Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Electric heaters, gas heaters, heat pumps,
solar heaters, geothermal heating, solar pool
covers and wood-burning pool heating equipment.
ets80
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun 30 Dec, 2012 20:18

Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby ets80 » Sun 30 Dec, 2012 20:34

From our experience, we have removed one that had a flue pipe that went thru the eave of the house. Homeowner stated he had to install a chimney because of the smoke that was accumulating around the pool. After the extreme cost of setting this up, he stated the heat was uncontrollable and the cost of the wood made his venture a failure


wimbushmechanical
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 21 Feb, 2013 18:40
Location: pool service

Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby wimbushmechanical » Fri 08 Mar, 2013 22:25

I have not tried this but have been kicking the idea around myself. My plan was to use it to heat the house in the winter and the pool in the summer. I live in the country and have access to wood, and straw.
Since I am in the business I wanted to try and make something that looked professional, and if I could solve the challenges it presents, perhaps market it.
The obvious problems are how do you control the heat and how do you make it operate without becoming a slave to it. I have thought about using a temperature controlled water flow diverting valve so that when the heat in the house/pool is no longer needed the flow is diverted away from these loads. This controls the amount of heat presented to the loads, but in no way controls the amount of fuel being consumed. When the loads are satisfied the heat created is wasted. This can create some troubles as you can end up creating steam which can cause excessive pressures and safety issues. The other concern is preventing freeze-up, if the system is allowed to cool in the winter. Anti-freeze or Glycol is an option for the winter but it creates environmental problems and heat transfer problems.
A heat exchanger would be required between the glycol and the pool water which can be expensive.

I think that this is the kind of thing that a do-it-yourself person could have fun creating, but it will always look like hell and be more trouble than its worth.
I would sure like to be proven wrong, and if someone has a design I definitely would like to see it.
Shadowbenny26

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby Shadowbenny26 » Fri 03 Nov, 2017 08:11

Pool Clown wrote:warmwatersolutions.com


better option woodstovepools.com
azulverde
Pool Enthusiast
Pool Enthusiast
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue 03 Oct, 2017 00:35
My Pool: With pool and spa design, our goal is to give you a water element that is tranquil and enjoyable. You will be able to relax in the sun and enjoy the beautiful and functional design we create. For a pool and spa area, we focus on what really matters: how you plan to use the space.
Location: 7020 E Bella Vista Dr, Cave Creek, AZ 85331
Contact:

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby azulverde » Mon 13 Nov, 2017 06:19

You can convert a barrel into a simple swimming pool heater. Divert the water using a pool pump. Use recycled paper logs and pallet wood for fuel.  
Sprucecat
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun 10 Jan, 2021 18:01
My Pool: 30 foot above ground

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby Sprucecat » Thu 04 Mar, 2021 20:50

AR wrote:I am a boiler technician. I spent 2 years developing such an idea. The first year, it worked, but had a couple design issues. The second year however, much better. I live in the NE. I opened my pool may 1. It was 54 *F. In 2 days-it was 85* F. Email me.


Pool User wrote:Has anyone designed a way to heat your pool with wood? Some that lives in our town heats their pool with a homemade wood burning system. Has anyone done this and if so, how did you make it? My husband would like to make one to heat our pool.

Thanks

I am in the process of heating a 30 ft above ground pool with a wood boiler could you email me with your ideas. I plan on using a tube and shell stainless heat exchanger140000 btu
Sprucecat
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun 10 Jan, 2021 18:01
My Pool: 30 foot above ground

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby Sprucecat » Fri 05 Mar, 2021 17:39

Could you please email me the design of heating your pool I Have a 30 foot above ground pool and plan on using the tub and shower steamers heat exchanger 140000 BTU with a wood boile
ibra0078
Pool Enthusiast
Pool Enthusiast
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun 06 Oct, 2019 06:14

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby ibra0078 » Tue 11 May, 2021 18:44

I would love some details of the wood heaters. Thank you

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk
Sprucecat
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun 10 Jan, 2021 18:01
My Pool: 30 foot above ground

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby Sprucecat » Sun 13 Jun, 2021 18:28

