Pumbaa wrote:
I just got blasted for putting this on alt.hvac (apparently they don't help
do-it-yourselfers) so I hope to heck that I don't irritate anybody on this
ng.

Hi All,
I am not an HVAC guy, just a home owner with a question, I believe this
is the place to find an answer. I live in Memphis TN, pretty dang hot in
the summer, pretty mild in the winter. I have an in-ground pool, it is
roughly 26,000 gallons. I also have a garden variety AC, it is a 2.5 ton
unit. My question is this, could I use a water cooled heat exchanger as
opposed to the standard over-head fan air-cooled condenser? The water would
be chlorinated pool water. It seems to me that I could kill two birds with
one stone here. I mean the A/C and the pool pump are going to be running
anyway, why not give it a try? I know that the temp gain from a 2.5 ton
unit won't be that much, maybe a few degrees per day, but what the heck, I
am just wasting the heat now (as if summer air needs to be any hotter).
Also, on the hottest of days the pool gets up to 90 degrees all by itself, I
figure on those days I can just run municipal water through the heat
exchanger and discharge it on my lawn, water here is CHEAP, so that is no
concern and it would not be that often. Also on those hottest of days I
would think that even 90 degree water would condense Freon better than 100
degree air, perhaps making life a little bit easier on my compressor. I
think that the real advantage would come early and late in the pools season,
that's when the water is a bit chilly for a swim but the ambient temp is
just high enough that the A/C is running. Any input from the ng here would
be great. And, I know that I cannot use an aluminum exchanger, the chlorine
would eat it up (chlorine levels in a properly maintained pool are about
1.5ppm, however, when you shock the pool once a week it jumps to about 5ppm
for a while), I'm thinking copper or plastic (if such a thing exists).
Thanks
Craig


I saw something similar done commercially in the San Fernando Valley.
Very low humidity. They had large decorative ponds with fountains that
served as the heat exchanger. The water started to get too hot so they
raised the nozzles of the fountains about four feet.

Rheam Air Conditioners used to have a condenser with copper coils and
they sprayed water on the coils. That was only really effective in dry
climates. They recirculated the water like an evaporative cooler but
drained off a little to dispense some of the old water.

I am afraid your humidity is too high. In the dry climates it is
necessary to heat the pools because they cool so much due to
evaporation. If you had a dry climate you could improve the efficiency
by putting an evaporative cooler in front of the condenser.