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Pool water heat recovery

Recover heat from old pool water in a heat exchanger
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We recently bought a small inflatable pool that holds about 4m3 of water. Instead of regular pH measuring and using pool chemicals I decided to empty the pool every 3 days and fill it with fresh water from our well - it's much cheaper and safer for kids.

Now the problem is that the well water is cold (14C) and the pool is not usable until it gets about 8 hours of strong sunshine. After 3 days we flush the gained heat (30deg.C water) down to the drainage.

My half-baked idea: - use a regular counter-flow heat exchanger that recovers heat from the old water being flushed down and pumps the heat to the fresh water that fills up the pool - use something like a condom/weather balloon connected to the fresh water inlet nozzle inside the pool to separate the fresh water from the old waste water

This way I could fill the pool with fresh water even every day and the water would never be too cold for the kids.

slovakmartin, Jul 12 2012

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       Sounds good except for the weather balloon thing. First, it sounds difficult to make it work right and I think you'll get a lot of old water around the corners that doesn't get emptied out. I assume since it is a small pool, it was pretty cheap. Why not just buy a second pool, and use the heat exchanger while filling that pool and emptying the other pool? Alternate between pools every three days. That way you can scrub the pool that was just emptied and/or just leave it in the sun for a few hours then store it dry to reduce algae growing on the pool that sticks around after the water is changed.   

       Of course if you're doing that, you could just fill the other pool a day before you empty the other one...
scad mientist, Jul 12 2012
  

       Get the kids to pee in the pool enough to warm it up?
UnaBubba, Jul 12 2012
  

       " condom/weather-balloon "   

       <deleted>   

       I'll have you know it took quite an effort.
FlyingToaster, Jul 12 2012
  

       condom/weather balloon   

       Quelle horreur! I remember seeing a kid trying to blow up a "balloon" he found, when we were kids. Even at age 7, I knew he had to put it down and RIGHT NOW!
UnaBubba, Jul 13 2012
  
      
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