Using your hot water heater to heat tank

[KenT]

Anyone do this? Seems like a good way to heat a large tank to keep electric bill down. For those with fish rooms or filtration near the hot water heater. I would imagine a separate line and thermostat hooked up to some kind of heat exchanger. For a smaller scale exchanger I wonder if a simple marine oil cooler might work.

Just bringing this up for discussion.

[robertnb64]

I don't think that would be a good idea. The heating rods disinegrate as they heat. That is why you need to drain and flush them out every year (like we all do lol). The longer it takes to disinegrat the longer the tank last eg: 5 year or 10 year tank.

[minfinger]

I agree. If your tank is constantly to cool. You could pump hot water through your tank is a tube, but then again it would have to pump slowly. And if it leaked, you'd be SOL!

I suggest you save a few bucks and by some big heaters ;) Otherwise if you come up with some cool safe idea, let me know

[jcremonini]

Erm.... I'll disagree with these two guys in that case. I use a heat exchanger to heat my 630 UK Gal system. It's a darn sight cheaper than using electricity (just think of all those watts you need to consume to heat a good size tank). It runs through my gas central heating. The last point I'll add is what do you need to flush out exactly ? Water from the CH circulates constantly and water from the tank is always going through the HE, so why would you need to flush them out ? Oh..and the chances of any leaks is a thousand times less likely than your conventional heater blowing up and killing your tank. The only thing I will add is that make sure you get something which is industrial..they are expensive (£400 roughly for mine - $600 to you guys), but you will save in the long term with cheaper leccy bills.

James.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Skimmer etc..JPG

[gwrulzmylife]

You flush out mineral deposits from your water heater tank. But a closed loop system using your water heater would work. But the amount you'll save in electric bill will be less than the amount you'll spend on applying this system, IMO.

Better off heating the room. A friend of mine heats his swiming pool with a closed loop system running through a 55 gallon drum wood burning stove. BUT, he has a wood working shop and has TONS of scrap wood to burn, keeps his pool about 70 during the winter, gets about 75 if the bubble cover has been on for a couple of days. He got real mad one time when the 2nd shift guys let the fire go out, then the 3rd shift guys didn't bother to light a new fire. Anyway, dropped to like 45 and took 3 weeks to heat back up. Basically it's easier to maintain than to heat, hence heating the room.

[jcremonini]

To give you an idea of just how efficient a heat exchanger is , here are the temps and times for when I switched mine on to initially heat the tank.

Start ..... 10.4 (15:34)
16.3 (16:37)
20.7 (17:27)
25.3 (18:24)

I think I'll quietly disagree with it not paying for itself..that all depends on climate. My tank is in the garage and during winter months it gets pretty cold. I know I save alot of money doing things this way..YMMV.

[BigDaddy]

Aren't the tubing in these heating units copper?

If so, that would be a problem.

[KenT]

Originally posted by BigDaddy
Aren't the tubing in these heating units copper?

If so, that would be a problem.

That's a good point.

[KenT]

Actually, the water from the hot water heater never comes in contact with the tank water.

[jcremonini]

The element is actually titanium (coated, at least)

James.

[Shoestring Reefer]

jcremonini-
How much did your heating system cost, including controllers?