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Author:
Mickel
I have a wood fired boiler 100' from the house that heats the house AND the hot water heater. Occasionally when the weather outside is warm, the upper thermostat on the hot water tank pops off. I know this because when I have less hot water I reset the thermostat by pushing the red button. I assume this happens because the water gets really hot. The relief valve has never opened because the water heater was too hot.
Question: How do I prevent the upper thermostat from turning off? Should I simply turn up the thermostat setting? The problem with that is that when the wood stove cools the electric kicks in to get it back up to the new hotter temperature.
Any suggestions?
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Author:
packy (MA)
you are treating the symptom, not the problem.
too hot water is very dangerous because of possible scalding..
the problem of overheating when using a wood burning appliance is common..
as you must know, the answer is to mount a control that will close it's contacts on temperature rise. this then turns on a circulator to pump the water thru the radiation to try to cool it down.
ideally you would have an electric water heater with a coil inside it. they are used for solar more commonly. the coil would be tied to a circulator that pumps boiler water and it is controled by its own thermostat.
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Author:
North Carolina Plumber (NC)
You could install a mixing valve so that the water heater receives slightly cooler water. Are you using a side arm heater at the electric water heater ? Are you using 2 separate sets of pipes and pumps ?
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Author:
Mickel
The wood burner constantly circulates the water 24/7. The stove heated water comes in and circulates thru a "jacketed" pipe. The clean water is jacketed by the bigger pipe with the wood stove water circulating thru it. Think of the pipe like a donut. The hole in the middle is the clean city water. The outside of the donut (the part you eat) is the wood burner water. Hope this helps.
Thanks
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Author:
packy (MA)
still not too clear ??
the water from the water heater is constantly circulated thru the center of the donut? (your word)
or the water in the edible part of the donut is constantly circulated ?
is there a diagram online from the manufacture that shows what you have ?
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Author:
North Carolina Plumber (NC)
I think you have a side arm heater. You could wire another thermostat to control the circulator pump, that way the pump shuts down when the water in the heater has reached a pre determined setting.
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Author:
Paul48 (CT)
Caleffi has a ton of information available on their "idronics" series. If you follow an established way of using the wood boiler, you won't have any problem. And there are many acceptable ways. You just happened to have discovered one that's not.
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