Post by Nigel on Dec 29th, 2010 at 7:52pm
Every year I seem to have an enormous pile of branches/leaves/garden clippings that I end up burning. It always pains me to see so much energy 'go up in smoke' so for a while I had been thinking about how to harness it.
Earlier this year my hot water cylinder sprang a leak that slowly got worse and as the leak was 'buried' somewhere under the foam insulation it was impossible to find so warrented a replacement tank. The old one sat outside for quite a while and as it weighed rather a lot (being steel plate) I didn't fancy moving it very far.
One morning I woke with a flash of inspiration -why not use it to heat the pool? All I knew was that it was an indirect heating cylinder - I thought it would have an internal coil but it just might be usable.
I removed the outer steel case, the top plate where the hot water came out (perfect as a chimney) and the foam insulation and cut the base off with an angle grinder. To my pleasant suprise it was totally empty; the heating provided by a second skin containing the hot water.
Absolutely perfect! I plumbed it up to a central heating pump to circulate water from the pool through the tank, set it on some fire bricks.
Having 'set it alight' a few times it works a treat. The water almost boils between entering and leaving and I have a safe controllable way of burning my garden rubbish.
And yes it does make a difference to the pool. We were still swimming in water at 28 degrees in october so it was well worth it.
My other pool heating attempt is a gas water heater with 2 heat exchangers stacked together (successful but less ECO friendly) and the next attempt will be using an air conditioner (thanks Organic Gav) in reverse - anyone got a 15Kw heat exchanger that has a 50mm entry/exit? ..will keep you posted!
Nigel
EcoPoolHeater1.jpg (Attachment deleted)
Earlier this year my hot water cylinder sprang a leak that slowly got worse and as the leak was 'buried' somewhere under the foam insulation it was impossible to find so warrented a replacement tank. The old one sat outside for quite a while and as it weighed rather a lot (being steel plate) I didn't fancy moving it very far.
One morning I woke with a flash of inspiration -why not use it to heat the pool? All I knew was that it was an indirect heating cylinder - I thought it would have an internal coil but it just might be usable.
I removed the outer steel case, the top plate where the hot water came out (perfect as a chimney) and the foam insulation and cut the base off with an angle grinder. To my pleasant suprise it was totally empty; the heating provided by a second skin containing the hot water.
Absolutely perfect! I plumbed it up to a central heating pump to circulate water from the pool through the tank, set it on some fire bricks.
Having 'set it alight' a few times it works a treat. The water almost boils between entering and leaving and I have a safe controllable way of burning my garden rubbish.
And yes it does make a difference to the pool. We were still swimming in water at 28 degrees in october so it was well worth it.
My other pool heating attempt is a gas water heater with 2 heat exchangers stacked together (successful but less ECO friendly) and the next attempt will be using an air conditioner (thanks Organic Gav) in reverse - anyone got a 15Kw heat exchanger that has a 50mm entry/exit? ..will keep you posted!
Nigel
EcoPoolHeater1.jpg (Attachment deleted)