Regular Guest
Using swimming pool as water source for heat pump AC?
Ok so this may be a VERY silly question but I do not know the answer so please bare with me.
I had a conversation the other day with a friend. He said it was possible to use the water in an in-ground swimming pool as a water source for a heat pump air conditioner? is this in fact possible?
I am sorry if this is a off the wall question but I'd really like to know.
Thanks in advance for any replies
God Speed, Jim. We'll miss you - 2-26-23
Moved to geo forum
Regular Guest
Sorry about that, I realized I posted it in the wrong section after I had posted. Thanks
Originally Posted by beenthere
Professional Member
The pool will not have enough capacity, you will overheat the pool, by law a spa or pool can only be 104 degree's F max.
Professional Member
Try a septic tank lol.
Professional Member
Went to a house once where the owner had avoided the considerable trouble and expense of drilling a well (couldn't do a ground loop) for his water source heat pump by using the swimming pool. . It was during the winter and the heat pump wasn't heating well. The swimming pool was a sheet of ice. After my "Here's your problem!" he insisted that it couldn't be the problem because there was still water in the pool. Out of curiosity I chipped through a couple inches of ice, found water, and of course it measured 32F. I suggested he contact the manufacturer and ask them how much heat the unit would produce using 32F water as a heat source. He got the expected response from them and ended up paying us to install 20KW of electric backup heat. He later paid us to install an air-to-air heat pump, after a winter of high electric bills.
Member
They use an aerator to "cool the pool".
Professional Member
How much heat can you dump aerating a pool?
This as well as the increased heat will cause water loss and increased chemical cost, not to mention making the pool too hot to use.
Regular Guest
I don't know where this pool was located but I would guess a solar cover coupled with a low watt pump/heat exchanger would have made a big difference in that water. And some of the heated air generated in the bubble thru the day could have been pumped to his air/air heat pump.
Member
Been doneTry a septic tank lol.
Being done
Professional Member*
To the OP:
It is entirely possible to reject heat from a living space into a pool. I would strongly advise using a heat exchanger - do not run pool water through teh source side of a heat pump directly.
If you didn't use the space that often, you would likely be fine with the pool as a heat sink, capacity wise. That being said, the cost of the system would be quite a bit more (3x ?) than a traditional split DX system, that would only cost marginally more to operate. In other words - no payback here...
Professional Member*
COOL!
WRT pools. Wouldn't a lot depend on climate and ground temp?
WRT Payback. What solution for $3000 pool heating bill? I'm thinking this would probably be a separate part tied to dx or geo via plate xchng.
Regular Guest
I want to do this. As someone else pointed out above, it is slightly ridiculous to have a 3 ton heat pump roaring away, 2 feet from an also-roaring 100,000BTU natural-gas-fired pool heater.
The benefits would be:
- The condensor fan could be turned off - would save about 1HP of electricity, which is not insignificant $$$;
- No burning of natural gas at all. Also $$$$
- alot quieter (the only thing making noise would be the pool's waterpump, and the refrigerant pump, wherever that is).
My plan is to splice in a heat exchanger just before the heatpump's condensor coils.
I have a liquid-liquid copper heat exchanger good for 300psi. R410 (or whatever) passes through one side of the exchanger, and poolwater through the other. There is obviously no mixing of the two fluids.
I want to leave the existing condensor coils intact, in case I decide to turn off the pool pump. This just means the R410 travels though an extra couple of feet of pipe before getting to the coils - I can't see this being a problem.
Overheating the pool: We're in a northern climate; I absolutely cannot see this happening, especially if the pool cover is left off overnight. In fact, I'll probably leave the gas-fired plumbed in, just in case.
Can anyone else see any other potential problems?
Any good hints on how to splice in the heat exchanger? I think this would involve recovering/draining all the refrigerant, soldering in the exchanger, and refilling.
Professional Member
In a warmer climate, with solar pool heaters........ You might have hit a niche market here Buck O ......... think about it. You have to be able to switch over to another source.... maybe.
Professional Member*
Currently being done by a contractor in phoenix. I am not privy to details but it is a big hit and performs well according to their installers that I have talked to. Here it is
http://www.dialcomfort.com/blu-eq-ge...ooling-system/
Regular Guest
Thanks for the responses.
Is there a way to calculate how much water would be needed per hour of running the AC? The reason this topic came up for me is that I am looking for an inexpensive way to occasionally cool my shed/workshop not my home. I have a 30'x30' with 8' ceiling workshop at my home and I only use the workshop a couple hours at a time on the weekends.
Is there a way to calculate how much water you need? Or is it such a huge amount that it would heat a 15''x30' pool to over 100 degrees in two hours?? Just trying to get an idea exactly how ridiculous this idea is I guess
Regular Guest
Wasn't able to edit that last post...it's a 15' x 30' in ground pool.
God Speed, Jim. We'll miss you - 2-26-23
How many years have they been installing them?
Professional Member*
Regular Guest
Ok so this may be a VERY silly question but I do not know the answer so please bare with me.
I had a conversation the other day with a friend. He said it was possible to use the water in an in-ground swimming pool as a water source for a heat pump air conditioner? is this in fact possible?
I am sorry if this is a off the wall question but I'd really like to know.
Thanks in advance for any replies
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Hmm very interesting. If this person installed a long enough loop between the unit and the pool it might work. Lets say he installed an underground loop long enough to do the job but only used the pool for the water source and not for heat exchange. He would need 2 loops. 1 before the pool in the series so the ground would do the heat exchange without changing the temp of the pool. The 2nd would be after the pool in the series so the water temp could reach ground temp before entering the heat pump. With a couple of tweaks that might work.
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