Wood Burning Pool Heater

Pool Heater Wood Burning The solar panels in the background run a solar pool filter system. How to build a wood burning pool heater: Materials: Outdoor fireplace bought at Lowe's for $300.00 60ft of 1/4" soft copper x 3 (180ft) $180.00 10 ft 3/4" copper tubing $15.00 50 ft 3/4" black garden hose $25.00 Copper fittings $30.00 Submersible pump $60.00 200 watts Note all can be made larger as well as more coils.Bigger manifold pipes, intake and return hoses, and adding more copper coils will yeild more hot water regarding flow and temp.This system has a flow rate of about 3 gallons per minute. With a good fire it can raise 60F water to 124F with a 25ft intake and a 25ft flatt return run. The heater box was modified by closing the sides as it comes with a metal mesh sides. By closing the sides this raises the efficiancy. I also use a sheet metal to block the front when using the heater again to gain more efficiancy. I also coated it with high temp black paint. The 3/4" copper tubing is the main manifold,the 1/4" coils are solder to each one, for an intake line, and a return. No soldering was done inside the fire box. all the splices are on the outside. Use silver solder. At about a 70F pool temp. A fire of 400F yeilds about 96F water, at 600F it yeilds 124F. Most of the tine i get about 100F back into the pool with 4 nice logs burning. Its better then a solar heater due to it can be ran at any time. How ever solar heating can be injunction with this system when you are not home. There are many modifications that can be done here. If you hook it to your main pool pump I recommend 6-8 coils and a 1 1/4" manifold due to the pool pump's pressure. I will be upgrading my submersible pump to a bigger one and adding 3 more (60ft x 3)coils. My main goal is to be as effciant as i can. A solar pump would also be a good choice however you cant run it at night thats wht an electric one is choice. Just make sure it does not use to much. I think 300-400 watts is the limit running 10-12 hrs per day. We run our pump a few times a week. Mostly on weekends when the pool gets used the most. Remeber adding heat to the pool will require a little more chemicals so it all a balance of heat, water flow, power use, chemicals, and make sure you have good clearence for the fire and smoke. Common sense!! The coils are rolled up on a 3" PVC pipe which make them about 2 ft long each with a 1/4' spacing between the actual coil. Again, you can make your own fire box, however we like how this particular one looks around our pool side. This outdoor fire place has lots of room for both coils and a ragging fire. The closer you can get your hot water return to the pool the better it will be. Be creative, safe, and logical. This is a very good way to supplement a pool heater without reinventing the wheel or breaking the bank. I got sick of paying high gas bills to heat our pool, fixing my pool heater, and waiting for a real good sunny day for the solar heat to work. Wood is cheap if not free. I hope you enjoy!! Any questions you can contact me at www.leamyelectricinc.com Larry