Heat exchanger for a bathhouse: how to assemble it with your own hands?

Do you want to spend less on energy and money and have a better sauna experience? Installing a heat exchanger in your bathroom is a practical way to accomplish both objectives. You can use the waste heat from your sauna stove to heat water for bathing or other uses by using a heat exchanger, which is a device that transfers heat from one fluid to another. In order to provide you with a more effective and pleasurable sauna experience, we’ll walk you through the process of DIY heat exchanger assembly in this article.

Prior to beginning the assembly process, it’s critical to comprehend the operation of a heat exchanger and its advantages for your bathroom. In essence, a heat exchanger is made up of two distinct fluid circuits that are near to one another but not in contact. Your sauna stove’s heated fluid passes through one circuit and transfers its heat to the other circuit’s cooler fluid. By doing this, you can lower your energy usage and operating expenses by using the heat that would otherwise be wasted to heat the water for bathing.

There are a few essential parts that you must gather in order to assemble a heat exchanger for your bathhouse. These consist of insulation materials, copper tubing, fittings, a heat exchanger coil, and a pump for water circulation. Although pre-made heat exchanger kits are available, building one yourself offers customization and the possibility of cost savings. For those with some basic plumbing knowledge, it can also be a rewarding do-it-yourself project.

Planning the layout and component placement is one of the first steps in assembling your heat exchanger. You’ll need to take into account things like the size of your sauna stove, the amount of space you have in your bathhouse, and the heat exchanger capacity you want. Making advance plans will guarantee that your heat exchanger works well and blends in seamlessly with your current sauna setup.

When you have a well-defined strategy in place, it’s time to begin heat exchanger assembly. To prevent leaks, start by attaching the copper tubing to the heat exchanger coil, being careful to use the right fittings and sealants. Next, to reduce heat loss and increase efficiency, insulate the coil and tubing. In order to enable water to circulate through the heat exchanger, install the pump and connect it to the tubing.

Device and principle of operation

A heat exchanger: what is it? A specific type of device called a heat exchanger is used to transfer heat from one environment or source to another. In this instance, heat is transferred to the water by either heating the pipe’s surface through radiation or by heating it with flue gases that are released into the atmosphere. Think more carefully about each of the heat exchanger options.

The most popular type of heat exchanger is a water-circulating coil. One can install such a device in the chimney or in the firebox. The pipe’s construction material will be the only difference. For a sizable portion of the heating surface, coils work well. This indicates that, ceteris paribus, the water will warm up more quickly thanks to the coil heat exchanger. However, at the same time, boiling water poses a threat to overflow pipes in the coils above. Boiling water in pipes can be harmful to human health as well as the furnace and the entire system with a heat exchanger.

Consequently, it’s necessary to employ a variety of strategies to prevent liquid from boiling in the pipes when installing coils. This kind of heat exchanger is hardly ever utilized in buildings that are purchased for the same reason. The manufacturer is more concerned with the product’s extended lifespan under all operating circumstances than with the user’s comfort, which is demonstrated by how quickly heated water is in shower tanks and heating radiators. Since the majority of the "players" in the heat equipment market are visible to engineers’ vehicles, only a small number of cases of boiling fluid in pipes can damage a manufacturer’s reputation and force it off the market.

In purchased furnaces, flat heat exchangers or heat exchangers such as "pipe in the pipe" are installed. The principle of flat heat exchanger is quite simple: it is a plate with a free space inside, where water enters. Heat comes due to radiation heating from the flame. In principle, this design can also be used for installation in a chimney, and therefore for heating water with the heat of outgoing gases. But in order for the flat heat exchanger in the chimney to have the opportunity to heat water to acceptable values, it is necessary to increase the heat exchanger, which means the chimney itself to unimaginable sizes. Therefore, the use of flat heat exchangers is justified only within the furnace.

But the heat exchanger of the type “pipe in the pipe” is the purpose precisely for the location in the chimney. The principle of operation of such a heat exchanger is that the chimney pipe is surrounded by a pipe of a larger diameter where water enters. Water through the wall heats up from smoke gases. Of course, such a heat exchanger is performed on a short section of the pipe, and not along the entire pipeline. Theoretically, the heat exchanger “pipe in the pipe” is more effective than flat. But at the same time it is not convenient, as it increases the dimensions of the chimney, therefore, a flat heat exchanger is more often used, which is simply built into the furnace furnace.

It is important to note separately that the heat exchanger’s efficiency is largely dependent on the warming surface area. In comparison to a flat plate or pipe of the same dimensions, many curved pipes have a larger total area. This needs to be considered when the heat exchanger is made independently.

