While idly thinking about solar water heating, I started wondering about similar principles applied to a normal open solid fuel fire (with a grate etc., not a stove). I'm sure I'm not thinking of anything that hasn't been thought of decades ago, but Google has been surprisingly unhelpful.
I'm not thinking about a full back boiler type system using it as the only source of heat, just a simple coil or similar to harvest some of the waste heat from the fire, used to raise incoming water temperature in an otherwise conventional system, in a similar way to solar water heating systems.
So, does anyone know if anything like this exists for use in conjunction with modern heating systems?
Mark.
I'm not thinking about a full back boiler type system using it as the only source of heat, just a simple coil or similar to harvest some of the waste heat from the fire, used to raise incoming water temperature in an otherwise conventional system, in a similar way to solar water heating systems.
So, does anyone know if anything like this exists for use in conjunction with modern heating systems?
Mark.
