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Heating a swimming pool with a Wood Stove

Started by Gilman, June 16, 2009, 06:36:18 PM

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Jeff

You will be amazed at how quick a pool can cool off depending on air temp. You have a great big surface area there on an above ground pool. You lose heat from everywhere. You can figure a loss of 3 or 4 degrees in one night even with only a 15 degree drop from daytime temps. In turn, things heat up pretty fast during the day if its warm and sunny. If your air temp is cooler then the water, all you might do is maintain for awhile.  Keep the cover on at night for sure.   Our pool went from 68  three days ago to 76 degrees today, and thats without any heater. Just a couple of 80 plus days with sunshine.
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caver

Quote from: Gilman on June 21, 2009, 01:36:29 PMBasically only flames and hot air go up the heat exchanger side?

Yes. My chimney pipe is about 10'. You get a fire going and you will have flames and smoke coming out the wrong side. Fan the air down into the box and it will usually reverse flow up through chimney. As the chimney starts to warm up it gets one serious draft going. Mine has a low rumble when it gets a good draft going. Just but small pieces of dried wood into the open box and keep feeding it.
Sometimes I just dump wood in and light my cheapo Harbor Freight propane weed burner. That gets the draft going quickly.

Some day I may rig a thermo siphon to it instead and run it off my campfire which is nearby.
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wi woodcutter

Caver have you ever used it for heating a regular stock tank in the winter? I am looking for a better way to heat my horse tank in the winter. I use electric now and it is really getting to cost a lot. 
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Ironwood

Gilman,

I use the same insert woodburner to heat my wood cooker oven at the shop. Perhaps a little fun contest to see who can come up with the funniest use of a woodstove? :D.

I just recieved a funky fireplace insert that I may convert into a heat exchanger for my other "super high temp. wood kiln sterilizer". I had never seen anything like this one before the "demo" guy brought it here. Never a dull moment.

Ironwood
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Scuba_Dave

I have 2 solar heaters for my pool
The 1st one is hooked up & running, went from around 66-72 in 8 hours
I have another setup that goes on the roof of the pool cabana
I've had the pool up to 85 in the summer
It's inground & due to ground Temp it usually stays below 75
Once I get it up over 80 the groudn around it is a heat sink & temp stays pretty constant
I also use a solar cover over the pool

caver

Quote from: wi woodcutter on June 21, 2009, 07:58:29 PM
Caver have you ever used it for heating a regular stock tank in the winter?   

No.
It eats wood fast. When heating I have to check the box at least every 15 minutes.
Talk to the folks at Cowboy and see what they think.
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Baker HD18

Sprucegum

Wood burning stocktank heaters were common when I was a kid. It was the days before chuild-safety and every farm kid had to light the tank heater in the morning before going to school. Once a year someone would show up with his eyebrows and hair burnt back to the toque line - forgot to step to the side before tossing the match onto that gas soaked wood.  ;D  ::)

The burners were all basically the same; a rectangle body about 12"x12"x24" long with a neck also 12"x12" that came up at a 45 degree angle to the top of the tank, trimmed so the door was vertical. About a 6" stovepipe came up from the other end. They could take regular stove wood. If it was cold(-20) Pa would feed it again at noon and suppertime.

There were several big rocks holding it down.

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Our inground pool hit 97 degrees today and that's with NO heater of any type except direct sunlight and ambient air temp. This is the hotest that pool has been in fourteen years. My wife says it's finally getting about right ???

Herb

Gilman

How about me shipping you 10,000 gallons of cool water and you shipping me back some of that nice warm water?
WM LT70, WM 40 Super, WM  '89 40HD
Cat throwing champion 1996, 1997, 1999. (retired)

Coon

Gillman could you not slow the flow of the water down some so that it would heat the water up more before it gets sent back to the pool.  One would think this would help.  But then again who am I to say....  If I want to go for a swim I take a little tour out to the lake and jump right on in.  ;)  If the water ain't warm enough for me to swim in then I don't really want to swim bad enough....  :D 
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

Gilman

The higher the difference in temperatures, the higher the energy flow rate.  If I just wanted the pool warm by in inlet port, it would make since to slow the flow down, since I want to heat the entire pool, it is more efficient to have the flow rate as high as possible.

The two rivers here are way too cold.  I could use a dry suite but I missed Dom Delouise' estate sale where I could have gotten a dry suite that I could afford and fit into.   ;D
WM LT70, WM 40 Super, WM  '89 40HD
Cat throwing champion 1996, 1997, 1999. (retired)

Coon

Well could you not put in another little circulation pump in the pool to move the warm water away from the inlet?  Don't know I am just thinking out loud again...... and the wife says it's a wee bit scary when I do that cuz she don't know what to expect after that... :D
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

maple flats

I used to have an outdoor woodstove with 2- 3/4"x60' copper coils to heat the pool. I could raise the 13500 gal pool about 1.5 degrees an hour but it took a filling of the 2'x2'x3' firebox every hour. I gave up because of the extreme wood use. It ran by diverting some of the water from the pool filter before it returned to the pool. Mixing was no problem since the pump was always running to get the heat. I never measured the temp as it hit the pool but it was too hot to hold your hand in the flow until about 18'" away after it returned to the pool. I usually only ran it the first warm day in the spring and a couple of times in the fall. I did not keep it warm all year. I did hook one of those woodstoves up at a home where it heated their house and the remote inground pool,(in a seperate building) year round one place and at another for one with an attached enclosure for the pool (that one was an above ground pool)
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

Gilman

How big was your outdoor woodstove Maple Flats?  120' of 3/4" tubing is a lot of area.

The 1 1/2 degrees/hour is the amount of heat transfer I'm wanting.
WM LT70, WM 40 Super, WM  '89 40HD
Cat throwing champion 1996, 1997, 1999. (retired)

Gilman

I just wasn't getting enough heat out of the SS heat exchangers so I added some copper.

I had some copper sheet so I did a little cladding to the stove.




On top of the copper sheet tubing was added




The water enters on the left pvc pipe.  The valve with the red handle is used to reduce the flow through the stainless steel internal heat exchanger.  I took these photos in the dark and I'll have to look in the morning, but it looks like the copper sheet on the left side has already oxidized quite a bit.  It's hard to see but the copper covers 3/4'ers of the left side.




The addition of the copper seems to have doubled the efficiency and is now close the the heat output that is usable.  The next step is to insulate it and then brick over it.  I need to hang a leather glove next to it though.  I've burnt myself twice loading wood into it.  I haven't bumped a door, just the radiant heat from the fire box. 
WM LT70, WM 40 Super, WM  '89 40HD
Cat throwing champion 1996, 1997, 1999. (retired)

beenthere

Wow, that looks like a great pool water heater. Do you have to allow room for expansion when the heat from the wood fire builds up?

I'd only have built it up on legs so bending over to load it would be less a strain.  :)
But think you've done good and have some clever ideas.
south central Wisconsin
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