Matt's Solar Pool Heater #4

Time to find a new way to heat the pool. I used a copper heat exchanger that I built last year over a campfire and that worked great but the neighbors hated the smoke. This year we use Mr Sun!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• solar
• heat
• swimming
• pool

[mattartoo]

When it's combined with the solar pool heater cover, and the ambient temperature is 80 or better, The pool warms up and retains warmth. Pool temp stayed around 85-95 so far this summer. If you leave the pump on at night or forget to cover it, the temp will plummet to 75-80 overnight.

[mattartoo]

It turns out that I used 200' of the plastic tubing to finish the project. Water going into the heater was 70 degrees and on a hot sunny day, it was exiting the heater at 105. The pump that came with this cheapo pool pumps very little water. I remember figuring out that it would take something like 36 hours to circulate all 4000 or so gallons in the pool. Restricting the water with 100' of pipe doesn't help either.

[eddiequest4]

Wow - a lot of work. How about trying black plastic? Float it on the water (or weigh it down a bit. The sun will heat it quite quickly, esp if you are running the filter.

[bereaman]

You could also put a timer on the pump so as not to pump at night and slow the flow with a tap to create more heat up time in the pipe-Great that we are all experimenting with the suns energy though.

[Logiclessly]

Hey matt,

and all that view this, Your don't have enough hose. But you have pleanty of land/space...Sooooooo, here is what you need to do to make a heater on the Cheap (semi).

Purchase 3-500' DIGG 1/2" black garden irrigation hose (rated 60psi) $60 ea. Spiral each hose in a increasingly larger circle and secure on 2x4's or plywood, attach each hose to the other, place one end to the pump and the other to return to the pool. Hose water should reach 90 Fahrenheit in spring and autumn.

[WSPSkydiver]

ahhh, I see... At my old house I tried a similar project and ran into the same issues. I had a pump that pumped a huge amount of water and based on the math, I needed a solor collector about 30 feet long * 3 feet high, and 3 inch pipe spaced about 3-4 inches apart for it to be effective.

Keep posting, I'd really like to see what you come up with! Good luck!

[WSPSkydiver]

I may be wrong but I highly doubt that this will work. I hope it does, but based on the current size pipe you are using, it wont be effective enough to really warm the water AND keep it warm.

You will need tubing that can handle not only the volume of water, but the pressure too. At the pressure of most modern pumps, you'll need at least a couple hundred feet of piping (and a huge solor collector too).

This is going to cost a small fortune. Almost as much as a prebuilt unit. Am i correct?

[RHEAD100]

Hay !! where is Matt's Solar Pool Heater #5.

I watched all 4 in order. Great job so far, but no finish. Come on Matt; tell us how well it worked. What was the temp of the water going in & coming out & at what valum.