This has been on my mind for quite some time, years even, and I'll explain my inspiration soon enough. In my short time here I've combed the other forums like plumbing and heating and cooling but didn't find what I was looking for. Instead of posting it there I came here because it seems there is more traffic along this thread and I figured homesteaders are more willing to puzzle things out. (Nifty chest freezer-->fridge thing there guys!)
Back when I was a little tyke I asked my Grandpa why he had pipes around the stove. They were copper tubes spiraled between the inside of the outer casing and around the outside part of the fire box. This was a big upright wood burning stove he had in the basement that he used in the winter for heat. It would get really HOT down there with this monster of a stove so there was a blower in the floor right above the whole set up that blew a lot of hot air into a vent in the living room directly above. It worked just fine for their smallish home. Now I fancied my Grandpa as an inventor of sorts. Hes always had his tools and was always fiddling with stuff. He had built a motorized wheelbarrow (best thing to ride in when he was carting stuff up a hill!) he made grasshopper cages out of screen and staples each summer for us kids, he built Grandmas house and any number of modifications to his trucks. So what he told me about those pipes was that he had that set up years ago to cycle water in the pipes (hot from the stove) into the water heater so they could save on bills but he stopped using it after getting a new water heater. Just left the pipes in place, they still ran up the wall and through the floor to the back porch and the new heater. I think what really had happened was the old heater broke so he got some pipe from his junk pile...I mean collected treasures..... and fixed that up till they were able to afford a new heater hehe.
Now I understand that doing that to a fully functioning water heater is kind of a bad idea, you have insides of that tank that are probably designed to work with cold incoming water. Not to mention it would be rather complicated to regulate the temperature for showers and any other hot water to skin contact. Wouldn't want to melt anything and all that. But what if you were to take that same idea and apply it to under floor heating?
I was reading up on radiant heating and it is basically the same idea. Instead of having water temp controlled as it is being produced you could have your coil of pipe around your stove, that in turn would be connected to a series of valves and other pipe loops in other rooms. A thermostat in each room would control a valve with that rooms loop of piping. When one room would get nice and toasty the thermostat would kick the valve open to rout the hot water to the piping loop in another room. So on and so forth, the water would make its trips around the home and start at the beginning with the first room by the time it started to cool off. Obviously the stove room wouldn't need the pipes in the floor haha. I guess most of the same equipment from the normal system can be modified to work this way instead.
Now am I crazy to think this might be posable to do? Has it been done already? Is doing this a huge nono when it comes to codes and can I get a bunch of fines trying this? Would it be extreamly inefficent for a modest sized home(I've thought heating "easy to direct" water was better then heating air currents haha)? If I were able to do this could I get help from a specliest in the field? Sooooo many questions haha. I know that a normal radiant floor heating system is best done by a trained profesional if you don't want a huge mess and wasted matireals and time. Not to mention potential water damage. Now if my rambles made any scene does anyone have any thoughts?
*I love brain storming feelings ^_^*
Wood burning stoves used in a 'raident heating' system?
I am not up on the details of installation, but this is really not new technology. I grew up in MN in a home that was built in the 1920s. We had wood heat, a large wood burning furnace in the basement that had water pipes wrapped around it. By convection, the hot water would then be transported through the upper two stories of the large house and circulate through the radiators to deliver heat throughout the home. There was also a large wood burning cookstove in the kitchen although in the years we lived there, it was only used in winter. It had a large reservoir tank standing off to one side and provided wood heated water for the sinks and bathroom. Of course in later years it was supplemented by the electric water heater in warmer weather.
When you mentioned codes, that is primarily state regulated so you may have to research the codes on your state level.
These days, radiant floor heat is far more efficient and common. Many different heat sources are used. An even more economical one would be solar if that was advantageous in your area. I am sorry I can't answer your specific questions but if you don't get answers to suit you, you might also ask this question on the Sustainable Alternatives forum. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/gogreen/all/ The people there are quite informed and "green". Best of luck to you...
Boilers are very common to use with hot water home heating, and I've read about some that were wood-fired... and others that were passive solar. The use of PEX tubing has taken a lot of heartache out of leaking water pipes under the floors, but retro-fitting any existing home for HWH is very expensive, no matter the components.
I had friends in Asheville who had a gas-fired boiler, and the valves were set up to have hot water in the kitchen and bathrooms all year, and in the floor pipes during winter.
I'd consult a good plumber to find out what is acceptable in your area.
Try mother earth.com they have lots of onlone books on green living and solar heating. I my self being in the city have thought about doing something simular only with solar panels , if I make them myself I'll have around 150.00 in the panel but ten times that in all the fitting ,pumps and solinoids to make it all work. But it's good to try, you can learn on the way an heck maby start a movement