Recovering (Recycling) Fireplace Heat

Water.

Wrap copper tubing around the flue, hook it to a reservoir/radiator, pull the heat into the water, let the system turn into a natural thermal syphon, voila you have captured your previously lost heat, and the body of water will store that heat for long periods of time depending on how you choose to set things up. Many possibilities, and methods, This is one i have used with great success.

(one note on safety, the design must not allow the water to come to the point above boiling without the proper pressure relief vent installed, but with a proper design in the first place the water should never see temperatures high enough IE, the natural thermal syphon should move the water fast enough to recycle the water in the reservoir/radiator without boiling it. you Don't want a boiler in your living room.)

Thanks.

Am I asking too much if I wanted a little schematic of it? With emphasis on week points, I am not too good with steam.

Anything that allows you to heat something more substantial than air will work, heat water, heat stone, heat the slab - any of the above will help dampen your heat cycle.

Install heatilator.

http://www.heatilator.com/

had one. Loved it. never warmer.

milo

Hello,

When I was a kid we used the fire to heat water continuously through a feature built into the fireplace called a 'back-boiler'. It was essentially a pot for water built into the back of the fireplace. As the fire heated the cold incoming water it flowed into a separate hot water tank for household use and was also tapped off to run a few radiators in separate rooms in the house.

We did not have a circulation pump which would have been more efficient. Sometimes the water got so hot we would have to turn on a faucet (tap, back then) to reduce the temperature. You probably can find an improved system on the market now, if not here try Europe. Del and the English contingent my be a good resource. Good luck.

It is exactly what I was thinking, only I have not idea where to start. The fireplace is flush with the inner wall and goes out of the house in a chimney structure. I am thinking to remodel that part so to accommodate a water tank. I am thinking, also, to some pipes going through the fire or even up the chimney to get as much heat as possible. Some thermocouples connected to a PLC, a water pump, some electric valves.

As I said, I don't know where to start to avoid any gross mistakes, where to set the tank and the pipes, what kind of pipes to use...

Google "wood-burning fireplace inserts"

they work.

Cheers

Vince

Plenty of ways of extracting/using the heat, including having a long flue at a gentle angle running through other rooms.
The fundamental problem is if you extract too much heat you will lose your updraft, and risk the living room filling with flue gas.
One solution to this is to use fan assistance, (it may be worth investing in a CO monitor for safety during experimentation).

Sounds like a fun project, keep us posted on your experiments, good luck.
Del

Have a look at how wood furnaces are built for the safety considerations. You can probably get the right quality parts from people who make these:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=New+Yorker+boiler+parts&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Here's the basic configuration on my furnace: The axis labeled A and B is the safety. A is where the expansion tank goes (the small one didn't cut it on this system, so we replaced it with a larger tank which is out of view. B is where the hot water blows out if pressure is above the limit. Pipes labeled C are circulation to heaters and to the heat storage tank which is behind them. Plate labeled D is the domestic hot water coil.

My system works like 2Tinker's when the power is out: by convection. But you have to keep it to a small fire and watch it carefully: without the pump, heat and pressure will build up very quickly.

We had a magicheat in our flue, was wonderful.

Now what? I think that's the best idea. I went to their site, and for $150 they offer a recovering device to be put on the flue. I imagine this system: Facing the fireplace (FP), the damper is above. There I break the flue and direct to the left and to the right, through two conduits with the flue diameter. Some two feet to the right and to the left of the vertical from the edges of the FP there'll be MagicHeat device, with intake from below, and exhaust to the upper side, in a conduit with the size of the flue. I bring the two conduits to the original flute, going upwards.

I satisfy the requirement that MagicHeat to be vertically mounted. Of coarse, they will be in the wall, possible a bit out of the outer side of the wall. I don't know, yet, but I think that in the mounting instructions it must be said if the intake of blown air comes from outside or from a preheated area.

Thank you, Guest, I would give you a GA but I think that you've got too many

There are some very good answers here to follow up on. In the meantime, before whatever unit you choose arrives, try this: Bank your fire before you go to sleep. Take whatever is still burning, push it all to one side, and cover with ashes. Close the damper down to the 'cracked open' position. This will conserve what you have. In the morning, open the draft and expose the previous fire. Once the fire is going again, and the flue is drawing nicely, pull the fire out further onto the hearth. (Some of the older fireplaces had a very shallow fire box, but an enormous hearth.) A good firescreen, or two, will keep the 'pops' from setting your house on fire. Beware of burning paper trash, as the flames can start a chimney fire. (It is a fearsome thing to hear one roar.)