TOOLS, CONSTRUCTION, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY > Alternative Energy

Heat reclaimer

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ZedR-1:
So built this 12 years ago and still keeping my shop at 76 degrees or higher if I’m running the guts out of my tig welder….
So what is it ….free heat …. If you have a natural gas furnace your wasting more than half of what your paying for gas to heat your home… they put some rating scale on it but any furnace can benefit from this build….
I set up shop in my basement an for a few years froze to death down there…On testing day chest level  was 53 degrees and concrete floor was way colder… This on a 32 degree day, the 4 inch click together furnace exhaust pipe was always dripping water on my work bench which was another reason…

Now I drilled a small hole in the inducer fan outlet where it went from 2 inches to 4 and put my temp probe into and it read 286 degrees after about 35 feet of dripping double wall pipe and walked outside to find inside the Chinamans hat was reading 134 over the ambient 32 degree day…

Now the build
I had an aftermarket bar and plate intercooler that was on a 240sx from the junkyard car was never finished so new unit.
Core is 12x24 and 3 inches thick but had small 2 1/4 inlets on the cast tank so went to the metal recycler and bought this huge intercooler from a 18 wheeler all I needed was the cast inlets

So I cut off the baby endtanks fabbed my own out of 1/8 inch aluminum and welded on the v shaped inlets and outlets that formed to 3 1/2 id round holes.
Then built a mount to attach to the ceiling
I then removed inducer fan and welded on a 2 inch stainless 90 and then attached this with a t bolt clamp onto the connection pipe …..

Connection pipe
starts as a 3 inch kiddie fire extinguisher bottle upside down (need a condensation drain) the bottom has a 3/8 barb fitting welded on and top which was the bottom of the bottle is cut off and this welded to just aluminum 3 inch intercooler pipe it turns and goes to intercooler where it is welded on… now half way up the fire bottle is a 2 inch aluminum pipe that slides over the stainless piece and sealed with orange rtv and secured with said t bolt clamp I mentioned above

Now intercooler is mounted perpendicular to the floor and has a 12x 24 box riveted to the core on one side and sealed with that fancy aluminum foil tape one end has a hvac duct that goes from rectangle to a 5 or 6 inch round hole that is where a Jenn aire downdraft range box fan is mounted… think it pulls 1/3 hp so it’s a little fan your hand over outlet can cavitation it so not that stong
The intercooler tank furthest away from furnace has a thermostat from an attic fan mounted inside in a small compartment And then cord just plugs in the outlet
Found original one not a good idea it has steel parts and rusts so go with something different … I ended up just removing and when I switch on heat in fall plug in fan and it just runs all winter been that way about 6 years…

Intercooler outlet
Now it simply has 3 inch sch 40 pvc pushed in and sealed with rtv goes back about a foot and turns 90 and travels in different lengths outside and same chinamans hat pushed on.
Now both inlet and outlets have barb fitting to drain as well as the bottom for fire bottle all of these have coiled up 3/8 rubber hose to act as a catch like under your sink…. They fill with water and keeps carbon monoxide from killing you….

So results half way through cycle of furnace the outlet of fan has been blowing 107 degrees every winter for 12 years besides this basement is toasty and furnace runs about 30 percent less than without because basement heat is warming floors upstairs…

So every furnace has a pressure switch which sense a blocked exhaust putting a barb fitting after intercooler stops that ….

Now pvc melt temp is up close to 400 and after the intercooler core pulls all the heat electrons out it’s just a few degrees over ambient shop temp if I decide to stay here and not move to NC into my parents farm I’m building a 30x30 garage and I’ll turn exhaust into it and through another one of these and then back outside….

Condensation sucks , I reclaim about 5 to 6 gallons in fall and early spring then cold winter 10 to 12 gallons a day.   I could run a hose from around to the pump for the ac system but I just let it drip into a bucket and flush the toilet with it downstairs or just into the deep sink….
A 3 inch flapper valve controlled to kick on when inducer fan would work but if it fails your poisoned…
I lost a friend to CO poisoning and I don’t play with it

I would do all patient stuff but all it takes is some Chinese guy in a cave to change this 10 percent
And I’ve wasted 25k and some crooked lawyer got a boat.

Now sizing core yeah bigger is better with a huge surface area but my shop is 60x12 and 12x12 around the corner of the office and is only about 80 to 85 degrees exiting the core your not cooling down a cat or a big Detroit diesel… now my garage is packed with car parts etc so when all that metal heats up it stays warm
If you want to build one I’ll answer your question’s
I’ll check on this thread for responses
way way way into the future if you can’t find me Big Don has my number …

ZedR-1:
Forgot to add you need a drain and a bend from inducer fan you don’t want any condensation in your inducer fan or fan box

Also if I build another the bar and plate core will be positioned where all water flows down not across
So buy a core with the tubes flowing up and down and tanks are on the top and bottom not the sides

ZedR-1:
I just saw Don has a wood fired boiler…. Don this is for clean exhaust only no fuel oil furnace or a wood stove exhaust no sort of funk allowed in core

TexasRedNeck:
Curtis,  before the “Dave’s” pile on, some pics would be nice and helpful…..

Makes sense though, except in Texas our furnace is in the attic and we don’t have basements.


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ZedR-1:
Yeah I’ll figure out how to post pictures to help you guys out as for in the attic could run exhaust to shed shop etc or run in attic then instead of fan just blowing out it gets plumbed into a pvc manifold with ducts to attached garage or into the house through ceilings

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