Anyone heating a pool with an EKO 40?

[DMX_512]

I am getting ever closer to actually hooking up my EKO 40 and was just wondering if anyone out there is using theirs, or a similar unit, to heat their swimming pool?

 

[DMX_512]

Oh, duhhh.
My real question was, How much wood do you figure you use to heat the Pool? Our pool is approx. 16000 gal.

 

[prairiefire]

my nieghbor uses a home made o.w.b to heat his pool i have no idea how much wood it takes, but it can be done. it's a fair size inground pool don't know how many gallons it is. i don't see him very often he is a shift worker at the local potash mine but next time i see him i can ask him more about it. i know he buys his wood by the semi load, he uses rejected fence posts (too crooked)and gets them delivered in big bundles.

 

[tom in maine]

This is not exactly an answer to your question, but an alternative suggestion.
A solar pool collector (unglazed plastic) is quite cheap and you do not need to pitch wood into it during the traditional pool season.
The rule of thumb is a square foot of solar collector for every 2 square feet of pool surface.

It can be a DIY project, check out builditsolar.com.

Might be less hassle than tying into the EKO.
In Kentucky it should really crank out some heat.

Sorry to digress, but thought it might be easier than pitching wood. And possibly cheaper.

 

[steam man]

I have a 26000 gal pool with heat exchangers for my oil boiler and solar. Since my boiler is oversized I could almost get 1 deg/hr rise at the pool. There's no reason you can't hook up the pool as a zone and use the wood boiler to get it up to temp. I use my oil boiler to get the pool open earlier in the season but don't use it to maintain the temp. As Tom said a solar setup is nice to have also. Just get the HX sized accordingly and have return protection for the boiler.


Mike

 

[DMX_512]

I already have an exchanger for the pool and I will set it up as a zone.
I am just trying to see about approximate wood consumption.

thanks

 

[steam man]

While there's a lot of variables with wood consumption, i.e. wood moisture, species, boiler efficiency, etc. I would say you would have to move at least 117,000 btu/hr to get a 1 deg rise. That's a very conservative number since it doesn't include the losses you may have while heating. Wood burning output is not flat but bell curved so to speak. More btu in the middle of the burn than at the ends. Sounds like an EKO 40 running at max with decent wood may get you close to that. Figuring how many hours you have to run at max output should give you a good guesstimate on how much wood you will use. Looks like you may be the first to tell us how it works.

Mike

 

[tom in maine]

Doing some quick math, you will need about a half cord of wood to get it up 40F. That is assuming 100% combustion efficiency.
Then there is the issue of maintaining the temperature.
Most of the heat loss off a pool is through evaporation. Using a pool blanket would minimize this loss. Early in the season and at the end of the
season, conductive loss will be an issue.

Heat loss by evaporation is very site specific. From what people have done (on average!) while heating with fossil fuels, I will guess that you would
run up to 4 cords a season. That is a real spit in the dark, but an educated guess.

 

[DMX_512]

Tom,
Thanks for the guess-timate. I am planning on just using the EKO to extend the swim season. Maybe a Derby Pool Party(1st Saturday in May) type
thing and then just a little longer in the fall. That is a pretty significant amount of wood though. I am hoping to heat my house with not to much more than that (5 cords maybe).
I'll try to re-visit this thread once everything is up and running.

Thanks again

 

[barnartist]

I have an eko 60 i would like to use for our pool for those cloudy and 75 degree days. I use some solar that really helps, i need to add more. I live in a very breezy/windy spot, so I lose some of my solar from the wind, but plan to greenhouse my panels to help with that.
I only want to burn when necessary-I'ts already work to keep up with winter wood demand. I'd rather keep that same woodpile stacked and drying for the winter to come.
If I had oodles of wood-burn it baby.

 

[timberr]

I am using my Eko 25 to heat my hot tub. It is only about 300 gals. at 104*. Works fine not as quick heating as with my oil boiler but I am not buying oil so that is more then a fair trade.

Good luck