Log burner back boiler only heating radiators

[scoobysrt]

Hi everyone, 

This is probably a simple question but my head is swimming from reading so much on the net that I think I'm becoming dumber the more I read.

 

I have recently bought a house with no central heating. It has a hot water tank with an immersion heater for hit water and it has a log burner that I believe is a hunter midi 8 from what I can deduce for heating the living room.

 

I do have experience in log burners and I have an endless supply of wood available.

 

The log burner does not currently have a back boiler at the moment but I have the material, tools, skills, knowhow to make one and have already cut the stainless ready for welding, just waiting for the connections to come do I can weld them on before welding the tank up. The fire does have blanked off outlets and it was an option.

 

My questions to all you experts out there are,

 

1) can I run the back boiler just for a few radiators, probably 3 radiators and a safety one?

I do not want it to heat the water for the taps. Everything ive read mentions heating the tap water as well, I don't want that.

 

2) can I run a gravity system so I don't need a pump in the system? 

 

Many thanks for reading and I really appreciate any help or advice although I am set on using the logburner and using it to heat the radiators.

[agrimog]

in answer to your questions, 1. yes, just size the boiler to suit your requirments, and 2, yes, how do you think it used to be done, its called a thermo syphon system

[scoobysrt]

Thank you for your reply.

 

I was thinking of having a towel rail radiator in the bathroom which is downstairs and a normal radiator in the kitchen/diner then two radiators upstairs in two of the three bedrooms.

 

How i was planning the system to work is I will have one of the bedrooms as the heatloss radiator and the other 3 on a normal 15mm loop.

 

I'll come out the top boiler connection and go straight up to a vent in the attic in 28mm pipe, I'll tee off that pipe and go to one of the bedroom radiators as a heat loss radiator.

The bottom of the water tank in the attic would go to the other side of this heat loss radiator and tee off in 15mm to supply the other upstairs radiator and then go down to two downstairs radiators before returning to the bottom connection on the boiler.

Would that be correct?

 

 

 

Sorry for all the questions, I should have clarified although experienced in using log/multifuel burners my dad plumbed in the back boiler at my old house and I've not done a system on my own from scratch before so am quite wet behind the ears regarding the actual boiler plumbing.

 

Thanks again..

[GarethM]

Without going into detail, it will never heat your whole house, upstairs only.

 

That's the reality of a backboiler, I'd advise finding an old school plumber before you do anything but would suggest a hot water tank.

 

Running a backboiler can cause corrosion due to temperature in the fireplace being too low or turning the whole system into a bomb.

[Squaredy]

5 hours ago, scoobysrt said:

Thank you for your reply.

 

I was thinking of having a towel rail radiator in the bathroom which is downstairs and a normal radiator in the kitchen/diner then two radiators upstairs in two of the three bedrooms.

 

How i was planning the system to work is I will have one of the bedrooms as the heatloss radiator and the other 3 on a normal 15mm loop.

 

I'll come out the top boiler connection and go straight up to a vent in the attic in 28mm pipe, I'll tee off that pipe and go to one of the bedroom radiators as a heat loss radiator.

The bottom of the water tank in the attic would go to the other side of this heat loss radiator and tee off in 15mm to supply the other upstairs radiator and then go down to two downstairs radiators before returning to the bottom connection on the boiler.

Would that be correct?

 

 

 

Sorry for all the questions, I should have clarified although experienced in using log/multifuel burners my dad plumbed in the back boiler at my old house and I've not done a system on my own from scratch before so am quite wet behind the ears regarding the actual boiler plumbing.

 

Thanks again..

I have a back boiler just heating radiators in my house.  It is a very simple system and works really well to heat the whole house.  It does have a pump in the system and without that switched on it will boil rather quickly.

 

But in principle I think what you are suggesting is feasible though not compliant with modern regs (neither is my system).

[scoobysrt]

Thanks for your replies, I'm not bothered about meeting regs, it's my house and I'll do as I like kind of attitude I guess.

As long as its safe of course.

 

Is your radiator system as I describe with the only difference of having a pump? I presume the pump goes in before the normal radiators but after the heat loss one. I'm trying to avoid putting a pump in but if it has to have one I'm not dead against it.

 

I'm in the middle of nowhere with no plumbers around, I'm kinda here to get 'old school plumbing advice'.

[dumper]

I’ve had the same system for last 30 years aga heats hot water yeoman stove heats 7 rads via back boiler, tried without a pump very poor circulation an water boiled in the boiler this was with 28 MM pipe and a good fall in the return. Put in a pump and been good since it’s very easy to heat whole house. Not sure about stainless steel my boiler is 4mm plate shaped to the firebox 

[scoobysrt]

OK, I'll concede I need a pump, thanks for the advice.

 

I'll put a drawing together when I get back from taking mum to the local Christmas fair just to make sure we're all on the same page.

 

Thanks guys.

[scbk]

Just out of interest, why don't you want to heat the hot water with the fire? More work, but would it not be worth it long term with the savings on the leccy?

[scoobysrt]

Because I don't use hot water that often and our water is so hard it kills anything that heats it in a few months. The added complexity and cost of adding that system in is a bit too much for me right now cost wise.

As I don't need the hot water I am envisaging that part of the system will be needing constant attention, I could be wrong but it's just the thought process I'm working on.