Pool water cooling

[mshumack]

When I built my pool two years ago (in central Florida) I added a heat pump to warm the water in the winter months. I have since discovered the real need is to COOL the water. My water is too hot far more often than it is too cold. From July through Sept the water temp is over 92 degrees). I like it around 85 dgrees.

I need a way to cool the water (about 10 degrees would be enough). Should I repalce the heat pump with a model that heats and cools the water? If so which brand?
Should I add an addtional cooler (for example the Glacier Pool Cooler GPC-25) which claims to cool water without freon saving electricity (its a non-heat pump device) or something else?

My pool is about 20K gallons in-ground, concrete pool, without a screen cover. I also have two waterfalls - but they add little to no noticible cooling effect.

Thanks

[CarlD]

A fountain will work better than a water fall as it will allow more evaporation--but your pH will rise as a result.

What I do is run my solar panels at night, so they act as radiators. Unless it's like, 95, all night....

[mshumack]

I didn't go with the solar panels because I had just replaced the roof th eyear before the pool install and my installer said that mounting panels on the roof would void the warranty (at least if the holes leaked) and some people were telling me I would/should have to remove the panels for every hurricane warning. The final reason was that that the heat pump cost $2700 and the solar panels were going to run around $6000.

Now, I just wish I'd bough the heat pump with the cool option.

Has anyone used/seen this Glacier Pool Cooler device? I can image just a fan blowing on coils or radiator would be enough to lower the water temp much.

Thanks.

[Poconos]

A fan blowing on coils won't do anything unless the air temp is below the water temp. I suspect in Florida that is rare. How deep is the water table? I'm thinking if ground water is relatively shallow you have two choices. Use that water to cool the pool water by either burying pipe in the ground and pumping pool water through it or getting a water-to-water heat exchanger and pumping ground water through it. Ground water should be significantly cooler than the air or pool water. Usually 55 degrees as a rough number if I remember right. The flow rate for the ground water through the exchanger wouldn't have to be much at all. A couple ideas to ponder.
Al

[waterbear]

I own an Aquacal reverse cycle heat pump and am very please with it's performance. I am also in Florida. However, I use it only to heat since I like my water warm. I keep it at 88. The main reason I have the reverse cycle is that it will work in freezing temps and I also use it to heat my spa in the one to two months that it is too cold to swim.

[kelemvor]

Glad someone else asked this. I thought it would be something I'd get laughed off the forum for asking so I didn't, however I've been wondering about the same thing. The jacuzzi feels great hot, but 90 plus degrees in the pool is a little warmer than I'd like. It's not the end of the world but 80 or so would be so much better.

I must say I'm really surprised at how quickly water temp swings on sunny/rainy days. We had a few gloomy days last week and the water temp went from 90 to about 72. I thought it would take longer than 2 days to cool 12k gallons of water "naturally".

The pittance this forum cost for registration is probably going to turn out to be the best money I'll spend on the pool from what I can tell so far.

[Watermom]

The pittance this forum cost for registration is probably going to turn out to be the best money I'll spend on the pool from what I can tell so far.
I'm sure you're right about this! Thanks for subscribing and supporting the forum!

BTW -- Just like they used to tell you when you were in school, there is no such thing as a dumb question!

[mshumack]

I'm going to try a floating fountain. I see a few people recommending the fountain (and running it at night). There are some models that hook up to the pool return line and just sit out in the middle of the pool (I assume they have some sort of anchor).

The draw back is that I need to run my pump at night - but that's still alo tcheaper than selling my heatpump and buying a new heat/cool unit.

I think I "need" to run my pump/filter during the day since the sun is so strong in FL and I have SWG pool (meaning no chlorine production without pump running). I think I will end up no chlorine left in the pool during the daytime if I don't run the pump. So anyways I'll be planning on running my pump at night with the fountain and during the day too. Still cheapest soultion I think.

I'll let you know how well it works. It'll probably take me a week or two to buy what I need.

[waterbear]

Evaporative cooling doesn't work well in Florida where the normal summer humidity can approach 98%, even at night in August! Unless you are near the ocean and get the ocean breezes it might not work well at all.

[mshumack]

Thanks for the info. I'm in central FL so no ocean breeze. I guess it's back to the swapping my current heat pump with a heat/cool unit.

I have no confidence that the Glacier Pool Cooler will work - so unless I hear otherwise, I'm taking that option off the table.

[waterbear]

Thanks for the info. I'm in central FL so no ocean breeze. I guess it's back to the swapping my current heat pump with a heat/cool unit.

I have no confidence that the Glacier Pool Cooler will work - so unless I hear otherwise, I'm taking that option off the table.

If I am not mistaken the Glacier coolers are evaporative. They probably work very well in Arizona, where the company is located, with their very low humidity. Evaporative cooling is used in place of air conditioning effectively in such climates, but will not do much in Florida.
To give you an example, misters work very well to cool you off in dry climates and the mist quickly disappears and leaves you dry but in Florida all misters do is get you wet (as anyone who has ever visited Disneyworld in August can attest to!)

[stuckpipe]

I am having a sprinkler system put in and was wondering. Can I run 150 of 2" PVC in the trench they dig and connect it to my pool pump. Do you all think it would cool the water down a bit?

[Poconos]

Simple answer....no. PVC is actually a pretty good insulator, a lousy conductor of heat, and by just burying it in a trench the area around the pipe will eventually stabilize in temperature and lose any cooling effect. You need to constantly remove heat in some way.
Al