I have access to a Saturn kerr hot water boiler fuel type oil am I able to use this to heat a 10000 litter pool? Am I able to loop the pool in and back out to the pool as if it was a radiation heater?
Oil fired boiler for pool heater
- Thread starter Mrfowler26
- Start date
Edit...i just realized you said stand alone...most of my comments are integrated scenarios...but i would still say it depends on btu, what the exchanger is made of, and that youd still be better off financially with a gas boiler designed for swiming pool heat.
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I think what you would want is to attach a water-to-water heat exchanger to the oil boiler in order to heat the pool. Others here have looked into them, but I also know that @Duraleigh tried this with a home gas boiler and found it to be highly inefficient.
My understanding is that regular boilers as opposed to pool boilers have pretty specific requirements in terms of the return temps on the loop, (eg 130 degrees) depending on the design, and I would not be putting a pool directly into that loop at all. Other reasons to not put the pool in the loop include the metal used for the heat exchanger. Pool boiler exchangers are copper or cupronickel while many home boilers are stainless steel or aluminum. The salt that builds up even in regular chlorine pools would not be great for either.
If you meant to repurpose a disused boiler as opposed to looping the pool into your household heat, you could do it in theory but in cost it would be crazy...eg 3 times the cost of natural gas. In a season or less you'd have paid for a brand new Raypak pool boiler in the energy differential, I suspect.
I have played around with a bunch of scenarios - I have a home boiler and a pool boiler currently and keep thinking about integrating them. But from what I've dug up and now discussed with my hvac guy, I'm already running the most practical way for my site.
The pool boiler in my case needs to be about 2.5 times the btu of my home boiler to maintain a degree an hour in my conditions. So if you size up a home boiler btu wise to account for the secondary water exchanging, then you're going to end up short-cycling your home boiler on the home side, which is bad news for both efficiency and longevity.
Hope that makes sense.
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I think what you would want is to attach a water-to-water heat exchanger to the oil boiler in order to heat the pool. Others here have looked into them, but I also know that @Duraleigh tried this with a home gas boiler and found it to be highly inefficient.
My understanding is that regular boilers as opposed to pool boilers have pretty specific requirements in terms of the return temps on the loop, (eg 130 degrees) depending on the design, and I would not be putting a pool directly into that loop at all. Other reasons to not put the pool in the loop include the metal used for the heat exchanger. Pool boiler exchangers are copper or cupronickel while many home boilers are stainless steel or aluminum. The salt that builds up even in regular chlorine pools would not be great for either.
If you meant to repurpose a disused boiler as opposed to looping the pool into your household heat, you could do it in theory but in cost it would be crazy...eg 3 times the cost of natural gas. In a season or less you'd have paid for a brand new Raypak pool boiler in the energy differential, I suspect.
I have played around with a bunch of scenarios - I have a home boiler and a pool boiler currently and keep thinking about integrating them. But from what I've dug up and now discussed with my hvac guy, I'm already running the most practical way for my site.
The pool boiler in my case needs to be about 2.5 times the btu of my home boiler to maintain a degree an hour in my conditions. So if you size up a home boiler btu wise to account for the secondary water exchanging, then you're going to end up short-cycling your home boiler on the home side, which is bad news for both efficiency and longevity.
Hope that makes sense.
Sound perfect and makes sense but I will be using boiler by itself it will not be tied into my house in anyway and the coil is made of copper and thr same boiler in my house thr water is heated to 98 degrees Celsius so on a loup just from the pool to the boiler back to thr pool idk how well it would work also we don't have natural gas when I live in newfoundland
In that case, with copper exchanger and no home zones to worry about, its worth a try. I don't know in your area if propane is much cheaper than oil these days 
Make sure you use a really good solar cover (bubble type, I like the clear 12 mil type) on the pool when you're not in it to retain the most heat. I'm running a pool in Michigan in winter inside an airdome so I'm getting to witness first-hand how much of a difference this makes
Dear friends of mine live on "the Rock" (St john's) so I know first hand that summer is kinda short and sweet in your neck of he woods Let us know how your experiment goes...there are folks on this forum with WAY more hands on tech experience than me to guide you. I do know you've gotta make sure you keep a good strong flow rate, and always let the boiler cool down 20 min. Before you ever turn off a pump!
Make sure you use a really good solar cover (bubble type, I like the clear 12 mil type) on the pool when you're not in it to retain the most heat. I'm running a pool in Michigan in winter inside an airdome so I'm getting to witness first-hand how much of a difference this makes
Dear friends of mine live on "the Rock" (St john's) so I know first hand that summer is kinda short and sweet in your neck of he woods
Let us know how your experiment goes...there are folks on this forum with WAY more hands on tech experience than me to guide you. I do know you've gotta make sure you keep a good strong flow rate, and always let the boiler cool down 20 min. Before you ever turn off a pump!I live in flatrock just outside of st johns but I will be trying this in the summer see how it works I can get a boiler unit for about 300 dollars so it isn't alot to invest to see if it will work worth a try
