Greetings fellow rocketeers!
Here's my second bench. I needed more heat transfer to water so added 50' of 5/8" copper tubing (I paid full price, an investment! 5/8's because that is what the original heating element had in it, that was what was kicking around...)
The bench needed to be bigger too, so this is what it looks like, as well as some circulator pump images etc
The tile surround is a lovely addition, the new pump was pricey (3 Hun with shipping) but is a great tool to heat the pre existing radiant floor setup. The last shot from afar has the workings of the pump, plumbing and wiring for the floor on the left, that's how far the water travels. (I was so stoked, there was enough room between my left and right zones to run the pipes along the floor once I ripped out the wooden divider. Certainly there is some heat loss, but it's going into the floor and that's the idea...)
I have since tweaked the plenum, opened it up some and smoothed things out. It feels like more heat is moving through the bench, the draft is better at the feed tube but I'm still getting creep up. Temps on the barrel seem about a hundred higher near the top of the sides, but there is a variety of temps based on types of wood and level of dryness, it's not an exact science... I play around with fire bricks to help, stacking one up on any wood sticking out so that when then the wood burns down it "shuts off the draft". I have all sorts of carbon and burns on my fingers and hands, it's a riot...
I am gone for 10-12-14 hours sometimes and there is more heat in the house than before I had thermal mass! I have some leveling to, adding mostly sand on top to make it flat and level, a little extension for the plenum clean out, but it's working nicely.
It was good taking out the insulation and just going for a bigger thermal mass, and incorporating rock and such from the yard. I love the stonewall feel, the granite chunk is a cool step up, foot rest. I am going to run this through the winter, maybe see if there is more room to open up the plenum any more, but I am likely going to build an 8 inch system, I would more heat faster since I have so many places to put it. I am looking for more heat to get into the water, but heating water is just so dang hard!
I'm contemplating putting some tile on the barrel, slowing the heat loss from the barrel so it gets into the bench/water, anyone have any experience/thoughts on that? The barrel gives the immediate heat, but after a couple of hours it gets hot in the house, I'd rather the floor be getting that heat...
It ain't perfect, but it's working and eats so much less wood than my cookstove and costed so much less than my fancy propane heater... Winning for sure! Hope this helps and/inspires. Thanks so much for all that I have gotten from you all...
More to come, stay tuned and keep it rockety~p