Heating pool with house AC compressor

[mknmike]

Does anyone have any real world experience with these systems? This Old House did a video, and there are several custom-looking builds posted on YouTube. It seems like a good idea to perhaps get better cooling for the house AC, maybe good for northern homes where pool temps are always colder than you want, but maybe you use a lot of shoulder season AC. Pools here are very cold Memorial Day, but AC has generally started to be used by then. Maybe good to be dumping that heat into the pool instead of the air.

I’m looking to be green and get maximum pool use time.

I know I should get a cover to cover the pool at night and take the cover off every morning. Currently the house is rented to a tenant. I’m currently upgrading the systems in the house, running natural gas and plumbing to the garage where the pool equipment is stored.

OT:
I like the bit I read on wood burning to heat the pool. The CO2 is going to end up in the atmosphere anyway. If you can offset fossil fuel usage, it’s a win. I’d like to have systems in place in case I decide to use them, not looking to heat the in-ground pool year round or anything like that.

[Teapot1]

What size of aircon? They are generally small units 2-3kw which would do very little in heating a pool. In theory taking the hot side through a heat exchanger and pumping it into the pool might do something if its close by and using really good insulation around the pipes otherwise you'll loose most of heat before it gets to the pool

[mknmike]

Here are some of the videos. I don’t think anyone has opined on how much heat they actually or even theoretically might provide.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J7fB8ul9dZw

Same video presented by Home Depot site I believe:

https://www.homedepot.com/c/ah/how-to-h ... 01a118c138

This system seems to have compressors strapped to a 2x4 instead of inside the condenser unit:

https://youtu.be/vVT-zuZXpeo

This appears to be a guy selling heat exchangers and water heater adapters:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4OibNr_fq6Y

So I’m guessing there are plenty of people doing this. I imagine that the savings might be more on the electric savings for the AC being a bit Miller and more efficient, but I guess it could possibly result in a warmer pool, maybe even free hot water.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4OibNr_fq6Y

There was another video I’m having trouble finding right now where there was a LONG trench to the equipment shed with lots of automatic switches that would switch whether the standard condenser was used or the pool heat exchanger. I will post it if I find it.

[Propaschinsk]

A heat pump for the pool? Certainly the right and profitable solution. Personally, I am surprised that thanks to this device, you can afford a lot. For example, the main advantage is autonomy, because you can start the heat pump from your smartphone and by your arrival the heat pump will raise the temperature in the pool to a more comfortable one. This greatly simplifies the process of heating the water in your pool. That's exactly what I did and purchased wimming pool heat pumps using a specialized platform.

[Teapot1]

Here are some of the videos. I don’t think anyone has opined on how much heat they actually or even theoretically might provide.

Yes there are no technical details at all. Someone will always be prepared to sell something, whether it performs as you wish is different.

1st video, that AC unit is around 4-5 kw so it wont add very much at all as the pool pipes are not insulated on the route back and forth from the pool basin but he'll keep the worms warm!

2nd with the two Maytags might work as it has to be 8-10 kw.

Dont get me wrong I am all for using waste heat and every little helps. Give it a try and let us know but please include some technical info.

I will probably buy a 17kw inverter drive pool heat pump and add a second heat exchanger to heat my underfloor heating when not heating the pool. The cold air off this unit would be ducted for a cold store room larder.

[mknmike]

…

Dont get me wrong I am all for using waste heat and every little helps. Give it a try and let us know but please include some technical info.

I think you get me. It’s not that I want to do and spend to make all these things happen, but I do enjoy exploring every possible green option available, and trying to not be wasteful. This building we be around a lot longer than I will. So even if I don’t make a difference in this lifetime, maybe over several lifetimes my efforts will have some beneficial affect.

No, I don’t need to heat the pool. We can live with the temperature that Mother Nature provides for us. The waste heat from the air conditioner or heat pump would probably be smarter to use for hot water for the house. The pool is a bigger heat sink though, and most of the time when the AC is running, the pool is colder than we’d like. I don’t really know though.

I will probably turn my docs to offsetting fossil fuels first. So household hot water might be ideal… but at 120 F, maybe not as efficient as 90 air might be.

Scenarios like this are where massive heat tanks for storage would be ideal. These things make sense for commercial buildings, but would require a whole neighborhood to work together to make them worthwhile for residential.

[Teapot1]

I am on the same page as you, so to speak. Not necessarily a massive heat tank for storage but intelligent use of phase change tech would bring it back to domestic hot water use.

https://youtu.be/PYBCitWxfk0

[Propaschinsk]

A heat pump for the pool? Certainly the right and profitable solution. Personally, I am surprised that thanks to this device, you can afford a lot.