Radiant Heat for Pools

[Deleted User]

Has anyone used radiant tube and boiler set-up to heat an inground pool? We do radiant heat and build swimming pools. A recent article in Aqua Magazine featured a pool that was heated with a typical boiler and pex tubing in the floor of the pool. The author claimed that the system was much more efficient than a standard pool heater, in that it got the heat at the bottom of the pool. All that made sense to me, coming from a radiant background. I need a source for techinical info to help me design systems, and give me an idea on how much money might be saved with with this system. Any ideas would be appreciated

Constantin

I don't see it that way

This isn't my profession, but a quick look at the HX efficiencies will show that water is about 9x better a HX medium than air. If the water jets that recirculate the water are at the base of the pool, then how would the performance of hot water being jetted horizontally down there differ from radiant heat?

The only performance enhancement I can think of is if the pool recirc system actually directs bottom-hot water to flow up to the top, whereas a radiant system may in fact create a slight boundary layer. However, the minute the recric system kicks in to keep the pool clean, the boundary layer will be disrupted.

IMHO, the best way to enhance the performance of a pool heater is to attach a rather large solar hot water heating panel to the system. They are dirt simple, easy to pipe in, and offer great performance. Another energy-saving approach is to build a wall around the pool to keep wind drafts to a minimum. Lastly, you can always add some insulation to float on top after you're done swimming.