We live in Wisconsin and my wife wants to be able to use an IGP all year. I have some idea's but I thought I would see if any of the experts think it is possible. This will be new construction for home and pool and we are going to have Geothermal Heat for home so the loop will be installed if it makes sense to heat pool with same. Oh yea it's damm cold most of the time.

Cheers,
Patrick

Hi, Patrick,

Welcome to the forum.

The amount of energy required to heat a pool is stunning compared to heating your home. You would need FAR more btu's to keep an IG pool swimmable in Wisconsin than you might think.

As a btu rookie, I had visions of heating my pool with a whole house wood heater.......there were not enough trees in North Carolina to do what I wanted!! Granted, I have a very large pool but the energy required is enormous.

Perhaps a dumb question, but are you referring to an enclosed IGP or one fully exposed to the elements?
I've seen several people here in northern Ontario (ie: cold) with IGP's used all year but they are enclosed in a pool room, an IGP open to the elements isn't gonna happen, well, I guess it could but man, you'd have to throw a tremendous amount of heat at the thing.

I think it will be cheaper to find a hotel with a pool in Palm Springs and send your wife there for 6 months out of the year.

But could you trust the water?

You guys are TOTALLY missing the point here!

May I be the first to congratulate your wife on her (as yet to be incorporated into the design)...............enclosed hot tub.
My condolences to Rocksolidfloors.

You could use an inflatable plastic dome.

http://www.poolsinc.com/pool-domes.html

http://www.aquashield.com/

http://www.websweeper.com/php/pool_domes/do-001.php

Pretty...

If you haven't built the pool what about an indoor pool. It would certainly, increase the cost of building it, but should help with the heating costs of the pool.

Find a heating and cooling guy that is extremely knowlageble in geothermal before you do it. Water is the hardest thing to heat. Had a friend built an enclosed pool it was going to take 22 wells to do the pool alone. That was in Missouri

I have given up on the geo-thermal and will go with a high output natural gas heater. I am leaning towards an icf pool with an Aquashield enclosure. I would like to put the equipment in the basement since I can run all the plumbing under the footer of the foundation easily before I pour the basement floor. Is there a major problem in doing that? And also do I run the PVC lines below the frost line from both the suction and return directly from the pool.

You can certainly run your equipment in the basement, but if the pump and equipment are below the pool level, I would be concerned about any leaks especially big leaks. You better have a lot of sump pumps hooked up in your basement when you run into water issues. You'll also have to add more valves for any maintenance since gravity will be working against you.

How far down will you assume frost level? I live in a very similar climate and it can reach 6 feet here, I know people that have dug 6' pillars for decks and they've still heaved.
The pump in the basement may be a concern, especially if remotely close to anything electric. Working with your pump could see water spray in the basement, I know my pump handling has caused spray out sometimes, you'll have to account for losing some degree of water.

You also will probably want an auto cover to help retain the heat in the pool. Wouldn't recommend pump in the basement unless pool surface is below that. Although basement swimming might be the new indoor pool

The frost line is about 4' and yes the pump will be about 5-9 ' feet from the bottom of the pool. If I do not put the pump in the basement than I guess I would need a heated outdoor room for the equipment since I plan to run year round.