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

I have a worcester heat exchanger I think it is about 6 Kw similar to Item number: 220704348528 on ebay UK @ 153 quid

Yours for 50 euros New and Unused 679832221

Regards Stuart

Hi Nigel yes its flame heat to water transfer!!

Nigel,
If your tank is made from Steel plate, it may have been some sort of pressure vessel, possibly from something like the Titanic ?