Quote:
Originally Posted by kbhale
I'm hoping to keep the working temp of the water at about 130 - 140F , 54- 60C in the storage tank but i guess warmer than room temp will work.. Low enough the barrels won't melt.
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130 to 140 F... I don't know what the source of your heat is, but it could fall lower than your numbers.
You'll know when you try it.
Heat output from a radiator depends largely on the difference in temperature between your room and the temperature of your heat source.
Hydrocarbon heaters burn really hot (the heat plenum sees about 450 F), so a fairly small radiator can heat a fairly large space.
Cars get pretty hot too. The fluid in the radiator is under pressure, so the heat is above boiling. And they have some way to keep the air moving. But they have a larger difference in temperature, so in your case, you might need more than a few radiators.
Heat pumps operate in the range you are citing, so what works for them might work for you.
Heat pumps usually have a fan constantly moving air past the radiator, might work for you.
Some heat pumps use really large radiators. In fact, one strategy is to make the entire floor into a radiator. This is called radiant floor heating... this way, if the radiator (the floor) is properly built, you don't need fans and you'll be able to get the heat you need from a lower temperature source, such as you have.
If you look into this, you need to understand that most radiant floors use gas or oil or electric as the heat source, and have a higher difference in temperature. If you are going to be working with 130 to 140 F water, it is a special case, and most rules of thumb will not apply. You'll need to put your water pipes closer together.
An idea I'm looking into is using hot water solar panel cores as radiators, rather than absorbers. I was able to find ten of them for not much money.
Regards,
-AC_Hacker