Understanding Wood Fired Hydronics

Understanding Hydronics 101...

Hydronic Heating is well understood to be the most effective heating method available - 

 Whether heating with a Wood Stove or a Wood Boiler - the basic understanding of how it all works is the same...

Its called "Balance"... the energy you home needs ( known as Loading ) is the energy your Stove / Boiler needs to make

There are a number of Wood Boilers on the market: from Slow Combustion Wood Stoves to Wood Hydronic Boilers and Specialized Wood Heaters with Wet backs - all of these have different hot water heating capacities and BEFORE you purchase the boiler - it's important to know your Loading of your heating requirements

 

What is Home Loading?

Your Home loading is the amount of energy your home needs  

There are two factors here

  1. The Heating Requirements
  2. The Hot Water Requirements

I.e - If you home needs 14Kw of radiators / if you are adding Domestic Hot Water you need to add 4 Kw (for hot water loading) = 18Kw Loading for your home

So based on our example - The Wood Stove or Wood boiler will need a minimum Hot Water Heating Capacity of 20Kw

 

Basics understanding of terms

Heating Calculations..

To Understand how to work out the right heat output radiator for your room -

This is a basic understanding on how to convert Kw energy to room sizes: -

1Kw of energy heats: -

 Example: Room size 5 metres wide by 4 metres longwith ceiling height 3 metres

From the chart: Heat output = 2.3kW + 25% for 3 metre ceiling = 2.88Kw

 

Hot Water Calculations

When adding Domestic Hot Water with a Hydronic system;

1Kw heats 100Ltrs

So a Typical 400Ltr Low Pressure Hot water Tank will require 4Kw


Typical Hydronic Boiler Options

Wood Stoves

A range of Wood Stoves are available with Large hot water boilers (also known as Wet Back or High Performance Boilers)

Different brands and models offer different hot water heating capacities

  

Wood Hydronic Boilers

Traditional Wood Hydronic Boilers are positioned in a "Plant Room" or even in the garage for easy access

These units are designed to get the most performance for wood used>Hot water produced

With different models available from 20Kw to 50Kw

   

 

Wood Heaters with Hydronic Capacity

A new range of "better looking" hydronic boilers are now available

These units are designed to be installed in a Lounge room - but with large hot water capacity for heating hydronic water

The added benefit is the additional heat these units will add to the heating requirements of your home

These units offer varied heating from 9Kw to 30Kw of hot water

The additional radiant heat can boost your homes heating up to 10Kw..