A Simpler Way To Heat A Shop Or Barn

A Simpler Way To Heat A Shop Or Barn ENERGY Alternative Fuels Hydronics simply means pumping heated water through tubes in a floor to warm a building When compared to hydronic systems currently on the market the Hunt Utilities Group says it has designed a much simpler system by using an on-demand water heater In a typical hydronic system it’s a complicated closed-loop system pumping heated water through the loops in the floor The Hunt system includes an accessible 10-gallon tank that contains submersible variable-speed pumps inside the tank “The pumps have flexible silicone rubber tubing between them and the plastic pipes that make loops in the floor ” says Ryan Hunt president of Hunt Utilities Group “The tubes on the pumps plug right onto the plastic pipes in the floor and you put a little clamp on the junction and that’s all the plumbing there is with our system ” The number of pumps in each tank depends on how much floor a customer needs to heat “We include a control board in the system that takes input from up to four different thermostats ” Hunt says “You can heat up to four zones in one location and they can all be heated to different temperatures ” On a typical hydronic system Hunt says customers have to add a pressure tank something to take the bubbles out a fill valve and an overpressure valve in case the water expands too much “You would also need the right drain valves ” he said “Also that system might need different pumps for different zones There’s a lot of components we don’t need with our system ” Hunt says the company has installed several systems in farm shops across Minn The systems are also in buildings ranging from garages to 5 000-sq ft workshops “If you have more than 5 000 sq ft you might want two units to efficiently heat that much room ” Hunt said “The important thing to note for farmers is we can integrate three heat sources simultaneously ” Hunt said “If they have a corn burner biomass burner or wood stove we can do that Plus we can do a propane heater or an electric backup “This is our first year offering our HUG Hydronics System ” he said “We’ve been working on this for five years starting when my dad put this in his house ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Ryan Hunt Hunt Utilities Group 2331 Dancing Wind Road SW Pine River Minn 56474 ph 218-587-5001; sales@hugllc com; www hughydronics com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.