The cost of running a heating system for a swimming pool combined with other expenses is unbearable for some pool owners.
To optimize the resources available, some individuals come up with the idea of converting the heat emitted from air conditioners into swimming pools to avoid the cost of paying for gas or electricity to heat it separately.
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How To Heat a Swimming Pool With Air Conditioner
It sounds great to have this idea, but the implementation requires you to have a basic knowledge of fixing the design together. If you are not a Tech oriented person or a DIY enthusiast, you might find it a bit of a task to install. Nonetheless, that doesn’t make it impossible to achieve.
Converting The AC Outlet Into a Heating System
Diverting all the heat from the standard heat pump of your air conditioner to your swimming pool requires a medium in between.
First, you’re faced with creating a plumbing connection phase where heat exchange will occur, but the design is quite challenging to implement with common DIY knowledge.
At the same time, there are no known ways of a direct link between the medium unless there’s an engineered mechanism that can collect the heat, take it through the water system and regulate it.
Materials needed:
Free Pool Heater (FPH):
A Free pool heater is an automatic converter of waste heat energy from an air conditioner to the pump system of a swimming pool. It cuts off all limitations that exist in the design required.
Pipe fittings:
The pipe sizes required to depend on the size of your product’s manufacturer design and your pump pipes. Instructions will be given in the user’s manual coupled with extra materials, which will be in the same pack as the Free Pool Heater (FPH). Nonetheless, there will be a need for some T-pipe fittings.
Licensed refrigerant:
You cannot carry out all the activities without the aid of an expert refrigerant to coordinate gas and heat transfer systems from the standard heat pump of the Air conditioner.
Glue and PVC cleaners:
To connect the whole plumbing work, the adhesive glue will be helpful, and to make the PVC pipes fit into one another easily. There’s a need for a PVC cleaner.
Read: How To Easily Heat Your Swimming Pool With Black Trash Bags
Procedures:
The whole concept aims to collect water after it has passed through your skimmer or main drain, through the leaf strainer, the style filter, and the main pump.
Then, the Free Pool Heater will also gather heat energy after a series of connections from the heating system of the air conditioner before it will now merge the two and pump it out again.
Stop the filter system. Make a cutting into the pipe that gives out already filtered water. You should see it after the main pump machine. After the first cut, clean the PVC outlet from the pump line with the PVC cleaner.
A T-fitting should be connected to this outlet, while a similar pipe will lead it to one of the inlets of the Free Pool Heater. The Free Pool Heater has a canister inside it where the pool water can flow through, then get heated through the titanium coil inside before following out. The titanium coil will be connected to the heating system of the air conditioner.
Precautions
Before fitting the pump engine pipe to the FPH, fit the sensor well into the T-fitting. This will give details about the pool temperature to the master controller.
The master controller is the interphase between the Air conditioner and the pool. It is devised to handle temperature changes and detect when to engage the heating system or when to let the heat take its routine aside from heating the pool.
After successfully connecting the pipe that comes from the pump machine to an inlet on the FPH, do the same for the second outlet with the existing pipe that will tunnel the water into the pool. Glue the junctions, the pipes were connected, and dry fit it.
Licensed Refrigerant
This is where a licensed refrigerant comes in. Your air conditioning system has refrigerants installed to aid the circulation of temperature. It might be liquid or gas, but in cases of leakages, they pose a danger to the environment and anyone around the area. A licensed refrigerant will be able to handle the setting.
Their first job is to draw out all the refrigerants in the air conditioning. This will prevent leakages in the act of connection with the FPH. The removal will be done on the air conditioning condenser, the lines, and the unit in the house using a recovery machine. After this, the licensed refrigerant will help in the proper configuration of pipes and will sort out the one that will lead to the Free Pool Heater (FPH).
There will be brazed joints, and all connections will be dry-fit. You can recharge the refrigerant back after a complete connection. The master controller must be mounted somewhere close to the FPH, preferably the wall around there. Now the whole concept has been actualized.
Will The Heating System Work If It’s Cold Outside?
The mechanism works with season and heat exchange. The house generates heat in summers, and the air-conditioning pump the heat into the pool. When there’s no solar energy available, the sensor in the master controller won’t activate the connection because it would be meaningless then.
Is It Worth It?
The connection will save you the cost of heating your pool with solar blankets, panels, or other heating systems. It’s a geothermal energy-efficient system, and it also contributes to the efficiency of the air-conditioning.
The air conditioner will produce less noise as the fan installed in the heat outlet will be inactive. You don’t have to remove the FPH in another season; the water pump can still pass through it without any problem.
Fastest Way to Heat a Swimming Pool
When you engage a gas pool heater, it’s like boiling your pool’s water. Then, you can combine it with a solar cover, so the heat generated wouldn’t leave the pool by evaporation soon. The FPH is also efficient in hot weather and can get your swimming pool to a considerable high temperature.
Final Thoughts
The whole concept is aimed at maximizing resources. Fittings and connection materials should be high-quality to avoid a short lifespan. It should be monitored and controlled with care. If there are any abnormal observations, inform an air-conditioning expert or a plumber, depending on the area affected.
