Clever Or Crazy?

[showjyr]

Ok this is going to sound a little crazy but I need to know if this would be possible.


I have a Freshwater Ray and want to build/buy her a much larger tank. Heating a very large tank in my basement would not only take one heck of a heater but would also run up the power bill a considerable amount.

Here is my off the wall idea:

Run a small circulation pump from the tank through a line either near or around the furnace blower/wood stove. (obviously if i use the wood stove heat it will not go through the stove) The slightly heated water will then return into the tank.

My question is would there be a simple way to set up the pump so water would only be circulated when needed using a thermostat wired to the pump? It would probably be easier if the pump ran all the time as main water movement but when the water temp needed to be maintained some type of electronic, thermostat controlled valve would open allowing warmed water to be circulated until temp was reached.

Sound possible? If so I would greatly appreciate any help or input with design,parts, or setup.

 

[piper]

What you would need to do is set up a mixer valve like this in the below diagram. You would need to run the hot side close to the stove to heat up. However I think you would find it hard to one regulate the heat on the mixer as they normally got down to 30oC. And two get any sort of control over the temp of the heat in the side you run past the stove.

 

[CFC]

It would be cheaper just to insulate the basement walls and ceiling and then heat the room with a thermostaticly controled heater, also by heating the room rather than the water you get less evapouration which causes house destroying condensation as the air remains warmer than the water rather than the other way around.

 

[andywg]

And if heating the room is out, you would do better to run a second central heating circuit to warm the tank/pond.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

I would agree with heating the basement. Couple of radiators and connecting it to your central heating wouldn't cost a fortune...

Or just buy a hat and mittens for the ray? lol

Oh, and your idea in theory is clever but in practice, what if something went wrong and you ended up piping boiling water into the tank? I would add some sort of dump valve system so that in the event of something going really badly wrong, it dumps the hot water elsewhere.