Steam heated water heater
Steam heated water heater
(OP)
Hello all. This may sound a little off the wall but, would it be practical to use existing steam from a production boiler to heat a small tank of hot water. In other words replace an electric one with a steam heated one? What it is, our plant is doing an electricity reduction project and this is something that was brought up.
Maybe this has already been done,I am not sure. I know it probably would be kind of costly with buying the tank and the pressure reducing stations and associated piping but, once thats all done its, for all intensive purposes, free hot water. I figure the demand on the steam system would be negligent as it would probably run at a low pressure, 5 to 10 lbs. maybe.
Does anyone know the safety ramifications of this? I don't think our engineering dept. would go for having something thats going to explode in the future. So it will definitely need some safeguards installed for that possibility.
Anyway, what do you guys think? Thanks, Ballpeen
Maybe this has already been done,I am not sure. I know it probably would be kind of costly with buying the tank and the pressure reducing stations and associated piping but, once thats all done its, for all intensive purposes, free hot water. I figure the demand on the steam system would be negligent as it would probably run at a low pressure, 5 to 10 lbs. maybe.
Does anyone know the safety ramifications of this? I don't think our engineering dept. would go for having something thats going to explode in the future. So it will definitely need some safeguards installed for that possibility.
Anyway, what do you guys think? Thanks, Ballpeen





RE: Steam heated water heater
Depending on your use you may even want to look at an "instantanious" water heater. No stand-by losses associated with a tank.
RE: Steam heated water heater
Does anyone know the safety ramifications of this? I don't think our engineering dept. would go for having something thats going to explode in the future. So it will definitely need some safeguards installed for that possibility.
snip
Require preperly-rated ASME stamped pressure vessels and the explosion problem is under control.
Do steam maintenance regularly.
RE: Steam heated water heater
You can think of going with direct steam sparging to gain the sensible heat of steam also.
RE: Steam heated water heater
The level and temperature controllers can be anything from simple self-acting units to fully fledged control loops, depending on the levels of accuracy and reliability that you want.
Katmar Software
Engineering & Risk Analysis Software
http://katmarsoftware.com
RE: Steam heated water heater
RE: Steam heated water heater
One that we like is the Constantemp made by Leslie, look at:
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RE: Steam heated water heater
http://www.pickheaters.com/packaged.htm
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Corrosion, every where, all the time.
Manage it or it will manage you.
http://www.trent-tube.com/contact/Tech_Assist.cfm
RE: Steam heated water heater
RE: Steam heated water heater
I wasn't sure if this was done or not. It appears as though it is and on a pretty large scale as well. Is there anything commercially available thats prepacked and ready to simply hook up to your domestic steam supply thats relatively small in size?
RE: Steam heated water heater
RE: Steam heated water heater
The way I see it, the cost to actually set one up would not be cost effective. By the time you get one running you could pay for the electricity for the electric heater for a few years.
Now if you needed a large volume of heated water, there is no question that a steam heated vessel would be economical. In fact we have such a setup there at our plant. It keeps 2- 5000 gallon tanks of water at 140 degrees F. day in day out. But this is process water and cannot be used for domestic supply.
Right now my thinking is insulation. That would get us the biggest bang for our buck. Particularly where I've read that most electric water heaters only run 3 hours, this site,http:
Anyway I'll try to keep you guys posted as our reduction plan develops. Ballpeen.
RE: Steam heated water heater
Oil and gas costs have spiked temporarily, but price will decrease soon.
For small amounts of hot water, capital equipment will cost about the same, elec or steam and steam capital equipment will last longer.
For domestic hot water, steam is a better paydown if your horizon is 3 yrs or more.
RE: Steam heated water heater
The Leslie Constantemp comes in a number of sizes and will turn-down nicely. It has a feedforward integrated control system so that the outlet temperature remains constant even if the load changes. Useful for domestic hot water for washing or heating.
Pick keaters are great for making hot water for a single-pass application, such as commercial washdown spray.
RE: Steam heated water heater
also direct steam as steam sparging,
There are Companies who sell the systems 50GL, they are not cheap, Most are non. Coded as 50 Gl for hot water < 250 F.
safeties include regulating PRV's, temp controllers, anti- scald valves,safety valves, relief valves (temp/pressure for the hot water side)
genb
RE: Steam heated water heater
I bought it from Amstrong. Make a Google search and it shouldn't be difficult for you to find their webpage.