Heating Indoor Pool

[Figstimpy]

Hi I am new here but we are about to start building our new home, with an indoor pool.

We are putting in a 18' X 28' fullL indoor pool. We are using a propane boiler to heat our house and will have infloor heating in the pool room. The pool company says that there is something called a heaterator or something that can take my infloor heated water and use it to heat my pool, and that my plumbing and heating installer will know of it.

I tried searching for this info online but am unable to find anything like what they were talking about. Just wonder if any of you out there have a link or a name for this type of heating system, or any other suggestions for heating it, the reason he suggested this is because we already have the propane boiler to heat the house and the water for heating the floor, instead of buying a whole new system.

Thanks
Jason

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

They are probably talking about a specific brand of water to water brazed heat exchanger. These allow the heat in one system (the liquid in the in-floor heating) to heat the water in another system (the pool water).

One important think to keep in mind is that swimming pools require huge amounts of heat, probably more than your entire house uses. If you do something like this, the entire heating system needs to be specifically designed to have enough capacity to heat the pool.

 

[Figstimpy]

Thanks for the reply

The house is 2775 sqft, with a finished 1200sqft basement, and an attached 44'X30' pool room. The heating system is a propane boiler 90,000BTU with a 94% efficiency

I don't know a whole about it but does that seem big enough to do both the heating of the house and the pool.

Thanks
Jason

 

[madwil]

I forget the BTU to gallon/temp exchange, so can't say it's big enough-
It will add heat to the pool, only question is how much heat loss from pool, and can you add enough to keep at temp you want!

 

[Bama Rambler]

When you consider that a 130,000 BTU pool is considered a very small heater and 250,000 to 400,000 is normal sized, the 94,000 BTU heater isn't very large at all.

 

[Figstimpy]

So then would you guys suggest an entirely different heating system for the pool separate from the house heating system or just upgrading the house one

 

[JasonLion]

It depends a bit on where you live, which I didn't see you mention. In Maryland, where I am, the house alone is going to need most of that boiler. I doubt that it would do at all well heating both the pool and the house in the middle of the winter. Spring and fall it would probably be fine as long as you kept the pool up to temperature all the time.

One rule of thumb is that an indoor pool should have 125 BTU for every square foot of water surface area, so the pool wants about half of the boiler output. That is assuming you keep the pool up to temperature all the time. If you let the pool cool down and only heat it when you want to use it you want a much larger heater.

Usually the best bet is to get a separate heater for just the pool, unless you are already going to be replacing the house heater for some other reason.

 

[Figstimpy]

Its a new build so no heater has been installed the house yet just wanting to get the right stuff installed to start with.

We live in midwestern Ontario Canada

 

[Figstimpy]

This is an indoor pool with a heated poolroom does the 125 BTU for every square foot of water surface area stay the same, or was that for indoor pools

 

[bk406]

So then would you guys suggest an entirely different heating system for the pool separate from the house heating system

Thats my thought.

 

[madwil]

the 125 is based on heat loss- a function of the square area. only a rule of thumb, as other factors also apply (air temp and movement, etc..)
But its the same pretty much, a starting point for determining heater size!
As previously mentioned, it doesn't take as much to maintain at temp as it does to heat up each use, so 125 might be a little high for you...
would definitely consider separate units

 

[JasonLion]

If you are installing a new furnace then there are advantages and disadvantages to using a single boiler. A single boiler will need to be larger than what you would use for the house alone. If the large boiler is heating the house alone at some point, it will do so too quickly, causing it to cycle on and off frequently, which lowers the efficiency and the comfort level. This can be solved by getting a boiler that can run at different heat levels, producing more BTU when heating the house and the pool than it would use for the house alone. That can all be done, but it puts you up in the higher end of heating systems. Often you can save money by getting separate units and optimizing each one to the specific task. On the other hand, if you are getting a fancy furnace and control system anyway then adding on the pool makes more sense.

The 125 BTU per square foot is for heating the pool alone assuming it is indoors in a heated room. Outdoor pools need three times that much heat and pools in unheated spaces are somewhere in between. The exact amount of heat required actually also varies depending on what kind of ventilation system you are using. If the pool room is left at 100% humidity with low circulation then a little less heat. While if you are aggressively ventilating the pool room to the outdoors you need a little more heat.

It would be a really good idea to talk to a designer with lots of experience with indoor pools. There are many choices with the heating and ventilation systems that make large differences in your comfort level and in your ongoing expenses.