Manual pump for back boiler

ofearghp

Hi there,

We had a wood burning boiler stove installed a number of years ago (we have a supply of free wood), its 12Kwh system that heats the entire house plus a 300l water tank. It works very nicely (there are 9 rads). I'm worried about power cuts and I know the pump is a weak link there, ie the stove will heat the water only but not circulate the heat around the house. Does anyone know if its possible to install a manual pump to use as a back up to circulate the hot water around the house, or at least the upsatirs? I've asked the plumber we used, but he could only think of a pump running of a 12v battery.

Cheers

denismc

Our circulation pump has a 3 pin plug which allows us to unplug it from the heating circuit and plug it into an alternative power source such as a power pack or generator. we use an invertor hooked up to an old car battery which will easily keep the pump running overnight. Then its a case of making sure the hot water can run through the pipes i.e you don't have any valves that require power to open them.

ofearghp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119761426#Comment_119761426

Thanks, I need to check that. I hadn't thought of whether there could be valves

jimf

as far as i know there should be no motorised or any closable valves on a solid fuel install

as these would interfere with the gravity flow in the event of a power outage