Anyone have experience with a reversible (heat & chill) heat pump?

[pjt]

I'm getting ready for a new build in the Houston area and I'm considering a reversible heat pump to chill the water during the summer and heat during the spring and fall. Does anyone have experience with these? If you have advice, I'd love to hear it. I won't have a built-in spa, so I'll either have a heat pump or no heat at all.

 

[Lisabdou]

Good post. I am thinking about that as well. New build. More interested in one for chilling......will watch this for responses!

 

[pjt]

Anyone able to help us out? Thanks!

 

[CHBC]

I have a 140k btu Pentair and like the ability to heat or cool. Have not used the chiller as much as I thought I would but in the whole scheme of things it wasn’t that much more. Any specific questions?

 

[pjt]

Wondering about quality, reliability, noise, energy consumption, and overall usefulness. Do you feel it was worth the money? Probably looking at Pentair or Raypak.

 

[CHBC]

Wondering about quality, reliability, noise, energy consumption, and overall usefulness. Do you feel it was worth the money? Probably looking at Pentair or Raypak.

I cannot really comment on reliability as we had the pool put in about 6 months ago. It has not had a hiccup in that time though. The fan does make a decent amount of noise and generally I turn the volume up on the pool speakers when it is on. It is not off putting and have not seen a guest react to it. It is about 30 feet from the pool but the way it is set up I think some of the sound gets pushed back towards us with the set up of the fencing. I have not had a chance to build a section of fence to hide it and to reduce the sound. It is tough to get a real handle on energy consumption as we also have two central air units for the house (so many variables). I think that generally speaking we are running about $40-$100 in additional electrical cost per month but that would also include the pump, etc. The one $100 month was in the spring when the pool was new and our fill water is well water at 65 degrees. In our case we are more shaded than I thought and we have been supplementing more heat in the summer than I ever dreamed. It is probably not a perfect case to study. Growing up in FL I remember our pools being too warm in the middle of the summer. If I had it to do all over again I would still add it.

 

[pjt]

I cannot really comment on reliability as we had the pool put in about 6 months ago. It has not had a hiccup in that time though. The fan does make a decent amount of noise and generally I turn the volume up on the pool speakers when it is on. It is not off putting and have not seen a guest react to it. It is about 30 feet from the pool but the way it is set up I think some of the sound gets pushed back towards us with the set up of the fencing. I have not had a chance to build a section of fence to hide it and to reduce the sound. It is tough to get a real handle on energy consumption as we also have two central air units for the house (so many variables). I think that generally speaking we are running about $40-$100 in additional electrical cost per month but that would also include the pump, etc. The one $100 month was in the spring when the pool was new and our fill water is well water at 65 degrees. In our case we are more shaded than I thought and we have been supplementing more heat in the summer than I ever dreamed. It is probably not a perfect case to study. Growing up in FL I remember our pools being too warm in the middle of the summer. If I had it to do all over again I would still add it.

Awesome, thanks for sharing your experience so far.

 

[wireform]

Just to throw this out there. Heat pumps are very slow to bring up temps. If you're looking to bring temps up at a rate of 1 - 11/2 degrees an hour, say for a pool party you will need a gas heater and then I will direct you to NG. Just simple economics.

 

[frazld]

You could for the cooling do a ground loop off your pool pump supply line with buried poly piping at 3 to 4 feet deep.

 

[cwstnsko]

My pool was just finished, and I have the Aquacal heat pump that heats and cools. It is actually very quiet, I have to get within about 10 ft before I know for sure if it is running, but it sits next to another heat pump for my garage, which is louder than the pool heat pump.
I did have to decouple it from my automation in order to use the cooling.
So far it’s working nicely to extend the swim season in combination with my Coverstar cover.
I’m toying with the idea of adding some plumbing next spring to allow me to use the heat pump to cool my spa in the heat of the summer to make a cool plunge pool out of it rather than trying to cool the whole pool.

 

[John_and_Val]

I have the Pentair Ultratemp 140,000 btu with chiller option for my 26,000 gallon pool. It does work - I live in South Florida and I had it running June, July, August to try to maintain a 87 degree pool. Got a little pricey in electric but was worth not having to swim in a bathtub. In regards to noise - it is no louder than you A/C system for your house (maybe it is more quiet, depending on age of your A/C). I have not used the heat portion of it yet as my pool is hovering around 84 degrees now. Couple of things with the automation (intellicenter) from pentair and the heaters.....I run a heat pump/chiller AND a 400,000 btu Mastertemp. They are plumbed in line and hooked up to the intellicenter via RS-485 cable. The automation is supposed to regulate temperature via the heat pump 1st - if it can not maintain temp it reverts to the gas heater. But after that it does not go back to the heat pump to maintain. You have to switch it manually - Stupid in my opinion -
Also, when in chiller mode Pentair forgot to link the temperature differential up to the chiller portion. So if you have a chiller set point of 87 degrees, and your temperature bounces back and forth between 88 and 87 degrees - your fan will cycle on/off, on/off, on/off until the temperature is a constant 87 degrees. That my friends, will burn that fan motor up in no time!!!!
So, research your automation, research your heatpump - get the biggest you can fit- and make sure they all talk to each other!!!!!

Or hook it up to a relay and control it through there!

 

[ckendalls]

You could for the cooling do a ground loop off your pool pump supply line with buried poly piping at 3 to 4 feet deep.

I’d like to hear more specifics about this ground loop option for our florida pool. How long, diameter and type of tubing etc.