Recycling "Waste" Heat - Creative Techniques

[InjectTruth]

Yadidaholla, my sahabs. Let's get down to it.

We've all saved a couple bucks in the winter with some extra heat coming out of the spare bedroom before. Maybe even ducted it to another room/floor. But what about other home heating needs, like the hot water heater?

In a house with all electric heating and hot water, squeezing the most out of each watt is paramount. Most growers move the heated growroom air, but water is becoming a more popular vehicle for transporting heat ranging from the smaller Ice Box style units designed to be used with a chiller and res, to large geothermal water source heat pumps plumbed to their own intake and discharge wells.

Could it be possible to some how harvest a portion of the heated water upon discharge to a second/storage hot water tank? What about plumbing the water to radiators mounted in each room before heading out to the discharge well? How bout a jacuzzi/hot tub? Would a large circulating system function in reverse as well?

This is all fairly new to me, but I want to hear the most frugal/efficient/clever ways of recapturing purchased energy spent on your grow. In true TLO fashion, we should be able to stop 'throwing out' perfectly good energy. Holler at your boy.

 

[OhighO]

I duct it into the Supply air duct on my furnace.

 

[supermanlives]

i got gas heat . dont need it in winter barely. heat from grow keeps me warm in next room. be interesting what you come up with. i ran hydronic heating in my greenhouses and house back east. 300+ gal tank.

 

[whodare]

only problem ive found ducting growroom air into living areas is humidity.

thick condensation on windows is a dead giveaway.

 

[supermanlives]

i dont have them issues. my house is a growers dream. due to design for open flame gas heaters theres alot of ventillation. and gas lines in every room lol

 

[InjectTruth]

Thinking about heated kitchen and bathroom floors. Giant radiators that shed heat. DrBud I believe, the Soda bottle Micro Sog dude, used to talk about his heated floors and the drum he had out back to that functioned as a radiator in the summer time, when heating the floors was not desirable.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=1323181&postcount=23

"Wood Gas = FREE Power"
Talk about Whatever Bro...

The "Bedini motor" is VERY Interesting....

Right now I am building a "Wood-Gas" System Based on a Suzuki 1.3L engine....the "WG" will give me 60% power at the crank...which will power a PTO A/C Generator after the trans.... on the front are 4 GM Alts. for 12volt charging...and an Air Compressor for the shop.
the floor of the Kitchen and Bathroom are the radiator for the Engine. Warm floors and a cool engine.

So I light the "Wood Gasifier" burner .....5 min later I fire the Engine....and away we go for FREE
FREE Hot water
FREE 12 volt power
FREE 8,000 Watts of A/C Power
and my bathroom and Kitchen will have warm floors

All from wood scraps!!!!

Google "Wood Gas" it's a lost art.....from the 40's....it kept Europe running during the "War".....they had NO Petro.

I wonder, theoretically, how large of a reservoir you would need in a system like this, along with how much radiant surface area in order to not even need a chiller. gotta go over water/temp buffering capabilities per gallon and info about the radiator side of things to come up with an equation relating to grow needs. anyone have more of a clue than I do (not much of one ) ?

Something like X gallons of water + Y sqft of radiant surface = Z BTU's of cooling. Add ambient temp and water temp and you can get a graph of heat transfer capability over the range of your climate. Break it down to how many gallons and how large of a radiator you need per 1K light. Or reverse engineer it and figure out how many lights you need to run to heat your house to a certain temp in the dead of winter

 

[ItGrowsHerb]

Ok, say one uses a gas tankless water heater to add CO2 to the grow. The reservoir will get warm, and instead of a chiller, place a wort in there. Plumb the cold water feed to the main house water heater through this wort. The water entering the main water heater will be lukewarm instead of cold, and need less energy to get up to temp. Thats one way!

 

[InjectTruth]

www.hotspotenergy.com/commercial-heat-recovery/ - HotSpot reclaims the heat that you normally throw away. It connects to the hottest point in your air conditioner system, the hot gas circuit between the compressor and condenser where temperatures up to 200 ºF exist. The HotSpot captures excess heat and puts it into the water through a special heat exchanger, maintaining your tanks temperature above it's set point so that the tank burner or element does not need to operate.

As a byproduct of removing the heat, HotSpot lowers the head pressure of the compressor creating an efficiency improvement of up to 18%.


www.aquecoil.com - Water from your hot water source is circulated through the AQUECOIL™ Unit while the central air system blows air through it. The air’s temperature is raised by 30˚ to 60˚F while the water’s temperature is lowered about 15˚ to 30˚F. The warmed air is delivered to your home and the water is returned to the source to be reheated. Your water bill remains completely unaffected and you still have plenty of hot water for your shower!


www.trevormartin.com/hwg_main.asp - The Hot Water Generator is very similar in concept to the Heat Recovery Unit, except it does not require an air conditioner. It is a self-contained unit. It has a compressor, condenser and blower and connects to your Hot Water Tank and actually uses its controls. The Hot Water Generator takes in hot air from outside the unit, condenses it using heat pump technology. It then transfers the heat content from the air to water being circulated from your water heater, and as a byproduct, produces air conditioning which can be ducted to wherever you may need more cooling. The Hot Water Generator operates off of the controls in your water heater, when the water heater needs more hot water the Hot Water Generator is turned on. The Hot Water Generator operates at about a third of the cost of heating water with an electric water heater. Currently, this product is for residential use only. A larger version is under development for commercial use.


hmmmm

 

[InjectTruth]

www.brazetek.com/24x24-water-to-air-heat-exchanger

 

[shmalphy]

Subscribed... Great ideas here

I use the lights to heat my house, with a wood stove. I am looking to make some kind of wood gas generator to get electricity from...

 

[trichrider]

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[InjectTruth]

Ok, so Im a little too dense to take it straight Thermodynamics, but Im making a little headway towards a mathematical guideline. Found some hydronic radiators on ebay with btu ratings, as well as btu ratings on the water to air exchangers as well, except they are all looking at if from a heating perspective. Even still, its tied to temperature (btu's per sqft surface area at 180F) so its a start.

Hot water (hydronic) home heating radiator - 12"high x 20" wide - approximately 3 " thick. Wall hung, energy efficient european type heating. Steel radiators. btu 1,030 @180 deg. Borpan 10 year warranty.

Can be used with older hot water heating system, such as replacing radiators or adding to system.

This item is one component of a heating system. Any assistance regarding system design and install may be pursued through a heating contractor in buyer's region, or at buyer's discretion. closed loop


Here are other sizes we have in stock. We can custom order anything. First # is how tall the second how wide.

Single panel-single fin= 12x16 btu828 12x20 btu1035 12x40 btu2070 16x20 btu1570

panel/ fin/ panel= 12x20 btu1490 12x40 btu3100 16x20 btu1944 16x40 btu3888 36x16 btu2935 36x20 btu 3144

p/ff/p/f/p= 12x20 btu2444 12x40 btu 4885

Towel bars= 30x20 white btu 1690 chrome 30x20 btu1431

*all btu @ 180 deg. Thanks

 

[InjectTruth]

oh boy, feel like im in the physics class i never had. Gettin closer!

So the specific heat capacity of water is 4200j/kg-k. 1 BTU is 1055 joules

 

[InjectTruth]

1 gallon of water = 3.79 kg

4200 x 3.79 = approx. 16,000 joules

16,000 / 1055 = 15.2 BTU's to raise one gallon of water, one degree Celsius (or K

So,

1 gallon of water must absorb 15.2 BTU's to be raised 1 degree in temperature.

1 gallon = 152 BTU's to be raised 10 degrees in temperature

100 gallons = 1520 btu to be raised 1 degree in temperature

100 gallons = 15,200 btu to be raised 10 degrees in temperature

100 gallons = 30,175 btu to be raised 20 degrees in temperature

1000 gallons = 1,520,000 btu to be raised 10 degrees in temperature

Calculating specific heat capacity

Here is the equation relating energy to specific heat capacity:

E = m × c × θ

E is the energy transferred in joules, J
m is the mass of the substances in kg
c is the specific heat capacity in J / kg °C
θ (‘theta’) is the temperature change in degrees Celsius, °C

For example, how much energy must be transferred to raise the temperature of 2 kg of water from 20°C to 30°C?

E = m × c × θ (θ = 30 – 20 = 10°C)

E = 2 × 4181 × 10 = 83,620 J or 83.62 kJ

single panel/single fin = 4.3125 btu/sq.in. @ 180degrees celsius
p/ff/p/f/p= 10.2 btu/sq.in. @ 180 degrees

 

[InjectTruth]

20K BTU = M x 4200 x 10

21,100,000 joules = 42000M

502.38 kg / 3.79 = 132.56 gallons of water needed to absorb 20k BTU with a 10C change in water temperature.

 

[InjectTruth]

Making strides in understanding. Compiling info from different Solar Water/Air Heating concepts to apply to our circumstances. Here are some vids.

Modular Heat Storage
[youtubeif]n90Y6Qwab_8[/youtubeif]

Trade Secrets: Solar Hot Water
[youtubeif]96WqrcK2OmM[/youtubeif]

DIY Compact Solar Water Heater
[youtubeif]bCbg9XCoR_8[/youtubeif]

DIY Air Conditioner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF0J8OvDSmM&feature=related

more to come

 

[InjectTruth]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=164586&highlight=icebox&page=19


let try to keep this goin

 

[InjectTruth]

Solar Thermal Storage Tank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEWD6D7Vwbg&list=PL9NewHy8OGBfuf3UTGH4zOTfMtm5vDhyZ&index=18

 

[ghostmade]

hmmm this is briliant!that diy ac fan is off the chain gonna be doning lots of research on this topic

 

[Ttystikk]

This has obvious implications for those running water cooled operations. If you own your home, there has never been a better time to look into moving the excess heat from your grow to your living space, because it's less expensive and more efficient than ever.

For those liking for extra credit, look into PEM fuel cell technology. Currently costing about $5k per kilowatt of output, these run on natural gas (or any gaseous hydrocarbon) and convert it to electricity at 40% efficiency. Another 40% is heat, not sure where the last 20% goes.

Making a long story overly short, these units run at 140f and need active cooling to run properly. Cooling these with water creates the perfect home hot water source; constantly on, always 140f.

I plan to build my dream home around this tech, and then grow corn in my living room. For free;
http://s37.photobucket.com/user/dbunnys/media/corndeck2-1.jpg.html