Off Grid Heating Prototype- Copper Coil Water Heater / Heat Exchanger / Radiant Heater

this is my ammo box heater in combination with a copper coil it circulates heated water from a nearby campfire wood stove or solar heater into itself this setup serves two main functions number one it can be used as an off-grid water heater secondly it can be used as an off-grid space heater which is what I built mine for last year I constructed a snowmobile camper since then I've been exploring ways to heat it during the winter months and by the way if you want to check out my snowmobile camper series I'll leave a link in the description below anyway my plan is to run hot water from an outside campfire into my camper where it will circulate into this metal ammo box the ammo box will radiate its heat inside the camper making it toasty warm even when it's freezing cold outside this setup is a great way to bring the heat of the fire inside while keeping the fire itself safely outside I chose this ammo box because of its tall and slim profile which will fit nicely into my camper without taking up too much space let's get started I drilled two holes into the ammo box one on the top which will be the hot water inlet and the second lower down on the side which will be an outlet for the cooler water for the valves I purchased a couple rain barrel spigots I found that they created a good seal against the tank and the nozzles were threaded which is perfect for easily connecting and disconnecting the water lines [Music] my plan is to run hot water into this jar where it will then drain into the tank the jar isn't necessary but I added it so that I could watch the water circulate for the water lines I used metal braided flexi hose for the copper I bought a 40-foot 5/8 coil of soft copper from the hardware store the soft copper is easy to bend by hand without the use of tools finally I added an aquarium water thermometer to the tank I made sure the temperature Perl rested at the bottom so that I could get a reading from the coolest part of the tank now it was time to test my creation after building a small fire I place the coil on top almost immediately the hot water began to flow things were looking good that is until steam started blasting out of the top to avoid pressure buildup I left an opening in the jar which steam was now forcing its way out of as long as there was steam the water could no longer circulate in liquid form to replenish the tank I quickly realized that my problem was in the positioning of the hot water inlet since I placed it at the top of the tank it was above the water line so I got rid of the jar and drilled a new inlet hole higher off on the side of the tank but this time I made sure it was below the waterline now there wouldn't be any room for air to get trapped in the lines and creates steam like it had before however I left the hole at the top open to prevent pressure build-up after hooking my lines back up I place the coil back in the fire for round two this time everything worked perfectly almost right away I could feel hot water jetting in through the upper intake valve here's what it looked like from the inside of the tank [Music] [Music] [Music] within 15 to 20 minutes the upper half of the ammo box was too hot to touch the bottom of the tank registered 30 degrees Celsius or 87 degrees Fahrenheit while the top of the tank was twice as hot at 70 degrees Celsius or 155 degrees Fahrenheit my ammo box heater operates on the method of thermal siphoning which is based on natural convection the heated water in the coil naturally rises within the tubing while the cooler more dense water sinks back into the coil where it reheats and rises again the longer the water is allowed to circulate the hotter it becomes within 45 minutes the temperature in the tank began to equalize from top to bottom and in just under an hour the tank began to slowly boil it was at this point that I removed the copper coil from the fire two hours later the tank was still burning hot at approximately 70 degrees Celsius or 160 degrees Fahrenheit overall I'm extremely pleased with how efficient the ammo box heater is I still want to tweak the system a little bit to improve upon the design but I couldn't be happier with the initial results

Channel: The Outsider

Views: 2,573,136

Rating: 4.7647414 out of 5

Keywords: off grid, copper coil water heater, DIY, heat exchanger, solar heater, water radiator, radiant heater, off grid heating, solar heating, DIY heating, free heat, camping shower, DIY hot tub, wood fired hot tub, wood stove heater, wood stove copper coil, copper coil, snowmobile camper, The Outsider

Id: zwqPiZ4Wgys

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 31 2019