# Using Your Hot Water Heater To Heat Your Sump?



## Sunny (Aug 26, 2009)

Has anyone ever heard of this?

Running pipe from the hot water heater through a pump into your sump and back to the heater, this would be turned on and off by a temperature controller.The hot water in the pipe would heat the surrounding water in your sump. Any ideas?


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## Fishyfishyfishy (Mar 3, 2008)

Nice idea. But usually expsoed heating pipes are in the basements. Even then, they are usually not on the ground. So I don't think it's practical.


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## Sunny (Aug 26, 2009)

My fishroom is in the basement and the sump is right beside the water heater. Here is a guy on you tube who made it work


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Seems like a lot of work and equipment to heat a tank. Not worth it IMHO unless you're tank is a monster tank.

You'd need a heat exchanger that can work with potable water (and not corrode if your tank is SW) as well as a solenoid that can be controlled by a temperature sensor. Not all impossible stuff, but unless you're heating a 500 gallon tank or larger, is it really worth it? Your lights will usually draw a lot more power than your heater will. My 90G reef (210G system volume) draws about 250 watts during the night and 800 during the day. Total cost per month is just under 28 bucks a month.


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## Sunny (Aug 26, 2009)

We are talking about a fishroom with multiple tanks in excess of 1000 gallons on a central filtration system


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## Redddogg69 (Oct 1, 2011)

Between the cost of the heat exchanger (or titanium tubing, stainless steel, or other non leaching metal) temp sensor, solenoid valve, and the added cost of gas or electrical to make up the heat transferred from the water heater, I doubt this would be very cost efficient in anything kept in a non commercial environment. But it's your tank, so fill yer boots. Cheers


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

The cost of heating the water would be small with the low price of gas. Whether it would be cost effective would depend on the cost of the transfer system. We had a member who had a large fish room on a central system, and the pool pump he used, along with the lights were sufficient to heat the entire room.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Sunny said:


> We are talking about a fishroom with multiple tanks in excess of 1000 gallons on a central filtration system


Then you can count on spending approximately $40-$50 per month on electricity just to heat your system. So even if you spend $500 on equipment to hook up a hot water tank heat exchanger, it'll be paid off in a year or less. The added cost of gas will be negligible. Go for it!


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Perhaps I'm missing something, but if the tanks are in the basement, which is usually well insulated, why not just use normal heating equipment to heat up the room? Keep the room at a constant 75F and you wouldn't even need a heater in the water.


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

solarz said:


> perhaps i'm missing something, but if the tanks are in the basement, which is usually well insulated, why not just use normal heating equipment to heat up the room? Keep the room at a constant 75f and you wouldn't even need a heater in the water.


i like all these great ideas!!!!!


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## Tim (Dec 11, 2011)

Many people heat their pools by using coiled hose on the roof of a house, then run the hose through a heat exchanger. There is a gy in Hawaii that uses this to heat the water for his shower 

There is a guy and I wish I could remember his website, used a similar idea except circulated water through fridge condenser coils using solar power. He got the water REALLY hot and the last thing I remember about him he was going to try and boil water to make tea out of it LOL.

Outside his window (which faced the sun for most of the day), he made a wood box with a clear acrylic cover and the background was painted black to absorb the heat rather than reflect the light out. He put the fridge condenser coils inside the box and ran a closed system using plastic hose. He used a small solar powered pond pump and pumped water very slowly through the fridge condenser coils. The water circulated through the plastic hose and I think it ran through his water heater so heat was exchanged though the hose.


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