250k pool heater on a 250k meter

Surprisingly, our gas company told me they were no longer following that rule and said they go by what's likely to be running rather than full load.

I still have a hard time believing that, but that's what I was told on the phone when trying to get a bigger meter. I'm still stuck with a 250 running at 6".

@m_spline A 250 meter will handle a lot more than 250, but as you exceed it the pressure drop increases.

Have a look at the ratings for this gas meter. If you can get by with a 2" drop across the meter it'll do 565 scfh which is roughly 565,000 btu/h give or take. That's 2" just across the meter and doesn't include piping losses.

For your situation I'd recommend getting a contractor in there that works with gas as he'll be able to assess the situation much better than we can and see what you're dealing with. There's a chance the meter you have will work but there's also a good chance it won't. You might be able to tolerate 2" drop across the meter, or 1.5 or whatever it takes for your specific setup. But someone who knows what they're doing needs to be there to evaluate that. In my opinion that starts with measuring the incoming pressure.

I'd say it's the 140 foot distance between the meter and the pool heater that turns this from "might work" to "probably not". There will be significant pressure drop in the piping.

Are you heating the pool in the winter? If yes, then @ethicalpaul's idea has less merrit. If this is to keep the pool warm in the warmer months, then you will be paying to air condition the home anyway… Why not set the condenser coil (the hot one) in the pool water and get that heat put in the water. Of course you may need more pool heat than the building's cooling units will generate, but you will be spending those electrical dollars on cooling anyway. Are there any refrigerant to water exchangers on Ebay? You already have the compressor(s) and evaporator(s). And that will definately lower the operating cost of the air conditioner.

Maybe all you need to do is have a refrigerant solenoid valve direct the hot gas to the pool water when needed. Then if it gets too hot in the dog days, have the valve direct the hot gas to the existing air cooled condenser coil.

As far as getting the pool warm when you dont need air conditioning, You are back to the boiler system idea.

This is just conceptual, I don't really expect anyone but Paul to actually try this. Do you have a swimming pool Paul?

Have you considered getting a regular gas boiler (for heating homes) then adding a pool heat exchanger yourself.

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there are plenty of used boiler deals online. I actually heater a 30' diameter above ground pool with a used water heater tank with a center flue. I put a oil burner and combustion chamber in a metal trash can. then I set the tank on top of the trash can. connected the discharge of the filter pump to the cold inlet of the tank, and piped the hot outlet to the pool. I fired up the burner and Viola! a redneck heated pool. Since I had all the parts already, The trash can, the combustion chamber, the old gas water heater tank, and miscellaneous pipe and fittings laying around the shop, it cost me next to nothin.

Actually ,Weil McLain had a document number 636-000-041 that was called: Suggest Installation for the WMPH. (I think that means Weil McLai Pool Heater). It was available in 135,000, 200,000, 260,000, and 400,000 BTU sizes.

and you can use any indoor boiler that you can find online. all you need is this conversion kit. It will make just about any indoor boiler into an outdoor boiler.

available in 5 colors at HomeDepot.com

A heat pump for a pool will require a pretty substantial size circuit as well as someone to run a lot of copper, or even more aluminum 140+ feet. You're probably talking a 40A 240v circuit.

While that may not sound like a lot, it's about 39A more than I can spare in my own setup. The OP's situation of course may be different.

And it's only 84,000 btu/h at 50F ambient.

Not sure where "can handle 45,000 gallons" comes from?

Yeah I understand where you got it.

I don't understand where they got it.

Maybe it's similar to 1 roll equals 12……….

When in reality, a cheaper roll is no longer a full roll.

No, I just don't like misleading advertising like 6hp wet dry vacuums

never cost a nickel in my lifetime

Try a pool solar array. Its the cheapest and most economical way to heat your pool. its just plastic mats sitting in the sun with the pool water running thru it. my neighbor did one for his in-ground pool and he loved it. Put the mats on his three season porch roof. Got his pool to a nice uncomfortable 95 degrees lol. I had a condensing boiler with a tfi/everhot heat exchanger and shut that **** down 24 hours later. i just couldn't stomach watching my gas meter spin and spin and spin. i'm in Boston so the potential to lose the heat from the pool water at night is greater than the southern hemisphere. Didn't seem worth it.

in some areas the utilities have great prices on off peak electricity. If they are running generators they need to unload that power.

For a pool, run the heat pump through the night to leverage this.

In my area the utility company wipes the slate clean every March on my PV. So if I don't burn up my excess PV hours I lose it.

They have an off peak program here but it is rather cumbersome for residential customers and a multi year contract commitment. Same thing with the free whole house battery systems

50F air 80F water?

What's it do with 50F air and 60F water?

And my complaint before was 84,000 btu/h is like urinating in the wind with any pool of decent size. It'll take forever to warm up.

if you cant afford it get rid of the pool !