I am going to make the connections to heat my pool this summer. I was thinking of a way to do it cheaply, and had a couple of ideas that may seem crazy, but may just work. I don't need fancy electronics to monitor the temp and turn the heater on or off or anything like that. I just want to be able to manually turn on a pump, heat the water, and shut it off once it is warm enough. I looked at pool heat exchangers, and the ones I saw were quite expensive. Here are two other thoughts that I had:
1. What if I used copper pipe and elbows to construct some sort of "radiator-like" structure that would zig-zag back and forth and connect to the pex from the loop, perhaps utilizing 8-10 lengths of copper each 3 feet tall, and connect it to the pex coming from and to the boiler. This structure could be submerged in the pool somehow, most likely near the return from the pool filter, when the pool was not in use, and heat the water. When swimming, the structure could be easily lifted out of the water and stored beside the pool until needed again. A designated pump would circulate the boiler water through the pipes via a secondary loop off of the main loop, and could be manually turned on and off.
or...
2. Use one continuous loop of 1 inch pex from the boiler secondary loop to the pool, into the pool, and run it around the bottom of the pool close to the edge or "corner", somehow suspending it slightly above the liner and slightly away from the wall liner to avoid melting the liner. It could be turned on when nobody was swimming and off when the pool was in use. You would just have to be careful while swimming to not "trip" on it or somehow kick it or move it.
I don't know if either idea would really work, and I may be better off buying an expensive heat exchanger, but I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas, or hear other "crazy" ideas that just might work.
1. What if I used copper pipe and elbows to construct some sort of "radiator-like" structure that would zig-zag back and forth and connect to the pex from the loop, perhaps utilizing 8-10 lengths of copper each 3 feet tall, and connect it to the pex coming from and to the boiler. This structure could be submerged in the pool somehow, most likely near the return from the pool filter, when the pool was not in use, and heat the water. When swimming, the structure could be easily lifted out of the water and stored beside the pool until needed again. A designated pump would circulate the boiler water through the pipes via a secondary loop off of the main loop, and could be manually turned on and off.
or...
2. Use one continuous loop of 1 inch pex from the boiler secondary loop to the pool, into the pool, and run it around the bottom of the pool close to the edge or "corner", somehow suspending it slightly above the liner and slightly away from the wall liner to avoid melting the liner. It could be turned on when nobody was swimming and off when the pool was in use. You would just have to be careful while swimming to not "trip" on it or somehow kick it or move it.
I don't know if either idea would really work, and I may be better off buying an expensive heat exchanger, but I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas, or hear other "crazy" ideas that just might work.