It is 32 deg. outside so I thought I'd do a little checking of bay temps and to my surprise it was 80 deg. at the top of the bay and 74 deg. at lower portion of bay with the PH in it. Not shooting near the PH. The rear bay with my water tank and most of my pluming is 74 deg. not shooting near the pex lines. This is very good news to me. I think I'll put a small 12 volt computer fan from the middle bay where my PH lives to my front bay that is all storage. I couldn't check the temp there because the bay doors are open and even if they were closed it's open to the area where I removed the bus heat which is open the screen where the old condenser was.
Charlie,
I had been thinking about the PH exhaust and all the BTU's that are going out the window. My thought was to take the ex from the boiler and get it up high with a vertical run then take it down with a series of u turns. I thought I could get almost all the energy back before I dumped it out the bottom of the bay. My chief concern was that as I cooled the ex gas I would get a ton of condensate so my solution was the quick up shot and then a naturally draining "heat exchanger" down to the outlet point. The PH system is only used with cold weather but I suspect that this heat recovery system would need an ex fan to dump the heat in mild weather. You know..."enuf is enuf but too much is plenty."
Comments?
Thanks,
John
I was planning on at some point recovering some of that energy for my WVO extraction system I will be installing for quickly heating up 55 gallon drums in the winter time but I think it would be overkill for anything else as my above post shows a very good amount of heat that is way more than really needed. Even in extreme conditions I believe it will keep all bays well above freezing and I mean well above. In the summer the only time I will need it is when boon docking as I have an electric side to my water heater and when the engine is hot it will heat the domestic water. I will put in some type of simple heat exhaust fan to get rid of unwanted heat from the bay in the summer also.
Quote from: JohnEd on November 28, 2007, 05:15:08 PM
Charlie,
I had been thinking about the PH exhaust and all the BTU's that are going out the window. My thought was to take the ex from the boiler and get it up high with a vertical run then take it down with a series of u turns. I thought I could get almost all the energy back before I dumped it out the bottom of the bay. My chief concern was that as I cooled the ex gas I would get a ton of condensate so my solution was the quick up shot and then a naturally draining "heat exchanger" down to the outlet point. The PH system is only used with cold weather but I suspect that this heat recovery system would need an ex fan to dump the heat in mild weather. You know..."enuf is enuf but too much is plenty."
Comments?
Thanks,
John
John Ed,
My ProHeat X45 installation manual specifies no more than 180* of turns, in five feet of length for the PH exhaust system. I believe that is based on a exhaust pipe size of 1 1/2 inches. Larger pipe may allow more creativity in your system.
Jay
87 SaftLiner
There's a lot of sensors and digi-crap built into those ProHeat controllers. My guess is, if you try to get too creative on the exhaust the sensors will read it as an obstruction and the thing won't light.
The only thing I would do is pipe it through a heat exchanger i.e. coiled copper tubing or a jacket type housing that water flows through. Nothing to restrict or change the flow of the exhaust.
Well there is heat energy there and I don't like to see it go out the window as a matter of principle. Still, don't want to shoot off any of my toes or cut off my nose to......
I guess we can keep thinking.
John
I have to agree with Bob. I heard of a few guys having problems with too many bends in their exhaust on the unit would shut down ... can't remember if one of them was B Brown.
Ron
I put a small straight through muffler on my Pro-Heat to try to quiet it down. Within a week it clogged up the PH with soot and I had to pull the combustion chamber apart to clean it out. The exhaust is sensitive, but a short run with a heat exchanger might be OK. Donn
The heat exchanger I was talking about would have no effect on the PH exhaust as the exhaust runs through it and is not restricted in any way.
Hello.
Why not a simple 90 degree, through the bulkhead into the next bay, and then 90 degree out the floor?
Pipe will give off a good bit of heat by itself.
happy coaching!
buswarrior
No more than 180 degree turn in 5 feet your way would have it pointing straight down and believe me it is still hot and could easily cause a grass fire. As far as heating the bays there is nothing more really needed.
You could split it into multiple pipes or rectangular tubing and run it under or through a coolant resivoir, (ot make one and and run it thru it) be sure the tubes point down so condensate can get out. will help with cycling. maybe a little slower to react but will be expedited by hot exhaust and capture some that you're wasting. Would quiten it down some too.