After looking for info on heating a pool with a wood boiler all winter I came up with a Buderous Logan’s G201 used for $300 . I believe it holds 12 gallons of water along with 60 total feet of 1 inch pex is probably roughly 15 gallons. I have 2 -140,000 btu tube in shell heat exchangers pool side and I have the boiler pump 007 next to the heat exchangers on the lowest point. I have a 1/6 hp utility pump pumping water from the pool through the heat exchangers and back to the pool roughly a total of 9 feet pumping at around 25 gpm. I fired up the boiler on may 16 pool temp was 58 degrees boiler temp runs between 140-180 degrees water going back in the pool was 15 degrees warmer 5 days later pool temp was 75 degrees and we were swimming.The following week The temp outside got down to 30° at night when it started to warm up again I fired the boiler up again for another week and got the pool temp to 80 degrees, when the pool temp is 80 and the boiler is still running water going back into the pool is 95° the pool right now is 87° I haven’t ran the boiler for over a week. By the way I have a 30 foot pool with 54 inch sides ,And the total wood that I burned was just over a face cord, I never thought it would work this efficient, next year I might add a third heat exchanger and also the boiler is rated at 140,000 BTU
mknmike
Swimming Pool Superstar
Swimming Pool Superstar
Posts: 221
Joined: Fri 02 Jul, 2021 21:00

Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby mknmike » Fri 04 Feb, 2022 10:59

I am planning on finishing the upstairs of the garage in which my pool equipment resides. The garage has a chimney which I plan to use for a wood stove.

I am planning on getting a natural gas high efficiency mod-con combi (including tankless hot water heater) boiler that’s identical to to the one I’m going to be installing into the house. Rather than buying several hundreds of dollars of spare parts to have on hand, I plan to have a complete spare boiler in the garage that I can steal parts from if the boiler in the house fails. So it’s going to be way-oversized, and I will look for a heat exchanger to put on a separate “zone” on that system. I will have the option for fossil-fuel heating the pool.

I like the concept of heating with renewable wood fuel that will emit its CO2 into the atmosphere one way or another, so I might as well offset my natural gas use with it. Just burn it HOT and clean to avoid smoke particulates that are bad for the environment.

Since I’m going to have the wood stove, I figure I might as well install a heat exchanger to perhaps suck up a little bit of that fuel and heat. I have read that this can be a challenge to get the right flow rate and make sure you don’t over-cool the fire box, or the wood won’t burn hot enough to burn clean. So it seems that you need to have the water pre-heated or perhaps some sort of divider to make sure you aren’t running cold water directly into the fire box, maybe capturing heat in the flue or above the actual firebox.

If you can achieve condensation of flue gasses, then you can assure you are capturing almost all of the heat. This makes me think that an ideal scenario would be to have a coil run up the flue and have a condensation trap at the bottom of the flue where condensation would be run to a drain.

It gets complicated, but designing it sounds fun.

In my case, I’d like to have loops that could be shutoff to heat exchangers on both the natural gas boiler, and also the wood stove.

Determining the best heat exchanger for water heating might be something I’ll investigate over at hearth.com

Edit: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/bio ... df.137252/
mknmike
Swimming Pool Superstar
Swimming Pool Superstar
Posts: 221
Joined: Fri 02 Jul, 2021 21:00

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby mknmike » Sat 27 May, 2023 21:43

I’ve got a ton of wood to get rid of, and the pool water is cool right now, trying to warm it as much as possible. Burning the wood for aesthetic bonfires seems like a waste. I’m tempted to try and setup a heat exchanger on the pool filter system. I would think that the return to the pool would be the place to add the heat exchanger.

Hmm…

The solo-stove we have for yard-fires is a pretty excellent design for clean burning. I would think that the heat exchanger should sit above the burn chamber to assure it doesn’t cool the combustion area.

Basically the exhaust area would probably be ideal. In fact, running the water completely down the chimney would be ideal for a condensing setup. Since the water will never get that warm, the setup should probably always condense. So I will have to setup a drain for the (acidic?) condensate.

… or just buy a pool heater.
Kim&Dan
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu 08 Jun, 2023 12:35
My Pool: Large in-ground pool, 88,000 gallons, 12 feet deep.

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby Kim&Dan » Thu 08 Jun, 2023 12:43

I heat our pool with wood. It is 88,000 gallons, L -shaped pool, up to 12 feet deep. From mid May until start of October, we keep pool water 86-88 degrees.
Using a Central Boiler connected two 400,000 btu heat exchangers. Flow to the exchangers is controlled automatically by temperature sensing aquastats and automatic bypass valves. Usually only have to run one of the two heat exchangers except in early May when nights can occasionally be in upper 40’s or low 50’s.
mknmike
Swimming Pool Superstar
Swimming Pool Superstar
Posts: 221
Joined: Fri 02 Jul, 2021 21:00

Re: Wood Stove Pool Heaters

Postby mknmike » Fri 09 Jun, 2023 01:12

Very cool!

Return to “Solar & Pool Heaters”

Who is online at the Pool Help Forum

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests