cheap heat?

[dookie]

Does this make sense. Someone told me that they tried to save energy by making a heat exchange by heating a small tank adjacent to a large tank. The theory is this: heat the small tank with a 100 watt heater to 90+ degrees and run a long coil of hose thru this heated water from the big tank. As the long coil of hose goes through this heated water, the water itself absorbs the heat and heats the big tank. I know that water has excellent heat retaining abilities and it should help in some degree but as the cooler water from the large tank is ran through the hose it should also cool down the water in the small tank so in short is this any different from putting the heater directly into the large tank? Does anyone even know what i'm trying to say?

 

[ITHURTZ]

That theory your heating 2 tanks. IMO which ill be testing when I stop being lazy, is wrap a coil through your light fixture and back into the tank. I wont be using a light fixture though.

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

why would that be any more efficient than having the 100 watt heater straight in the larger tank? It wouldnt. You'd be wasting heat heating up the smaller tank not to mention the heat you would loose on the section of wire exposed to the air.


terrible idea IMO

 

[synspilus guy]

Not to mention you have to run another pump. This works good for chilling wort when making beer with the opposite effect in mind. Sounds like a waste of time and money.

 

[stevenrox]

why not just keep a small black tubing connected to a pump and return and when it's sunny outside leave the tubing out side?

 

[labago]

I was thinking of putting together a solar water panel on top of my roof to help heat some water up for the wintertime. Its relatively cheap for panels. I never thought of your method before.Try it see if it works.

 

[dookie]

I'm currently running three 300 watt heaters in my 400 gallon tank and I can't seem to get it past 78 degrees in this cold spell we are having now. The guy who told me about this trick is running a 100watt heater in his 450 gallon and he claims his tank is maintaining at 78 degrees also. I'm not going to knock it til i try it myself.

 

[dookie]

why would that be any more efficient than having the 100 watt heater straight in the larger tank? It wouldnt. You'd be wasting heat heating up the smaller tank not to mention the heat you would loose on the section of wire exposed to the air.


terrible idea IMO

Water stores alot of heat. We know this when we heat a pot of boiling water. Turn off the heat and see how long it takes to cool down. The larger the amount of water, the longer it takes to cool. I still don't know if it makes sense yet. Any physics major here? I think the theory is to somehow magnify the heat given off by the small heater by using water to store this potential energy.

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

Water stores alot of heat. We know this when we heat a pot of boiling water. Turn off the heat and see how long it takes to cool down. The larger the amount of water, the longer it takes to cool. I still don't know if it makes sense yet. Any physics major here? I think the theory is to somehow magnify the heat given off by the small heater by using water to store this potential energy.

Water stores heat very well but it can't make more heat out of nothing. The idea simply won't work i can tell you that. You don't need to be a physics major to understand the law of conservation of energy (Energy can go from one form to another but cannot be gained or lost) . The heater would be better off straight in the bigger tank where all of it's output can go to heating the water in the big tank. Instead of being wasted on an inefficient delivery sytem and on the extra water volume.

A larger volume of water will take longer to cool down but it's not going to heat up any faster and use less energy (it will use propertionately more!)

The guy's house must be substantialy warmer than yours because if he was telling me what he's telling you i would be questioning his sanity let alone his "idea".

 

[mike b]

Isnt this kind of the same as putting your heater in a sump?