of a Fireplace

The Joys of a Fireplace

The chimney should be the first thing you look at. Start by opening up the damper and stoking the chimney. Burn some newspaper of safe material in the fireplace to the get the warm air in the chimney to push the cold air out. When cold air pushes warm air down is when you'll have smoke in your home. Always make sure you use seasoned wood and not green wood, which can cause chimney fires. Get your firewood before fireplace season begins and store it in a firewood storage box to dry out. The smaller the logs you use, the quicker they'll dry and better they'll burn.

Sometimes, you may have to open a window in your home to get the fireplace to light. You need a certain amount of circulation to get the fire going. You may want to begin using bricks to build up your fireplace grate to a higher level. You need air circulation underneath the wood to make it start and the grate may provide the extra circulation.

Often larger fireplaces have problems because their chimney is smaller than the open-hearth part. The size should be balanced with the size of the stove. You may also get a shield to catch any smoke before it circulates in the room. Smoke will also fill up the room if there's not enough air in the room, do turn down the furnace.

Make sure the pipes are always kept clean as this is a major cause of smoke as well as chimney fires. The pipes on the outside can often get plugged from bird nests or other debris. Make sure your pipes are always in good shape as well. Regular maintenance should be done on your chimney and pipes every year before fireplace season begins. The build-up of creosote can damage your fireplace pipes and cause a fire. Hire a professional to come and clean your pipes each year. This is a relatively cheap expense, especially in light of the benefits.

Your fireplace should be a pleasure and not a worry. The important thing is to keep it clean and well maintained and you'll get many good years of service and comfort. There is nothing you'll enjoy more in the spring and fall than sitting in front of a warm crackling fire in the fireplace.

The Joys of a Fireplace