Classification of species

The purpose of the species classification is to make it easier to select the appropriate heat exchanger for each unique situation. Statistics will show you that almost every bathroom renovation is a one-of-a-kind project. Although the differences may not seem significant, they do exist, and each unique situation is contingent upon the room’s features, including the availability of attic space, free space within the room, and, of course, the construction budget.

At the location of the container of warm water

We will ascertain what is typically impacted by the location of the warm water tank before segmenting the system at the warm water container. And it mainly impacts the requirement for the pump. The truth is that a full-fledged pump requires its own room and cannot function in the bathhouse. However, it turns out that a strong pumping system in the bathtub is not required. Enough circulation pumps will be available for heating systems. If the budget precludes the use of technique, however, you must remember the laws of physics.

The school rate states that because warm water is lighter than cold, the hot layer "pops up" on top of the cold. This is the process by which a slight pressure differential is created, which, with a few clever pipeline laying techniques, enables the creation of a system with natural circulation. Prior to the widespread use of pumps operating on the same principle, every private home’s heating system was operational.

According to where the warm water tank is located, the systems are:

• With the location of the tank in the steam room. Often such a tank is completely hidden in one brick “shirt” with a stove, due to which the thermos effect with a long preservation of warm water is achieved. But the pressure is the difference between the water level and the height of the excess point, that is, the location of the dispersal of the shower. And here the problems begin: to make a classic shower with this performance is impossible. You can perform showering with a flexible hose and do not raise it above 1.5 meters. Why exactly 1.5 meters? Yes, because with a bath height of 2 m, it will not work to make the pressure anymore. Therefore, you need to install a circulating pump, suffer with a flexible hose or choose another option for a tank location. But, in fairness, the pluses and such a system have: a small length of the pipeline, rapid heating of water and prolonged maintenance of water temperature.
• With the location of the tank behind the wall of the steam room. In this case, it turns out to save a place in the steam room, which is always not enough, but the length of the pipelines slightly increases and the effect of thermos disappears. Problems with pressure and in this case are preserved.
• With a location in the attic. If the design features of the room allow you to perform the tank in the attic, then this option will be the most advantageous for pressure. Of course, the complexity of installation increases due to an increase in the total length of pipelines, but there will be the possibility of installing a classic shower. At the same time, the tank should definitely be insulated, preferably with mineral wool so that heat is not spent on warming up an unheated attic.

By the location of the heat exchanger

Systems can be identified based on where the heat exchanger is located.

• With a heat exchanger inside the furnace. As a rule, this is a coil of steel pipes or a plate heat exchanger. The main convenience of this design is that there is no need to occupy an additional place around the chimney, which means that the room is saved. If you arrange a heat exchanger coil inside the furnace, then the water will warm up quickly enough, but at the same time the danger of boiling water in the pipe increases many times. In order to protect the system, you will have to install a circulation pump for heating.
• With a heat exchanger on a chimney. It is easier to make a heat exchanger on a chimney yourself, for its operation and repair it is not necessary to disassemble the stove, as in the previous case. If we talk about purchased heat exchangers, then the heat exchanger on the chimney will be more effective. The only negative is dimensions. An effective heat exchanger in the furnace can be made with your own hands, and square meters occupied by the heat exchanger on the chimney will not go anywhere, so this design is rarely used and only in order to prevent boiling and overtaking pipes.

General principles of system installation

A few guidelines will enable you to construct a long-lasting and high-quality heat exchanger:

• The first rule of installation of any pipeline is compliance with the angles of inclination. Even if the system has a circulating pump, it is easier to make the right angles of tilt of the pipes, which is later tormented by the descent of the system and the replacement of the pump, which was too quickly spent on its working resource. Pipes supplying water to a tank with warm water are laid at an angle of 30 degrees towards the heat exchanger. Pipes that take the water from the tank back to the heat exchanger with a slope of about 5-10 degrees towards the heat exchanger.
• You need to take care of the system descent. The lower point provides for a descent crane, which is necessary to describe the system for the winter period, if the owner does not plan to use the bathhouse.
• Check the joints of plastic pipes with heat exchanger. Plastic pipes in contact with hot surfaces may not be spilled, but are deformed for sure. Therefore, the supply and drainage of water to the heat exchanger is best performed from metal pipes with adapters to plastic.
• If necessary, the circulation pump is installed directly on the pipe. It is important to make sure that there is the possibility of replacing and flushing the pump without dismantling the entire system. Therefore, tees are made in two places, through which the pump is connected. If necessary, the line with the pump is blocked, the pump is removed and all the required work is performed.
• After installing the entire system, do not forget to check it with cold water. This will identify leaks and fix flash before work start.

How to make a heat exchanger yourself

The heat exchanger can operate independently if needed, but it’s crucial to meet all technical specifications and build a structure with plenty of leeway.

