solar heated pool to house hydronic
daveyg
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
Just some random thinking here: Could a swimming pool with a twin wall polycarbonate enclosure (greenhouse), ie. solar heated, be used to heat a home hydronically? I imagine a heat pump would be the way to go, but I have no idea if the numbers work. Has anyone tried this? Dave
Replies
yes , a swimming pool can be a heat source for a water-to-air heat pump
however.... your polycarbonate cover is not going to generate the makeup heat, depending on your climate you will need a huge array of liquid collectors to both heat the pool water and provide the base for the heat pump
the nice thing about your setup is that the delta-T of the pool water / collector temperature is a very efficient one for solar collectors
if you can give up comfortable swimming temperatures, it will work better
heated, enclosed, pools have another prolem....you have to control the humidity and condensation.... and you probably want to heat and dehumidify the air in the pool area also
so....bottom line ..... if you NEED /WANT BOTh a heated pool AND a conditioned house then the setup can work...
but if your goal is just to condition the house, then the pool has to play second fiddle
Not sure I followed you. I think that he can heat the house OR the pool, not both. If he doesn't use the pool in the winter, then he could cool it down w/ the heat pump.
He could skate on it if you had a few cloudy days.
Yup ... sure could.
As Mike said "the pool will play second fiddle"
Were are you in the world???? If you are near me then the pool will be a negative. Canada!!!!!
If you are near Mexico or Porto Rico well then the pool may be a negative in the opposite direction. You need to fill in your profile, or at least tell us were you live.
Yes, I should have included my location and some weather notes:
38.3 deg.lat., -120.5 deg.long. (That's due east of San Francisco, in the Sierra Foothills at 3000' elev.) All of August can be 100 degrees and winter can touch 20 degrees, but not for more than a few days. The solar exposure could not be better, with a south facing slope and 180 degree view.I now realize that a pool makes a good heat exchanger but not a good collector. I'm thinking 75' lap pool, so it would be used year 'round for exercise. So, the whole process seems counter productive now. Cooling the house in the summer would produce a hot pool and warming the house in the winter would produce a cold pool.Thanks for your input,
Dave
one thing we did was build a solar heated pool.. and we used a water-to-air heat pump to condition the pool buildingthat was pretty symbioticthe south roof was a 60 deg pitch for the collectors with a generous overhang to shield the summer sunthe south wall was all sliding glass doorsthis was a 75' x 25' pool for a lady that had to swim every day for her healthMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
If this is an 'all glass' enclosure, it is not a very efficient collector of solar energy since only south facing glass will produce a net energy gain in the winter. The other glass is generally an energy loser (east, west, north and roof). Assuming the enclosure is not really a passive solar designed structure, you don't really have a good energy source to draw upon for your concept. Seems like for the system to work like you are implying, your solar source has to be a net positive gain. Otherwise you will just be cooling your pool water down ... pretty much like a standard GSHP ... but you may reach a freezing point in the pool. I've seen ground loops operate in the mid 30 degF range under normal heating operation (although I'm not an expert, I understood that to be 'normal').