Heated floors?

[Jim]

So some of you have heated floors in your motor homes? Here's how we do it at Deer Springs!

I have a 3,600 sq ft house in the mountains of North Carolina. It gets relatively cold here in the Winter. Some of you in the really cold areas might laugh at us but we do get to a -3* several times a year.

We have an outdoor wood furnace with a 380 gallon "water jacket" that surrounds the boiler. A wood fire then heats the water to 185* at which time it is pumped through the floors of the house, heating it to whatever temp we want. Just like any other heating system, this one has a thermostat that tells the pumps when to pump in some hot water and when to stop.

In the Winter, we usually keep the thermostat set at 71*-73*. The system is completely silent as it doesn't rely on an air handler to pump hot air throughout the house. And it's equally warm everywhere in the house.

Here are a couple of pictures of the system. It's a little larger than what Newmar uses, but the concepts are the same.

 

[Neemer]

Jim, that’s fantastic. You have a very nice property there.

 

[Jim]

Jim, that’s fantastic. You have a very nice property there.

Thank you, Ed !

 

[MapNerd]

Very neat! How often do you find yourself adding wood? I know nothing about that kind of system but it seems like you’d need to be constantly working to keep it going?

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

So some of you have heated floors in your motor homes? Here's how we do it at Deer Springs!

I have a 3,600 sq ft house in the mountains of North Carolina. It gets relatively cold here in the Winter. Some of you in the really cold areas might laugh at us but we do get to a -3* several times a year.

We have an outdoor wood furnace with a 380 gallon "water jacket" that surrounds the boiler. A wood fire then heats the water to 185* at which time it is pumped through the floors of the house, heating it to whatever temp we want. Just like any other heating system, this one has a thermostat that tells the pumps when to pump in some hot water and when to stop.

In the Winter, we usually keep the thermostat set at 71*-73*. The system is completely silent as it doesn't rely on an air handler to pump hot air throughout the house. And it's equally warm everywhere in the house.

That's one of those systems that heats several times; when you cut the wood, when you split it, when you stack it and when you burn it. Very efficient. And, I like it!

TJ

 

[Jim]

Very neat! How often do you find yourself adding wood? I know nothing about that kind of system but it seems like you’d need to be constantly working to keep it going?

In the colder months I use Oak cut about 24" long and 10" in diameter. But to be honest, if I can lift them, I can burn them. I load the furnace once in the AM when I get up and that will take care of heating the house and providing hot water for showers, etc. until the next morning, when I load it again. I burn about 4 cords of wood each year.

This is a win/win for us as we have lots of trees that the wind takes down and they have to be cut up anyway. So I cut them and use them to heat the house. I've been keeping this "dragon" fed for about 8 years now and it's paid for itself in energy savings many times over. And cutting, hauling, stacking and splitting the wood helps keep an old man from getting older. lol

 

[BGMAC]

We have a Hardy system. 180,000BTU's and does the same thing. It heats our house through a heat exchanger in our A/C & heat ducts. Our thermostat is setup so when we use the wood furnace the heat pump is off. It also heats the hot water. In slightly cold temps we will use maybe 3-4 logs in 24hr. In very cold days say 20 deg we use 3-4 logs in 8 hrs. We can also use it to heat our pool (If we had one). Sorry not very good pictures of it.

 

[Jabber Jaw]

Jim, That's a fantastic setup! And efficient too!

 

[J&JD]

That’s really nice! But how am I going to tow the wood burning furnace behind my Newmar and also be able to tow the Jeep??

 

[Jim]

How often do you find yourself adding wood? I know nothing about that kind of system but it seems like you’d need to be constantly working to keep it going?

After rereading my post, I see I didn't explain the wood consumption very well. The fire in the outdoor furnace doesn't burn "full on" all the time. If it did, then all the wood would certainly burn up quickly. What happens is the fire burns unrestricted until the water in the furnace hits 185*, and then a damper on the firebox closes, depriving the firebox from the air it needs to burn. With the damper closed, the fire just smolders and very little wood is burned.

When the thermostat inside the house says "Hey, it's getting cold in here, send some hot water through the floor please!", then a pump starts and cycles the hot water from the outdoor furnace through the pipes in the floors of the house. As the water moves through the floors, it cools by a few degrees, so the water returning to the furnace eventually needs to be reheated. When this happens, the damper on the furnace opens and allows air into the firebox, which rekindles the fire and heats the water back up to 185*.

This process repeats itself throughout the day/night, keeping the water hot and the temp in the house perfect. And the wood in the furnace is only burning when the water temp falls below 175*.

My outdoor furnace is considered "Old Skol" as EPA regulation's replaced my unit with the gasafacation system, which I believe is what @BGMAC has. It's a bit more sophisticated as it uses an ignightor and a fan to start the wood burning and then to keep it burning. It uses less wood and the EPA considers that as a good thing. BGMAC considers it a good thing too, as he has less wood to cut!