ES2686170B2 - FLOATING HEATER FOR POOLS AND SPAS - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

FLOATING HEATER FOR POOLS AND SPAS

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a floating heater for swimming pools and spas, whose obvious purpose is to heat the water of a pool or spa, and thereby achieve a more pleasant temperature of use.

The device additionally includes means for monitoring the temperature, in order to be able to provide said information via APP, to the corresponding user.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is known to use flat heaters that are arranged on the water surface of a pool or spa, generally made of plastic material, through which solar radiation is transmitted for heating the water surface, and although these flat heaters do not they need to be oriented, the performance of them is very low.

In addition, flat heaters of the type described above, are greatly deteriorated in the face of climatic adversities, so their durability is very low, regardless of the fact that in the presence of large gusts of wind they usually fly away and require an adequate fastening system.

They also have the disadvantage that they require periodic cleaning, since they accumulate a lot of dirt on their surface, regardless of whether their storage and storage require extreme care, avoiding bends, keeping them while they are still wet, etc.

In the patent US 8342167 a water heating system for swimming pools and the like is described based on a series of elements with holes that are linked together to cover most of the surface of the pool, elements that present poor performance based on its structure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The floating heater that is recommended resolves in a fully satisfactory way the above-mentioned problems, based on a simple but highly efficient solution, making the most of solar energy and achieving a yield of at least 75% over flexible plastic solutions existing

More specifically, the heater of the invention is formed by a plurality of modules or elements that are linked together to cover the water surface of the pool, so that each module is formed by the union of two bodies, one formed by a kind of upper bubble of transparent nature, and another formed by a thermal collector that is coupled through appropriate means under the bubble, forming between them a chamber in which, by greenhouse effect, an optimum heating of the water is achieved. access it through slots provided in the upper part.

The heater assembly is made of resistant plastic material and due to its configuration it always receives the radiation from the sun, being even valid on cloudy days, with the special particularity that by forming a chamber in each of the modules, an increase of the water heating during the day, and heat loss during the night is avoided based on the air chambers formed in its breast.

To encourage this effect, it has been foreseen that the chamber that is defined between both elements is filled with high density plastic balls, with a certain thermal capacity and conductivity, that come into contact with the water, favoring said heating. These balls could be arranged in two groups of two types, according to their density, so that those arranged in the upper layer have greater buoyancy.

The resistant plastic material in which the elements that participate in the constitution of the heater are constituted avoids calcareous incrustations, supporting the products chemicals commonly used in swimming pools and spas.

On the other hand, the device of the invention has the advantage that by virtue of the material in which it is constituted, it bears with total guarantee climatic differences, such as wind, storms, frosts or hail.

Therefore, the performance of the heater is very high, with a low thermal jump, so it is especially suitable for low temperature applications such as swimming pools or spas.

The resistant plastic material that materializes the bubble is of transparent nature, while the lower collector will be obtained in matt black, for maximum absorption of solar radiation, presenting a smooth surface, including a series of emerging lugs on its underside that are complementary of recesses disposed identically on the upper face of the bubble, thus allowing the device to stably stack with a large reduction of space outside the pool.

According to another feature of the invention, the aforementioned spheres could be arranged only in the lugs, as mobile elements, in including a central core from a spiral or similar aluminum element or a material of high thermal conductivity, which Offer a large heat transfer surface with the water accessing the device.

The groove presented by the collector facilitates the circulation of water, reducing the heating times of the pool or spa water in which the heater is applied, also facilitating the extraction of the device when it is extracted from the pool or spa.

The fact that the modules are filled with water, its aerodynamic configuration, and the curved edges, means that these can not fly away before strong gusts of wind.

According to another feature of the invention, it is provided that at least one of the modules incorporates a temperature predictive sensor, embodied in a sensor with a wireless communication module, preferably of the Bluettoth type. Low Energy, composed of three temperature sensors, one external, one that is submerged in the water, and another that measures the temperature inside the chamber that defines the module between its two pieces, this electronic being assisted by a small panel solar photovoltaic that gives total energy autonomy to it.

From this device, the user will be able to obtain graphs of the three temperatures in the three zones described, as well as to predict the temperature that the water will reach in later days in an application installed on his mobile phone, tablet, PC or similar. function of the information received from weather pages, thus predicting not only the water temperature, but also the ambient temperature.

If the pool has a heat pump, the application can report the additional temperatures that can be achieved with the heat pump, the time needed and the energy cost, thus being able to assess which temperature to reach based on the cost estimates depending on the temperatures obtained by the predictive sensor.

In the same way, through the application, the heat pump could be controlled to adjust the water temperature for a specific date.

Additionally, the device could incorporate chlorine, pH and salt sensors, to also monitor these factors and thus be able to maintain the pool in optimal conditions.

In summary, by means of the heater of the invention, advantages such as:

• A higher calorific value.

• Greater durability.

• Ease of assembly and disassembly.

• The chamfered shape of the corners are designed to leave spaces between modules and allow the exit of people who could have been trapped under the modules.

• Being made of a flexible and unbreakable material, breakages are prevented from accidental falls, as well as the lack of edges makes it impossible for bathers can be injured with the device.

