Natural Gas Heater

chicken

chicken

Premium Member
Anyone know of any natural gas pool heaters that have titanium heat exchangers? I am looking at some sort of natural gas heating solution for my big system (~1700 gallons). The cost of electricity here in northern California is now over 37 cents a kw/h at 300% of baseline which I am always over. So running 3000 watts of heaters is going to be expensive this winter and want to find a natural gas solution. I would really like to use a simple pool heater type setup instead of having to use another heater exchanger and circulation pump. Any ideas? Thanks
 
I have thought about that but then I need a heater exchanger and a closed loop pump on top of the water heater. It would be alot easier if I could just get a natural gas pool heater with a titanium heater exchange built in that I could just pump water through like a normal chiller. I did a bunch of googling but have so far come up empty.
 
Hi Chicken,
When I was at AOB, the Marine Mammal Center brought a rescue dolphin to our holding facility. They put it in our 40' diameter tank and plumbed in 2 Teledyne Laars pool heaters running on propane to keep the water at 75. I think the exchangers were 316, and they held up fine for the 6 months they were there. If you can find 316L in an exchanger, that'd be the best alternative to Ti.
Otherwise I can only think of an external exchanger, close loop pump, and freshwater.
 
Just an idea- check out the Bosch Aquastar 38B tankless gas/propane water heaters. Max output is 30000 btu so it's not overkill and it's designed to work with recirc pumps and not as a primary whole house water heater. Use this in conjunction with a larger titanium chiller barrel and and you shouldn't need a water storage tank.

here is a place with some info and the price is not too bad.

http://www.tanklesswaterheatersdirect.com/shop/tanklesswaterheaters/aquastar/aquastarindex.htm#38b
 
Last edited:
I've seen something very similar to this, don't remember if it was Bosch, but it was the same tankless gas water heater used on a closed loop to heat a discus hatchery. It worked very well acording to the discus farmer.

I also know of a discus farmer in Alameda CA. close to your neck of the woods that is using a standard water heater on a closed loop and heat exchanger. Google discus farms in CA. he is located in Alameda.
 
You could fab up a solar heater pretty easy, but would need a recirc pump, storage tank, and an exchanger. Once that is paid for, the hot water is free. The big question is how much area would be needed for your btu load.

A tankless unit would probably be the most efficient gas model.
 
thanks for the ideas everyone. I called every pool heater manufacture today and no one has a natural gas heater that has either stainless 316 or titanium heat exchanger. So it looks like its to a heat exchanger solution. I am looking at the Bosch one and a Takagi TK-JR. The Bosch one is 30k BTU so about equal to a 8800 watt electric heater or the Takagi is a variable BTU from 19k - 140k BTU. So equal to a 5500 watt - 41,000 watt heater. I think the Bosch is a better solution so incase something goes wrong I have more time to catch it. What are your guys thoughts?
 
Also if anyone knows gas conversion and electricity conversion if you could double check this I would appreciate it. I am trying to figure out an ROI if I go with Gas.

Currently the tank is loosing about .15 degrees an hour with everything running.

So if I assume 1700 gallons I need to heat 3.5 degrees per day.

For electric heating that is about 14.3 KWs of power assuming 100% efficiency.

My current Electric rates are 37 cents a KW/h (thanks PG&E for our great rates for everything over baseline)

So about $5.30 per day in electric costs or $158 per month (assuming 30 days)

Natural Gas on the other hand would take about .6 Therms per day (assuming 85% efficiency with a gas heater)

My current Gas rates are $1.85 per Therm

So about $1.11 per day in gas costs or $33 per month (assuming 30 days)

So it seems like switching to gas would save me about $125 in savings per month. So it looks like I could pay for the whole gas setup (assuming $600-$800) in just one winter.

Some variables though. Currently I only have about 900 gallons of water in the system since the 750g fuge is still not setup so these costs are most likely high, but at the same time it is still warm here during the days and cool at nights. So I assume once the fuge is setup it the temperature will not drop as quick but at the same time it is going to be 20-30 degrees cooler here starting in a few months.


Sorry for the long post, just trying to get some ideas out and see what people think. Any feedback is appreciated.


Thanks

BTU Reference....
http://www.mhi-inc.com/Converter/watt_calculator.htm
 
Sounds like that should work much better for you and save you some money in the long run. If you are looking at titanium chiller barrels I can highly recommend this compnay-

http://www.sw-wilson.com/prod04.htm

I'd probably go with a 2 ton model or higher since the titanium coil diameter is bigger (5/8 vs. 1/2). If it were me I'd probably control how it comes on by putting a temp controller on the recirc pump (since the heater kicks on when it senses water flow) as well as one on the heater itself- maybe a relay that kicks on the overheat sensor or something like that to make sure you have dual control over when it kicks on- don't want that sucker firing up when it's not needed :).
 
[QUOTE ...tank stuff counts as a home improvement ......doesn't it ? :D :lol:

Are you kidding? A reef tank is the ULTIMATE home improvement!
QUOTE]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Itchy Trigger
Heaters for Sump and for Storage Tanks
Replies
2
Views
125
aquaman67
aquaman67
R
52L local critters tank
2
Replies
39
Views
1K
Drummer98
Drummer98
OrdinaryGirl
My 13.5 build - a wee reefie
Replies
15
Views
945
OrdinaryGirl
OrdinaryGirl
M
Frogspawn Issue Help.
Replies
10
Views
313
MNtadpole
M
stevedola
Remote sump??
Replies
6
Views
351
shred5
shred5
Back
Top