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Hot water heater/forced air

Shortbed70

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Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
21
Location
Kansas...
I've seen before people using hot water heaters and a car radiator and fan to heat their shop but I got a forced air heater from work when they installed new units. My question is what do I use for a water pump to get water through the fan unit from the water heater? I can't find any pis anymore!!! I do a lot of painting and a wood stove will no longer work! Help me out with part numbers and it pics of possible please...
 
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mygarageone

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Oct 16, 2013
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2,691
Location
Munising , Mich
You must mean you have a hot water unit htr ?
You'll need a circulation pump , 1/6 hp should do it . Menards has them in there radiant heating section.
But if your plan is to us a water htr ? For this application , it won't work very well .

You really have'nt told us much about your shop . So I am talking with no info .
 

Jackfre

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Dec 26, 2010
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4,411
Location
N CA
It shouldn't need to much. Most of these systems from First Company have a Taco 006 in them, but those are for apartments. Perhaps a 007 would be best. If it is a long way from the water heater to the AH then you need to put a better eyeball on the pressure drop of the system. Clean the coil while it is easily accessible.
 

yeldogt

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Jan 2, 2012
Messages
18,184
Many NG water heaters only have 23 -25 BTU burners. ... Not a lot especially at 80%

Are you going to leave it "on" .... otherwise the warmup will be extended.
 
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Shortbed70

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Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
21
Location
Kansas...
My heater is a water fed (radiator) with a fan built into it from my welding shop at work. I've seen people use hot water heaters (for your house) and basically use it for the hot water and plumb it into the heater mounted above the water tank I'll call it. I need to find a pump to get the water from the tank to the heater... After its in the heater it will return to the tank... My shop is 20x25 and heats very well with wood but that's also very dirty. Using all electric because I don't have nat gas in my shop and am lookin for something easy to remove when I move
 
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Shortbed70

Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
21
Location
Kansas...
Many NG water heaters only have 23 -25 BTU burners. ... Not a lot especially at 80%

Are you going to leave it "on" .... otherwise the warmup will be extended.

It will probably stay around 60* until I go to work out there then I'll bump it to 70-75. I'll be using antifreeze and water mix.
 

deckmonkey

Active member
Joined
Oct 18, 2015
Messages
29
Location
Thunder Bay
You'll also need a relay to run the stat to that will turn on the pump. I assume the unit heater has an aquastat to turn on the fan. Look up drawings for infloor heat, maybe on uponor's website. It will show how to do it. Tank= boiler, unit heater=infloor or baseboard in the diagram. Tank will probably have to be as hot as possible but should work good.

I was going to do a similar system with wall mounted cast iron rads because I get the odd one from jobs and I hate the noise, air movement and temperature fluctuations you get from unit heaters. And yes, there are times when I don't want the music that loud. Did I ever tell you about the time I met this ******* Craigslist...?
 

TheEquineFencer

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Joined
Jan 15, 2009
Messages
9,278
Location
Farmville, NC 27828
If you're already geared for burning wood, why not put the wood heater outside in a box, insulate the box and pump the air from the shop into the box and let return into the shop as hot air? I heated the shop I was renting years ago like this. BTW, I could also cook a whole chicken in the duct coming back in the shop if I kept the fire in the heater stoked up. Yes it can get that hot.

Back to the subject of the fan/radiators you have, Look up the specs on what you have. I had some that were for use with either steam or hot water. On steam they were something like 100,000+ BTU, on hot water they were only like 12,500 BTU. I'm guessing you have to run that hot water heater a while with the water temp around 140*F to heat your shop.

I ran 180* water through the ones I had and it still felt like it was blowing cold air unless you got right up in front of where the fan was blowing the air out. I took them out and tossed them. I was better off with just a copper coil section sitting there with a box fan running on low. I'm sure the other elements put out more overall heat, but they were a PITA with the fan noise and cold air feeling.
 
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