House heat pump/pool furnace?

[odonekanobe]

I was over at my brother in-laws Sunday evening for dinner. He has owned his house for about a year now. The previous owner removed the pool furnace, but it's a little cold for my brothers liking so he would like to add a heater. He was telling about a conversation he had with his neighbor where he claimed to have a heat pump to cool the house that in addition also heated the pool. His house gets very warm in the summer, so he would like to add some a/c. I did a little searching and I was not able to find anything like that. Is anyone familar with these?

Thanks.

 

[peterdaly]

Hot Spot Energy has a unit that hooks up to a house air conditioner, and uses the heat the air conditioner extracts to heat the pool. There may be other similar units from other companies, I do not know.

Another option, which I use, is Solar Attic, which transfers heat from the house attic into the pool. Works well as long as you have appropriate expectations. If I had to make the choice again, I would get it again, if that means anything. It can't heat like a gas heater, but with reasonable sunlight and temperatures, it heats similar to a heat pump, but without heat pump power costs.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[JasonLion]

In most parts of the country heat exchange between the house and the pool doesn't really work out all that well. First off the pool generally needs several times as much heat as the house can possibly supply. Pool heaters are often 400,000 BTU, while whole house furnaces are typically 80,000 BTU or less. Second, the house has lots of excess heat in the summer, when the pool is generally already at a perfectly fine temperature, while the pool needs lots and lots of heat in the spring and fall, when it is doubtful that you will be cooling the house. The best areas for this kind of setup at northern locations where the pool never really gets all the way up to temperature on it's own and still needs heat in the mid-summer.