Heat pumps

[billy10]

I am thinking of fitting a heat pump in my pool for next year , at a cost of about 2500 pounds , does anyone have any experience , i.e do they actually work , are they expensive to run, are they easy to fit etc.

My pool is 10 metres long and 4.5 metres wide so the pump I have identified says in the technical spec that it will handle the volume no problem , but is it really a cheap alternative to other forms of heating and if so what sort of results can one expect , my house isin the very south of dept 36 so we get some fairly good weather .

[Poolguy]

Hi Billy

 

I've sent you a PM

Hope that I can help

 

Andrew

[Gardian]

Our Belgian neighbours had one fitted in the Spring (same size pool as yours) - I think that they said that it cost them about €5k.

It then takes about 24 hrs to lift the pool temp by 1C and the heater is (I believe) 7 - 8kw, so their dial must be spinning like a mad top !!!

Whichever way you do the calculations, it aint cheap.  I reckon that you'd have to be very keen on swimming and not short of a few bob.   

[Baz]

"It then takes about 24 hrs to lift the pool temp by 1C and the heater is (I believe) 7 - 8kw, so their dial must be spinning like a mad top "

If the temperature is only being lifted by 1C per day in Gard, then an undersized Heat Pump may have  been installed.  My heat pump will lift my pool temperature by at least 3-4C each day and that is in Essex.

"Whichever way you do the calculations, it aint cheap.  I reckon that you'd have to be very keen on swimming and not short of a few bob"

Heat Pumps are not cheap but they are very efficient  and a cost effective way of pool heating. In the UK they are far the cheapest method of  pool heating and I suspect this is true also in France judging at the fuel costs.

Baz

[Poolguy]

Quite right Baz ( as usual)

But, I would hassen to add there are cheaper options then heat pumps as well... solar systems have no running cost at all... but you do need some extra space for panels- on a roof somewhere ( facing s-sw) on the ground.

Its also the greenest solution and in some cases can be linked to you house hotwater but this is hight technology whihc is not typical for swimming pool systems which by and large a low tech (and loving it).

As for the choice - Which is best? Well that will vary case by case, and is a analysis best viewed along with your pool professional...

 

Andrew

[Gardian]

Baz ..........

I'm sure you're right.  I can only go on what our neighbour said over the size of the element (and presumably he knew) and what I saw with my own eyes over the time required to lift the temp from 24C to 27C. It was 72 hrs!

Mark you, the piscinistes that they use (who fitted the heater) are a bunch of cowboys as far as I can see: sporadic visits and only a halfway decent time spent when they know that our neighbours are visiting.  For that, they pay a fortune every month.

It was not my intention to mislead anybody: clearly, from what Baz and Poolguy have said, this can be a good solution.  But the problem is the same as ever, over just about any subject: good advice and then (more importantly) the right people to instal and maintain.  

[Macker]

A heat pump is a slightly misleading name for the units most commonly used for pool heating. In fact they are heat 'exchangers' and work in much the same way as an air conditioning unit but in reverse, sucking in the heat from the ambient air and blowing out cold air. They don't actually have an element, that big thing you see is the coil that contains the working fluid that changes from liquid to gas as heat is absorbed from the heat source i.e. the air. At the beginning of the season you may well need to run the unit continuously for a week or so to bring up your pool temperature but thereafter a couple of hours a day should suffice and, in fact, the cost of a running heat pump over the season is minimal. An added advantage is the blast of cold air coming from the top of the exchanger that kids love on hot days! However, in the example mentioned above an 8kw heat pump is way too small for that size of pool.

[billy10]

Hi Andrew,

                  Although I said I would not be ready for a heat pump until next year (finances permitting) have you any info on what size heat pump I would need for my pool 9.5 metres length by 4.2 metres width i.e 55 cu metres of water, also does the pool pump have to run all the time that the heat pump is active ??? and when a heat pump is rated at 14 kw or so does that mean that when you run it , it takes 14 kw of power equivelant to running 14 bars of a electric fire or am I totally missing plot on how these things run ????  Everyone tells me they are very economical but no one really knows any guidance figures on running costs.   

Regards

Billy10  (return address  [email protected])

 

[Poolguy]

Bill

No problem about the question. Its a formula which is really only a

guideline as the performance of these units depends upon a lot of

things - including where in France you are.

So, as a rule of thumb, a 14kw will cost you about 1 euro per hour and

is going to yield up to about 0.3 of a degree per hour. So to raise the

pool temperature 10 degrees is going to take more than 35 daylight

hours.

A 20 KW on the other hand is going to cost up to about 1.50 euro per

hour but will raise 10 degrees in about 20 daylight hours.

All this depends on what the weather is like at the time. These numbers

are not absolute and so the specification of the correct system is

largely a matter of what suits you. But its clear that there is a

marked difference in  reaction time for the bigger systems on any given

pool.

If you are in any doubt then it would be a good thing to PM me

I hope that this has been helpful to you

Andrew

[Bones]

A friend of mine has a freestanding solar box that he made himself.

He used a big second hand metal trough thingy; painted the inside black; covered it with glass and fixed that down with car windscreen adhesive; ran some coiled up tubing out of it into the pool (somehow - through the filter? I dunno...).

Cheap and very effective.

[Apero]

My kinda guy, imaginative-resourseful and inventive. Tell him to patent it;  before some congo swings it.