Marty Spehar

Did a little better burn (longer and hotter) and water temp increased by nearly 2 degrees F. 52.4 in, 54.2 out.
Haven't measured flow rate yet, but I'm guessing 3 gal / minute

@ 3 gal/min thats about 24 lbs/min at 2 degrees thats about 48 BTU/min or nearly 3,000 BTU/hr or about 1/2 degree temp increase in my 750 gal Fish tank.

Compared to the Solar pool water heater at about 3F/hour

I also shut down the fire, and turned the pump off and left for a few hours.

cob was put inside the barrel up to the level of the exhaust port.
I needed to raise the height of the burn barrel to add a clean out.
The water is forced around the perimeter of the tank by way of metal welded inside tank.


Like this


o(o

Threw everything together last night and did a quick burn, no water, wanted the cob inside the barrel and cob by the opening to dry out.
I did a water test today with a burn, temp increase of water was negligible being about 1/2 degree.
The test lasted about 30 minutes, and I still have damp (or even wet) cob inside the barrel.
The flow seems to be greater than 3 gallons/minute, the fittings on top are 1/2 inch black pipe, and there is a 3/4 inch hose that returns the water almost all the way to the water level,
so it is helping siphon the water out.
Tonight will be the test of how hot it can get the water, need to dry the cob out as it's going to get very very cold in the next few days.

Got the water heater manifold back, it holds about 1/2 gallon or roughly 100 cubic inches.

Now to measure the flow rate and temp increase of the water and maybe I'll be able to figure out how many BTU's I'm capturing,,,

Peter Ellis wrote:Marty, that approach of putting a sealed top on with two small openings concerns me. With barrel top temperatures in the 500 and up vicinity, a small volume of water is going to run a real risk of flashing to steam and creating pressure in the cap. Depending on the material you use coming off those nipples on the cap, you may be at risk of temperatures exceeding what the material can handle, as well as pressure limits.

I do not think the barrel temp will ever be able to get that hot with cold water running through it.

1/2 inch black pipe with no resistance i.e. free flowing out the exit pipe.

I think, that I'll be lucky to be able to increase the water temp 20F on an ongoing basis.

My estimate (and the piece isn't put together yet) is about 80 cubic inches giver or take. Flow rate is approx 100 GPH and thats a guess as well.

Just a plate welded on the top of the barrel (my barrel is an old 100lb propane tank that I turned upside down with the bottom cut out, and now the top too) with two niples cold in and hot (hopefully out)

The water source is a 750 gallon catch basin that is buried in the ground.

Depending upon how hot I got to get the water to keep the greenhouse warm over night is the determining factor of aquaponics.

Changed my plans,,,
1) coiled up tubing - copper too expensive - steel to hard to bend

So, I thought the best way to heat water is to weld a piece of steel to the top of the barrel (propane tank in my case) and two nipples on either side.

The heat stream from the heat riser will heat the water in the area between the newly welded piece and the top of the tank.

This will be an open system, i.e. the effluent will be without restrictions.

The pictures in the above post are after maybe 20 burns tops,,, more likely 10 burns,,,

Any suggestions? should I feed air into the heat riser, or the bottom of the burn chamber

Here's a picture of what the insides are made of,,,

Well, what I was afraid of happened,,, Too much fuel, not enough air. I'm burning a mixture of sawdust and waste vegetable oil.

But being over eager for heat, and not wanting to add fuel every 15 minutes, I dumped in up to 6 scoops of the mixture.

Before adding an exhaust fan, I would get so much flame that it would shoot out the opening at times.

Piling that much fuel restricted air and much black smoke out the chimney.

Having burned WVO/Sawdust before, I immediately knew I must have some soot buildup, so I cut the top off the barrel and whoa IT'S FULL.

I definitely need to heat water in my GH.
I have a 750 gallon catch basin that I am planning to use as a fish tank, BUT keeping the plants in the GH alive trumps any aquaponics idea.

My plans are to coil up some tubing and put it inside the barrel.

My water supply (the catch basin) is below the level of the burn barrel.

Using a 12 volt auxiliary water pump from a Mercedes to push water UP through the coil and back out into the FT.

Totally open system. The pump needs to be primed, as it sits above the water level, and when it's not running, water flows backwards through it.

I've tried the copper tubing wrapped around the outside of the barrel, but it was a waste of time and money.

And I have maybe 3 days to put something together.