Heating pool with wood burning stove, solar blanket question

[tdkorson]

Split by moderator to avoid old thread hijacking. jblizzle

Looking for advice. I am concerned only with heat retention and keeping leaves and other dirt out of the pool. I have a wood burning stove that I use to heat my pool in the winter and I want to minimize heat loss. Options I am considering include: a solar blanket cut to size; automatic (or manual) cover with a track; oversized solar blanket attached or weighted down on all sides; and combinations thereof.

 

[jblizzle]

Re: Solar Blanket: Which one works best.

Most of the heat loss is due to evaporation, so you just need to cover the surface of the water. Any of what you mentioned would work.

I am surprised your heater is helping very much ... It takes a lot of BTUs to hear a pool and burning wood does not have that much.

 

[tdkorson]

Re: Solar Blanket: Which one works best.

I heat the pool to 100 degrees and go swimming when it is snowing outside. Several nights ago it was freezing rain and we were in the pool - it was invigorating!

Right now I am using a solar blanket cut to fit the pool. It sort of works, but I am using more wood than I would like, can't keep the temp up if it gets too far below freezing, and a solar cover doesn't keep leaves/dirt out of the pool.

I am thinking that evaporation is my main enemy, and with the solar blanket, I lose a lot of heat around the edges. Would a tracked cover be better than the solar blanket? How about both: a solar blanket cut to fit and a tracked cover over that?

Does anyone have any experience along these lines?

My Pool is fiberglass:
16 x 43 made by sun pools of Florida
Style Dominican
Capacity: 20,000 gallons

 

[jblizzle]

Re: Solar Blanket: Which one works best.

With the water temp that much higher than the air temp ... evaporation may not be the biggest loss. You would need to insulate the water from the cold surroundings which is not really very feasible.

 

[duraleigh]

Heating the pool with a wood burning stove

I actually have a set of Aqua THERM panels that I would be willing to sell you for a good price. I used them for 5 or 6 seasons and they work excellent. I took them down because they were poorly installed on my roof and I couldn't keep the roof from leaking. I was planning on putting them over a terrace or the carport where a leak would be easy to spot and repair, but I never got around to it, and now I heat my pool with a wood stove which is good solution for me (I live on a farm).

If you are interested in them let me know: korson at southern edu

tdkorson,

What size is your pool?

What size stove do you have?

What do you use for an exchanger?

 

[tdkorson]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

My Pool is:
16 x 43 fiberglass made by sun pools of Florida (actual 15’4” x 42)
Style Dominican
Capacity: 20,000 gallons

For about 10 years I used a Woodmaster model 546 (current equivalent is 5500). For those years I pumped the pool water directly through the wood heater. This worked wonderfully, but unfortunately the chlorine in the water ate through the heater jacket and it had to be replaced after 10 years. I just replaced it with a Shaver Pro Series 290 and a SP300T heat exchanger ( http://www.alfa-biz.com/Swimming-pool-h ... angers.asp )

The new heat exchanger system is the way to go even though it is a little less efficient than running the pool water directly through the wood furnace. I am happy with the heat exchanger, but going with Shaver was a BIG mistake. They do not make a quality product. My WoodMaster stove was so much better made.

As long as temperatures stays above freezing I can keep the pool heated to hot tub temperature (we like 100 degrees), but when it gets really cold the furnace can't keep up. I am looking at insulating the pool lines (where I can still access them) and adding a tracked pool cover to put over the thermal blanket to keep dirt and leaves out and also to help with heat retention.

I am looking for anyone that has experience with the best method for keeping heat in a pool in the winter.

Tim

 

[duraleigh]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

Well, a thermal cover over your pool is far and away the best way to retain heat. Insulating the pipes will have some minimal affect but not enough worth doing.

Trying to maintain a difference of 70 degrees from the air temp will prove problematic (as you know) and I don't see how that stove (290k btu.....and they really only produce about 2/3 that even with good wood) will be able to burn enough wood to maintain 100 F. pool water.

What city and state are you located? You must be burning 20-30 cords of wood if you are trying to keep the pool warm all winter.

 

[tdkorson]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

All I can say is that I've been doing it for 10 years and it works well. We love swimming when it is snowing outside. We also watch movies from the pool that we project onto a large outdoor screen.

I do burn a lot of wood, but I don't purchase it. I live on a 100 acre farm. Just keeping the dead trees burned up gives me all the wood I need.

Even though it does work well, I do want to minimize wood usage, and add to the ability to keep the pool hot during sub-freezing weather, so I'm looking for advice from anyone who heats their pool during the winter.

My Pool is:
16 x 43 fiberglass made by sun pools of Florida (actual 15’4” x 42)
Style Dominican
Capacity: 20,000 gallons
Located near Chattanooga TN

 

[jbelliveau]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

100 degrees !!! How the heck can ya keep it that warm ?

Im looking at a solar cover ( which I need to trim for my ladders.) and a wood heater or solar.... Id like to get my water into the 70's for 5 months. But Im north near Boston Ma. I couldn't imagine 100 degree water all year round. You would need an insulated top for it as well.

 

[tdkorson]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

Actually we only keep it 100 in the winter. In the summer we keep it much cooler.

 

[jblizzle]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

Maybe 100 degrees entering the pool, but I can not imagine the entire pool being a uniform 100 degrees.

Do you get burned by the water entering the pool?
What flow rate are you running through the exchanger?

The physics just do not support your claims ... unless you are just constantly feeding a continuous stream of wood into that heater. Sounds like a full time job.

 

[Isaac-1]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

Just wondering how much of your 100 acres is wooded?

 

[tdkorson]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

Actually 100 uniformly throughout the pool - except at the entry point with is a few degrees warmer. We have to draw from the bottom or only the top heats up.

It takes about a week to heat from 50 degrees to 100 degrees in 40ish degree weather - And yes I do burn a lot of wood. So in Jan/Feb keeping it hot is a struggle, but the rest of the year is a piece of cake.

 

[jbelliveau]

Re: How should I heat my pool?

Just wondering how much of your 100 acres is wooded?

Im guessing not much after keeping the pool that warm !

 

[tdkorson]

Heating the pool with a wood burning stove

Actually just keeping the property cleaned up of dead wood and trees does the trick. Still plenty of trees left

 

[ssgumby]

Re: Heating the pool with a wood burning stove

Actually just keeping the property cleaned up of dead wood and trees does the trick. Still plenty of trees left

No input on the heating the pool topic, but I live on 27 acres of wooded land and can attest to the using the dead and fallen trees for the wood burning. My brother-inlaw has a large outdoor wood stove the heats his house and water, he keeps his house at 85 degrees and burns a ton of wood, all of it is dead and fallen trees from my land, nothing ever cut.

 

[Safetybob]

Re: Heating pool with wood burning stove, solar blanket ques

I keep my Intex heated throughout the winter, but I have an inch of the blue insulation all around the sides. I promise you if you touch your sides and they are warm, then you have significant heat loss out the sides. Figure out some way to attach insulation around the sides and that will help a bunch.

The top is the main area, I have two layers of the 1/2 inch blue stuff floating on the top of the pool (cut to size of course and made PVC holder to keep them in while pool being used) which means a cover is aways on the pool. Minimal loss of heat at anytime unless being used.

Something to consider.

Bob E.