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Community and Q&A

Water-source heat pumps

carpevita | Posted in Mechanicals on

Hello, I just bought a house with a 16 year old HVAC roof top unit that needs replacing. The heating unit .is a gas furnace (as a part of the unit) and the original unit had an AC seer rating of 11. I live in Chico, Ca. where the summers are very hot and the winters rarely get to freezing. The house came with a swimming pool. I was wondering if it would make any sense to replace the roof top package with a water source heat pump tied directly to the swimming pool?? It would be a split system with the refrigerant to air system in the attic connecting to the existing ductwork. The outside water source unit would take heat or coolth out of the pool depending on the season. The earth would reheat the pool or I’d use solar heating panels to reheat the pool in the winter and night time radiation would re-cool the pool in the summer.

Am I too far in left field here? Should I just stick with condenser for AC and a gas furnace for winter?

No one in this community that I can find anyway has any knowledge or experience with water source heat pumps.

Thanks for any and all answers.

Mike

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Replies

  1. wjrobinson | | #1

    Sure

  2. user-659915 | | #2

    Nice thought but you need something like an acre pond to run a water source heat pump without boiling it in summer and freezing it in winter.

  3. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay | | #3

    Mike,
    James is right -- your pool is too small for your scheme to work. The idea is appropriate for lake-side homes, however.

  4. carpevita | | #4

    Thanks for the feedback. Maybe next time I'll buy a house next to a lake. But for now will proceed ahead with an energy efficient air source system.

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