Is there such a device that will capture the heat generated by a homes central heat/air condenser and transfer that heat to the pool? Seems like if you could use the pool water to cool the outside condenser coil when the house air conditioner is running that would essentially be free heat since it is dissipating it to the outside air anyway.
Is there such a thing?
- Thread starter crashxx
- Start date
I found this with a Google search:
http://www.hotspotenergy.com/pool-heater/
The idea seems great, but I need my pool heated in the spring & fall, when the AC is not running.
Not to mention, when you calculate the btu's transferred into your pool, the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Seems to me that your AC unit would generally be on when its hot outside, and you generally don't need to heat your pool when its hot outside.
Almost seems like it is backwards from what you really need.
Almost seems like it is backwards from what you really need.
Dead of summer, yes, don't need heat. But like right now, pools is a little cool and A/C is still in use.
The arguments against this seem similar to if someone said "solar heating is silly. If the sun is already out, why do you need to heat your pool?"
It has been around 80 degrees for a high in my area recently. Zapped the heat from the pool, even with a solar cover, but my house still heats up enough to use the A/C a fair amount. So this could work for my situation.
Having said that, I think I'd prefer solar. It would be available as a heat source more often.
It has been around 80 degrees for a high in my area recently. Zapped the heat from the pool, even with a solar cover, but my house still heats up enough to use the A/C a fair amount. So this could work for my situation.
Having said that, I think I'd prefer solar. It would be available as a heat source more often.
Water source/geothermal heat pumps are very common, but usually have copper & steel condensers - not sure how one would hold up to pool water. Also, once you need heat, they would do the opposite of what you are after.
Dehumidifier units for commercial indoor pools work this way, and can cool or dehumidify with refrigeration, rejecting that heat back into the pool via an independent water circuit and pump. Pretty specialized, and expensive equipement, though.
desert-aire.com
Dehumidifier units for commercial indoor pools work this way, and can cool or dehumidify with refrigeration, rejecting that heat back into the pool via an independent water circuit and pump. Pretty specialized, and expensive equipement, though.
desert-aire.com
This questions seems to be asked about once a month. Short and to the point, NO! Invest in solar, heat pump, or a gas heater.
A lot will depend on your climate, if you have hot days and cool nights this may be a good thing, but if you live in a place where the night time lows are not all that cool it may be a different matter.
Just a quick look at the numbers that I used, because it's hot here and I don't like the idea of waste.
My AC is a 5 ton unit so theoretically if it was running 100% duty cycle it would transfer at best 60k btu into the pool. Given that a 20k gallon pool requires 160k btu to bump the temp one degree ignoring all other effects, it would take about three hours of the AC running non stop to raise the temperature a degree. Now in reality, even on 100+ degree days, my AC runs about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time so it would take 6-9 hours for a single degree. My solar easily puts 120-160k btu an hour from my calculations when it is hot outside for a similar cost.
My AC is a 5 ton unit so theoretically if it was running 100% duty cycle it would transfer at best 60k btu into the pool. Given that a 20k gallon pool requires 160k btu to bump the temp one degree ignoring all other effects, it would take about three hours of the AC running non stop to raise the temperature a degree. Now in reality, even on 100+ degree days, my AC runs about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time so it would take 6-9 hours for a single degree. My solar easily puts 120-160k btu an hour from my calculations when it is hot outside for a similar cost.
When you need the heat the most is when you aren't using your AC. Plus when you do use your AC it is not running for hours on end straight. You need it to run for hours straight to provide any type of heat out of it. Plus the heat coming from the AC unit isn't very many BTU's.
We have a 5 ton ground source geothermal heat pump with 5 250' deep wells that was originally installed in 1991. We replaced the unit last february because it was worn out. I spent quite a bit of time researching and talking to folks about diverting heat to the pool instead of to the wells. There are lots of geo-folks using ponds as their ground source instead of wells and they can absorb a lot of heat and never change the pond water temp.
I just looked at my system and the entering water temp is 80 and the leaving water temp is 89. It only runs a few times per hour and a few minutes per cycle. It could never move the needle on heating my pool.
Bottom line, the few people I found who had experimented with this gave up early. If it worked then it would be out there already. There is a reason why people sell pool heat pumps, gas heaters and solar panels and not something to tie in to your home hvac.
I think you would get a lot more bang for a lot less bucks by using a solar cover.
I just looked at my system and the entering water temp is 80 and the leaving water temp is 89. It only runs a few times per hour and a few minutes per cycle. It could never move the needle on heating my pool.
Bottom line, the few people I found who had experimented with this gave up early. If it worked then it would be out there already. There is a reason why people sell pool heat pumps, gas heaters and solar panels and not something to tie in to your home hvac.
I think you would get a lot more bang for a lot less bucks by using a solar cover.
Good info, sounds like propane heater and solar is the way to go. For a 36,000 gallon pool, how big is space would I need to set up a solar array on?
My panels are under a tree but it is strategically pruned and most of my panels have sun most of the day. All panels are full sun from 2 or 3 to sunset. Half of the pool square footage is a general starting place for solar square footage. My solar is 240sf and my pool is about 700sf and it adds a lot of heat to my pool. If you have a good south or west facing roof any amount of solar panels will add heat to your pool.
I bought my Vortex panels from solardirect.com, they have some pretty good info and sizing help. Vortex is a private label brand of Techno-Solis panels.
There are pics of my solar in the link in my sig.
I bought my Vortex panels from solardirect.com, they have some pretty good info and sizing help. Vortex is a private label brand of Techno-Solis panels.
There are pics of my solar in the link in my sig.