Materials and tools

The following materials will be needed to work with metal:

• Vise
• Tool for collapsing
• Scissors for metal
• Passatigi
• Welding machine
• Wrench

Materials are also required:

• Pipes for a coil
• Metal sheets for a tank
• Pipes for supplying and draining water to Baku

Calculation of size and power

The most intriguing part is this. The heat exchanger cannot, in fact, be accurately calculated. There are too many conditions, the majority of which ought to be ascertained experimentally in labs. There are numerous explanations:

• There is no way to regulate the air supply
• Heterogeneous quality fuel. Even if you always drown the bath of the same type of wood, the quality of the fuel will always be unequal, which means that the release of heat will be unequal.
• The heterogeneity of heat transfer. By the end of the process of the heat transfer of firewood, the heat transfer is sharply reduced, so it is impossible to accurately calculate the thermal load of the heat exchanger

As a result, every heat exchanger is actually handcrafted with a respectable margin of strength. Independent manufacturers use steel pipes with a ¾ diameter for the coils in the furnace; copper pipes with a 10 mm diameter work well for the coils in the pipe. Coil length approximation: 1 m. A step of ten to fifteen centimeters is taken for steel pipes; for copper pipes, the closer the distance, the better.

Instructions for the manufacture of a heat exchanger near the diverting pipe

The most important thing when manufacturing a heat exchanger next to a diverting pipe is to properly seal off any holes. We’ll examine each stage of manufacturing in detail:

1. Creating a coil from a copper pipe with a diameter of 10 mm.
2. Rearing the ends. This is necessary to create a transition from a standard pipe in ¾ to the diameter of the pipe of the snake
3. Holes are made for the discharge in the chimal pipe segment.
4. Disfects and coil are installed.
5. The segment of the chimney pipe is installed to the chimney itself.
6. Installation of the rest of the system is performed.

Heat exchanger in the furnace

It is the same coil used as the furnace’s heat exchanger. The only pipe that will not bend in this situation is the steel pipe; regular copper will not bend. You must therefore employ direct bends. Indentation is inserted between the turns to stop boiling water in the pipes. It’s also advised to install a circulation pump in the furnace when installing a coil.

For a bathhouse, building your own heat exchanger can be a satisfying and economical project. You can effectively use the heat from a nearby fire or stove to warm your bathhouse by utilizing the principle of heat exchange. By going over the essential parts and procedures for building your own heat exchanger in this guide, you will be able to take charge of your bathhouse’s heating system.

Comprehending the fundamental principles of heat exchange is imperative for the triumph of your do-it-yourself endeavor. Heat exchanger efficiency can be increased by using materials with high thermal conductivity, like copper tubing, and designing the heat exchanger to expose as much surface area as possible. Don’t forget to take ventilation and insulation into account to reduce heat loss and optimize your system’s performance.

The ability to tailor your heat exchanger to your unique requirements and available resources is one benefit of building your own. You can customize your heat exchanger to fit your bathhouse setup by making a variety of design adjustments and adaptations, regardless of whether you have limited space or access to unusual materials. To find the best solution for you, don’t be afraid to try new things and think outside the box.

Safety should always be your first priority as you set out on this do-it-yourself project. Take safety measures when handling flammable materials and heating elements to avoid mishaps and protect other people as well as yourself. Make sure to abide by safety precautions and laws, and don’t be afraid to ask knowledgeable professionals or seasoned do-it-yourselfers for advice if you have any questions about any part of the project.

In the end, building your own bathhouse heat exchanger is a rewarding project in addition to being a useful one. You can design a heating system that not only keeps your bathhouse warm and comfortable but also showcases your creativity and skill by using your imagination and resourcefulness. Your bathhouse can become a comfortable and relaxing retreat with the correct supplies, equipment, and attitude, all while helping you save money and lessening your influence on the environment.

We’ll walk you through building a DIY heat exchanger for your bathhouse in this article. Finding economical ways to heat spaces is crucial given the rising cost of energy, and building your own heat exchanger is an easy and affordable way to do it. You can maximize energy efficiency by using your wood stove’s heat to warm the air in your bathhouse by using basic materials and easy-to-follow instructions. We’ll simplify the procedure into doable steps and offer helpful hints and advice along the way so that even people with little prior DIY experience can finish this project successfully. Prepare to relish a warm and inviting bathhouse experience without going over budget!

Video on the topic

Heat exchanger for a bath with your own hands from an flowed pipe #household

DIY heat exchanger for a bathhouse.

Heat exchanger in the bath. How to connect a register to a senior tank with your own hands! Connection scheme!

DIY heat exchanger for a bathhouse! Why copper? Hot water in the bathhouse, how to make?

Connection of the Ferrum heat exchanger to Baku in the bath. No mistakes. With your own hands.