Tank Heating - Another Way?

[Bungy]

I was chatting to my builder earlier today in regard to putting a radiator in my Fish House. The view being to heat the area in order to reduce the amount of work the tank heaters had to do thus lowering my lekky bill. We eventually hit upon the idea of running the central heating pipework into the fish-house but instead of running through a radiator, instead how about converting the pipework to plastic and running it directly into the sump. By layering the pipework for max effect one could I immagine gain all the heat needed to run multiple tanks. In the same way the pipework could also be run through a water butt to heat the water used for automated drip fed water changes.

We bantered this idea about a bit - the stumbling blocks however were how to isolate the fish house and keep it running on the central heating system after the thermostat in the home has decided to cut in and switch off.....also how do I regulate the water temperature - I guess this would depend largly upon the amount of pipework in the sump.

Anyone else using this method....? Comments very welcome please.

Bungy

 

[T1KARMANN]

keeping the tank water stabble is important i think you would boil the fish water

nice idea but nope

 

[Rooster]

Impossible to control.... heat the room, the rest follows suit

 

[mike os]

I'm working on it at the mo, controls are the thing, needs a very accurate & sensitive thermostat to control a motorised valve and the boiler, and enough pipework..... I think I will just use it to heat the incoming water tank.....

If you have sufficient rads & no thermostatic valves ( dont heat high enough or accurately enough) and a good room thermostat ( use an air-conditioning stat rather that a central heating unit) controlling a valve and boiler then you set the temp to 4-5c over your required water temp it works well enough. My cory/apisto system has no electric heating, but the temp is set for the discus setup.....

 

[andywg]

But even if you are heating the sump water, that will heat the air in the fish room/shed and so you will still end up heating the room.

Far more important is to insulate the room as best as you possibly can to prevent heat loss and then just heat the air. It's easy and works well. By employing a system where you have an air pump raised high you also pull some of the warmest air back down and pump it through the water and get a bit more heating efficiency.

It is possible to run a second circuit from your heating system but it tends to require a bigger boiler.

 

[Bungy]

Thanks for all the comments folks, from what Im hearing so far (and other sources) it would appear that Id need a considerable amount of investment to have a qualified heating engineer install a number of valves/thermostats etc. As has been said, how do I control the heat in the sump without a thermostat /valve etc to cut in and out to prevent over-heating. Heat the room instead seems to be the way forward - It wouldnt be too much trouble to install a RAD in the fish-house - assuming my CH system would sustain an additional RAD. This would simply sit on the existing CH system and come on as and when the house did - any additional heating in the fish-house is better than nothing although not as controllable.

 

[T1KARMANN]

as already stated if you can get rads into the fish house why not just put a big rad or 2 in the fish house heat the room and just put normal heaters in the sump

if the room is warm enough the the heaters wont switch on so they wont cost that much to run

 

[Bungy]

Yes I think thats the way forward. I need to establish first that my CH system will take another Rad. Guess what i'll be doing during my xmas break....!!!!