Moving oil via convection

[wreckerman893]

Years ago I remember seeing an idea for heating a swimming pool by using convection.

The idea was to take a coil of black plastic pipe and put it into a black 4x8 plywood box covered with glass.....the water would be heated and move by convection from the pool to the heater and back to the pool.

Does anyone think that this idea could be used to heat oil prior to filtering.

The main issue I see is the sluggishness of the cool oil.

Comments, suggestions, constructive ideas.

See diagram.

 

[mikey]

cool

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTO4aQZ9LI8[/media]

 

[wreckerman893]

That is very similar to the one I remember.....the main difference was that the one I saw had glass over the tubes to make more heat......of course the problem could be that the plastic pipe I have might not stand up to much heat......hummmmmm.

 

[wikallen]

a buddy of mine heats his pool that way. He got a discounted big glass front door mounted in a box. He runs black hose around inside the door and mounted the entire thing on the roof of his house. He then pumps water from the pool and back.

I am not sure how hot the returning water is, but his pool is comfortable on the cooler days.

 

[mikey]

That is very similar to the one I remember.....the main difference was that the one I saw had glass over the tubes to make more heat......of course the problem could be that the plastic pipe I have might not stand up to much heat......hummmmmm.

this one had glass too... there was a text comment in the video stating that he took the glass off to film it...

i think you are right about the wmo being too viscous for this to work directly... however, using this idea with water you can probably make a very nice drum heater or immersion heater which will allow gravity to better filter the wmo...

its an interesting concept...

 

[mobileauto2000]

I once worked for a guy that heated his pool by pumping the water to the ridge of the roof. a pipe ran the length of the roof with holes drilled every few inches. the water would run down the black singles and into the rain gutter then back into the pool. he bragged that it heated the pool and cooled his game room at the same time. But I don't think my wife would like a bunch of used oil running down our roof .

 

[paulfarber]

You could not get a significant temp differential to actually move the oil via this method. You would still need to pump it to the heat coil. I could see this working to reduce viscosity, but not to actually move oil.

 

[bill2444]

I think if the oil got warm enough it would move. When i heat in a 55 gallon drum it is incredible the amount of upwelling comming from the bottom. I dont think you could get that much movement with a pump.

 

[Stretch44875]

Ditto on the 55 gallon drum. With the heater in the bottom, there is a lot of oil movement.

 

[Mikey90744]

week later or so, sorry

convection or thermocline what ever this is called, is what cooled ford model Ts from the factory