Heating Fish Room

[kzimmerman]

What is the stack temperature of the stove? The traditional way of accomplishing this is to run a stainless steel coil inside of the stove to circulate the water through, although with wood you would have problems with creosote build up. You would also need an expansion tank, a circulator, and two thermostats, one to turn the system on at a specific temperature, one to shut it down. It might be more cost efficient, easier, and more sensible to just simply run another duct off of your forced air system to your fishroom, and supplement that heat with some oil or propane wall heaters or space heaters.

 

[Plum]

Heating the Room will cut down on the humidity big time. When the water temp is higher than your air temp you get a lot of evaporation. When the air and water temp are the same it drastically cuts down on evaporation. So by heating the room you can get rid of the Dehumidifiers and add the electric heaters and you might see a small increase or decrease in your electric bill depending on how the heaters and dehumidifiers offset each other.

Hmm.... very, very good idea. As I know the dehumidifiers eat up an enormous amount of energy. Thank you!

 

[Plum]

I could close all the ductwork giong upstairs, and heat the downstairs only for the winter months ( heat rises, thus I would have to heat the basement to a higher tempterature to get the upstairs to a respectable temperature.

For the summer months, the air conditioning uses the same ductwork - thus I would have to run extra ductwork and valve this, so it could run in the summer months (not sure of the costs involved in this.

 

[duke33]

I could close all the ductwork giong upstairs, and heat the downstairs only for the winter months ( heat rises, thus I would have to heat the basement to a higher tempterature to get the upstairs to a respectable temperature.

For the summer months, the air conditioning uses the same ductwork - thus I would have to run extra ductwork and valve this, so it could run in the summer months (not sure of the costs involved in this.

Don't we love our fishies. Maybe best cost effective to separete basement heating/cooling from house?

 

[Plum]

What is the stack temperature of the stove? The traditional way of accomplishing this is to run a stainless steel coil inside of the stove to circulate the water through, although with wood you would have problems with creosote build up. You would also need an expansion tank, a circulator, and two thermostats, one to turn the system on at a specific temperature, one to shut it down. It might be more cost efficient, easier, and more sensible to just simply run another duct off of your forced air system to your fishroom, and supplement that heat with some oil or propane wall heaters or space heaters.

Yes, seems as though you may be correct in regards to this. I enjoyed Gator's idea in respect that heating the temperature of the room might cut down on humidity. I had just done some reading and there was a statement that the warmer the air, the more water it can hold - will this have an averse effect - or will gator's theory hold true in my application?

Thanks again,

 

[Plum]

Don't we love our fishies. Maybe best cost effective to separete basement heating/cooling from house?

I designed the basement around the fish tanks, as the entire basement is full of tanks. What I am now learning is that you are correct, a bit more thought could have been done in respect to the heating/air conditioning of the place..... Though not too late I am sure.

The only item I had installed was an extra air exchanger - though I must say, a very smart installation.

 

[kzimmerman]

Burning wood or coal inside of the room would result in a dryer heat, while ducting air in would have a much smaller impact on humidity. BTW, I am working on revamping the entire heating system in my house, based on a coal stove. Right now it just uses natural induction to circulate air, but I am planing on adding a hot water baseboard heat. I've done quite a bit of research on it, so I know what I am talking about (somewhat). The expense of adding an extra duct or two is not that bad, if you have the skills to do it. You can find calculators on line to tell you how much air each size duct will handle. Most of that stuff can be gotten at lowes or a similar store.