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How Do You Heat Your Pool?


srw78

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Ok, my family and I installed a pool last year. My husband didn't want one, I wanted ingorund, so we comprimised and got a 24' above ground pool. We are going to install a full walk around composite deck very soon.

My husbands family have an inground pool and my family has an above ground pool, we are no strangers to the working of pools.

What I want to know is how do you heat your pool. My huband's family never used anything, so I am trying to talk him into something. My family used a regular blue solar cover, I thought it worked fine.

I have seen so many things on the market I don't know where to satrt:

  • Solar cover
  • Solar Pill
  • Liquid filled fish shaped things
  • Solar rings
  • Solar panel kits

Money and time are not an issue, I just want safe and effective.

What do you think?

Thanks!!!

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srw, where do you live? The climate in your area is going to factor pretty heavily into what kind(s) of heating options you want to consider. I noticed that you only listed solar-based heating options. Are you considering any other types?

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srw, where do you live? The climate in your area is going to factor pretty heavily into what kind(s) of heating options you want to consider. I noticed that you only listed solar-based heating options. Are you considering any other types?

I live in Maryland. I am looking to extend the swimming season. I know that there is a propane option available, but I am not all that crazy about that one. The swimming season is mid June to early September without any type of "heater" I thought maybe a could squeeze in a few more weeks.

What would you suggest?

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If your yard/roof gets a lot of sun, then a solar heater might not be a bad option for you. If you're interested, message me and I can help you find one. They're not very expensive as compared to propane or gas heaters, and although they don't give anywhere near the amount of heat, they are definitely cheaper to operate :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
I do get a lot of sun in my backyard. I think we are going to go with the solar panel thing. We can get it from Namco for $200, not bad...I thought it would be more than that! Thanks for your help.

1 solar collector will probably be too small. I live in the Chicagoland area with a 30' pool and 2 was barely cutting it. You may decide you want to add one or even 2 more collectors. They work well assuming you have enough area to use enough collectors.

Mike

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  • 1 year later...

Hello,

I am new to the form and wanted to share information on a wood burning pool heater.

I constructed the system from about $230 worth of material and it had taken about 6 hours.

If you have access to low cost wood, it is the only cost you will have.

It is heating a 30,000 gallon pool, raising it about 5 deg F per day. The system does not look

out of place, but you be the judge.

I will try to enclose a photo.

If I can't please respond with an email address and I will send it to you.

Thanks.

-Mark

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Did someone say wood-burning or wood-fired pool heater? Search for my posts for some photos. I installed one from "Extenda-Swim" and I really like mine but there are some challenges.

First of all, the decision for me to go with wood was based on the following:

- Gas was cheap and easy to install but prohibitively expensive to run

- Solar will probably eventually be an addition but I only get a decent amount of sun on the house roof, and I mostly get sun when I don't need to heat the pool

- Heat pumps have great efficiency but they are expensive to buy, still need a good amount of electricity to run and installation was complicated. BUt the worst part is that they work the worst when you most need the heat, and vice-versa.

- I am a little bit green and I liked the concept of burning a renewable resource to heat the pool. I also had a lot wood in the trees on the property.

So after researching my options it was wood heating, either self build or buy. I don't have the facilities to build a proper heater so I went with the Extend-Swim middle model.

First of all you need a wood source. I had 8 large hardwood trees taken down in my yard and that will probably keep the water warm for 1 to 3 years, depending on whether I heat in the winter - which I plan to do. I also have a old pickup truck which will work well for hauling wood, and I have some friends that can supply me free wood if I cut it down - and I need the exercise.

The next challenge is that you need to feed the fire. Depending on the kind of wood you have you'll need to be out there every 1 to 3 hours. Built correctly and fire can last overnight though the temperature rise is not huge. But, this is kind of a man thing, and again I enjoy taking care of that fire.

Another problem that I ran into is that you need to be certain the pump always runs when you have the fire burning. In my case we lost power while the fire was good and hot, and it didn't dawn on me that I need to put out the fire until some time into the outage, and by then it was too late; the water had reached boiling and some of that heat traveled out and "softened" the PVC plumbing. Fortunately it didn't destroy the pump or filter, and I was still able to run the pump but it left several joints leaking so I did have to spend a Saturday and over $100 to replace the plumbing. I won't forget that again.

The smoke from the heater can also be a problem. I detailed the design issues I have with this particular heater in another post but suffice it here to say that it is not an insurmountable problem. In general, there is often a lot of smoke when the fire first starts, and more if I add too much of the wrong kind of wood so I am learning how to make a fire that smokes less and burns better. Smoke is almost never a problem on the deck despite the close location to the heater, and I have repeatedly asked the neighbors in our smallish-lot sized neighborhood if it is a problem but no one has complained.

Don't let all this put you off wood heating. Despite the challenges I also have to say I really love the heater and I use it a lot.

.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hello,

I am new to the form and wanted to share information on a wood burning pool heater.

I constructed the system from about $230 worth of material and it had taken about 6 hours.

If you have access to low cost wood, it is the only cost you will have.

It is heating a 30,000 gallon pool, raising it about 5 deg F per day. The system does not look

out of place, but you be the judge.

I will try to enclose a photo.

If I can't please respond with an email address and I will send it to you.

Thanks.

-Mark

Mark,

Thanks! I had never even given that a thought. We are planning on putting a duel fuel wood/oil bunner in our house for the up comming winter, we are going to use to heat the water for the house for radiant heating & regular water use as well as forced air through the furnace. Now all I will have to do is convince my husband to run an extra pipe out to the pool.

If you have a picture of the stand alone unit that you built, I would love to see it. That is an absolutely awesome idea. ;) Good job Mark!

Thanks,

Sara

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In my research I found an exterior whole house wood fired heater which also had an option to heat the pool. If you can connect the pool to your house heating system, that would be ideal because that opens the option for using oil if you think it's appropriate.

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If I can't please respond with an email address and I will send it to you.

PM Sent. Thanks!

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I just setup a Smartpool solar system. It does raise the temperature 5-10° F however, it raises heck with your inline chorinator. Back pressure is a big factor when using inline chlorinators. Too much back pressure = too much chlorine. Not enough back pressure = not enough chlorine. I like the warm water but need to find a way to raise the chlorine level back about .5ppm.

On edit: I just switched out my 1" eyeball outlet to a 3/4" and it brought the pressure up 1-1/2 psi. I have a 1/2" and a 3/8" eyeball on order to bring up the pressure a bit more. King Technology states the ideal range is between 3-8 psi, I am at 1-2 psi right now.

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I think the problem here is using an inline chlorinator at all. I and many others here on the forum have had terrible problems using the erosion feeders. They release too much CYA into the pool, and lower the pH too much too fast. There are situations where they work but it's not the most cost-effective way to get the pool sanitized.

As far as the back-pressure goes, are the solar units connected in parallel or series? If they are in parallel that will increase the back-pressure, if they are in parallel the back-pressure should drop. I'm no professional on this but it seems to me that you would want them all to be in parallel - that is, the water pumped to the cells only travels through one cell before it returns to the pool. Not only should that be the lowest flow resistance, that should also produce the greatest heat gain.

The next question is the pipe diameter and length. If you are using 100' of flexible 1/2" garden hose you will have much more resistance than 20' of 2" solid PVC.

The only other thing I can think of is if the system is elevated (on a roof?) and it is not entirely airtight and any remaining air removed. If everything is tight, the only energy required would be to move the water through the plumbing, not to pump it up to the roof; that would be compensated by gravity pulling it down the return side.

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