• Due to the shape and materials in which it is made, it hardly requires cleaning, except for occasional spraying with a hose.

• Minimal degradation in storage, even if they are kept wet.

• Possibility of predicting and adjusting the water temperature of the pool.

Additionally, with the heater of the invention it is possible to reduce the evaporation of water from a pool by more than 60%, which leads to savings in the use of chemical products, while avoiding the appearance of algae.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To complement the description that will be made below and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred embodiment of the same, a set of drawings is included as an integral part of said description. where, with illustrative and non-limiting character, the following has been represented:

Figure 1 shows a top perspective view of a floating heater for swimming pools and spas made according to the object of the invention.

Figure 2 shows a side elevational view of the heater of the previous figures.

Figure 3 shows a perspective view of the heaters stacked together, in an inoperative storage or transport situation.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In view of the figures outlined, it can be seen how the heater of the invention is formed by two bodies (1) and (2), the first of them in the form of a bubble and that determines the upper part of the heater, while the second body (2) constitutes a manifold, which is coupled inferiorly to the first body, said first body (1) having grooves or grooves (3) for access of water to the interior of the chamber (7) that is defined between the bodies (1) ) and (2).

In this way, both bodies (1) and (2) are coupled together to form the heater, with the particularity that the body that constitutes the bubble or first body (1) includes a flat and quadrangular perimeter expansion (4), with its vertices (5) chamfered and rounded, thus avoiding the overlap of other modules equal to the one described.

Both bodies (1) and (2) are made of resistant plastic material, the first body being transparent in nature, while the second body (2), constituting the collector, will be obtained in black, in order to achieve optimum thermal performance. in the heating caused by the incident solar rays on the whole.

The collector or second body (2) is flat, having on its lower face a series of complementary lugs (6) of recesses (8) established on the upper face of the first body (1) in order to facilitate stacking them stably, as shown in figure 3.

In this way, the water accesses the chambers (7) through the slots (3), where it is heated by the greenhouse effect with great efficiency and optimum performance, said water being able to flow through said slots (3) , with the particularity that within said chambers (7) the inclusion of balls (9), as well as a metallic spiral (15), both of high capacity materials and thermal conductivity, that can be distributed in two layers of different densities, so that one of said ball layers (9) tends to float giving greater buoyancy to the set, while the other, of higher density allows a greater heat flow to the water circulating through the chambers (7) accelerating the water heating process.

In parallel, and as shown in Figure 2, at least one of the modules will be equipped with a temperature predictive sensor (10), embodied in a sensor with a wireless communication module, preferably of the Bluettoth Low Energy type, composed of three temperature sensors, an exterior sensor (11), an interior sensor (12) that measures the temperature inside the chamber (7) and a lower sensor (13) that measures the temperature of the water in the pool, said electronics by a small solar photovoltaic panel (14) that gives the device energy independence.

From this device, and as previously mentioned, the user can, through an application installed on his mobile phone, tablet, PC or similar, obtain graphs of the three temperatures in the three zones described, as well as predict the temperature that the water will reach in later days according to the information received from meteorological pages, thus predicting not only the water temperature, but also the ambient temperature.

If the pool has a heat pump, the application can report the additional temperatures that can be achieved with the heat pump, the time needed and the energy cost, thus being able to assess which temperature to reach based on the cost estimates depending on the temperatures obtained by the predictive sensor.

In the same way, through the application, the heat pump could be controlled to adjust the water temperature for a specific date.

Finally, the device could additionally incorporate chlorine sensors (16), pH (17) and salt (18), to also monitor these factors through the communication module and thus be able to maintain the pool in optimum conditions.

Claims (5)

1a.- Floating heater for swimming pools and spas, which being of the type that are constituted from a plurality of floating modules arranged interconnected on the surface of the pool or spa to be covered, characterized in that each floating module is formed by two bodies coupled together, a first body (1), upper, as a transparent dome, and a second lower body (2), which is a collector black, collector that is flat, including the first body (1) ) grooves (3) or holes for the passage of water therethrough, with the particularity that in the chamber defined between the first body (1) and the second body (2) a plurality of independent absorbent elements are established. heat of high capacity and thermal conductivity, namely a plurality of balls (9) displaceable within the body of the heater, and optionally a spiral (15) these elements can have the same or different densities. 2 a.- Floating heater for swimming pools and spas, according to claim 1, characterized in that it includes a wireless communications module, composed of three temperature sensors, an outdoor temperature sensor (11), an indoor sensor (12) for measuring the temperature inside the chamber (7) that is defined between the first and the second body, and a lower sensor (13) for measuring the water temperature of the pool, said electronics being assisted by a small photovoltaic solar panel (14) for its feeding. 3 a.- Floating heater for swimming pools and spas, according to claim 1, characterized in that the heater assembly has a quadrangular plan configuration, with chamfered corners. 4 a.- Floating heater for swimming pools and spas, according to claim 1, characterized in that the second body (2) includes staples (6) stacking formally and dimensionally suitable to fit snugly in recesses (8) established on the upper face of the first body (1) 5 a.- Floating heater for swimming pools and spas, according to claim 2, characterized in that it additionally includes chlorine sensors (16), pH (17) and salt (18), associated with the communications module.