Sun in the Fun

Ask Umbra on solar pool heaters 9

Send your question to Umbra!

Q. Dear Umbra,

With all the rain we’ve had this year, the pool water doesn’t get a chance to warm up in between rainstorms. We are trying to design a passive heating system. We’ve thought about flexible one-inch black hose (if we can find it) attached to the filter and laid out around the pool, but are there any solar energy systems already out there that we could use?

Jerri
Waterbury

A. Dearest Jerri,

Why yes there are, and they are quite similar to your recent black hose invention.

Whether they will have any effect on the heat of your pool when there is no sun to collect is research I will leave to you.

flip-flops by poolWhat a dive.Before looking too far in to buying a passive solar heating system for your pool, you should certainly buy a simple blue polypro or polyethylene “solar pool cover” if you don’t already have one. These look like blue bubble wrap, and lie atop the pool when it is not in use. They stop evaporative loss of any existing warmth in the pool, and help capture any solar energy that might hit during random sunny moments. A cover should help keep your pool about 5 to 10 degrees warmer.

The commercial solar pool collectors use the pool’s pump to circulate water through a series of ... black plastic hoses. The hoses are oft laid out atop a black plastic bed. The two immediate drawbacks I could see are the amount of space needed for adequate hose footage to heat a pool-sized amount of water, and the accompanying aesthetic concerns. To quote today’s expert website, the Florida Solar Energy Center, “The collector area is usually about the same size as the pool surface area in northern Florida.” It’s a bit of a stretch, but perhaps whichever Waterbury you are in (states, people, please!) can be thought of as a far northern Florida. Ergo you will need quite a bit of space.

Commercial solar pool heaters can be a money-saver over time if they replace another type of heater in the pool, such as propane. In your case, you would be fixing a hopefully temporary problem with what we might call new infrastructure.

The Florida Solar Energy Center gives a very thorough overview of the various aspects of pool heater design, offers vendors, and is generally helpful. You will, as mentioned, have to do some of your own adjusting on the estimates of size and BTUs needed for the Waterbury area. If it doesn’t seem worth it to invest in a commercial heater, I’m sure the various do-it-yourselfers on the internet have some ideas to offer you.

Warmly,
Umbra

 

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

For even more green goodness, you can follow Umbra on Twitter (@AskUmbra).

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Related Stories

Advertisement
Advertisement

  1. azar Posted 7:30 am
    29 Jul 2009

    If you are worried about the space the panels take - they can go on the roof!  Ours is set up that way.There's more sun up there anyway.

    Permalink

  2. stinkycheese Posted 7:30 am
    29 Jul 2009

    Just as a note, the solar pool heaters are NOT eligible for the 30% tax credit, which applies to solar power and solar [domestic] water heating systems. If you're in a warm climate, solar heaters are definitely the way to go. They cost less to install than a non-solar heater, and of course their operational costs are much, much less--to operate, they just need your pump to run.

    Permalink

    1. nastytoe Posted 1:57 pm
      29 Jul 2009

      Sounds like a really good idea to reduce costs to heat your pool. It really does get expensive, especially when summer ends and you still want to swim.

      Permalink

  3. solar greg Posted 8:48 am
    29 Jul 2009

    Solar pool heating is the most cost effective way of using solar energy. That is why of all forms of solar energy use today, pool heating is the largest use in the world. The main reason is because a swimming pool is a giant energy hog. A solar pool heater properly installed will pay for itself very fast.

    Permalink

  4. rrrandy Posted 11:46 am
    29 Jul 2009

    When I was a kid (living in Olympia, WA at the time), a neighbor down the street had one of those 6' tall aboveground pools.  His crafty father had built a little wooden box that was about 3' wide, 2' tall, and maybe 6" deep.  It had a glass front (facing the sun) with black visqueen lining the inside.  He had run a black flexible tube through the box, coming in at one corner, snaking back and forth across the box like a big S, and then out the opposite corner.  He put this in-line with the water pump/filter, so that the water ran through the black flexible tube in the box just before it re-entered the pool.  On a sunny day, the water was so hot when it actually entered the pool that you couldn't hold your hand in front of it.  It even worked fairly well on overcast days.  It provided enough of a thermal bump (for green-free!) that the swimming season was extended by a month or two, no small feat in Washington State.

    Permalink

  5. Username's avatar

    Username Posted 8:08 pm
    29 Jul 2009

    Good Idea,Thanks for the article.

    Permalink

  6. Annie Rosenthal's avatar

    Annie Rosenthal Posted 10:26 pm
    30 Jul 2009

    My folks had a solar pool heater on the SF peninsula.  It worked great, but if you are thinking it's going to be a big savings you need to take into account other costs.  For them, their previous heater was natural gas, so when they installed the solar it took many more hours of pumping than it had in the past so their power bill actually went up. 

    Permalink

  7. solar greg Posted 3:18 pm
    31 Jul 2009

    Your swimming pool needs at least 4 hours of pumping to keep it clean anyways. Even if you had to pump 12 hours a day (which you don't), the electric bill would be a lot less than your gas bill. For example, if you have 8 standard solar pool panels 4x12, your daily energy input will be around 380,000 BTU. This replaces anywhere between 175 and 422 cubic feet of natural gas. If it where propane it would be equivalent to 5.42 galons. If you are in a temperate climate you can avoid up to 25,000 pounds of CO2 a year with the same example. If you take into acount the maintenance of the gas heater, danger inherent to gas, CO2 and other greenhouse gases, I don't see how anybody can justify anything other than solar. The only excuse would be if you fisically can't install solar. Another benefit of using solar is that you keep the pool warmer all the time, not only when you remember to fire up the gas guzzler.

    Permalink

    1. Annie Rosenthal's avatar

      Annie Rosenthal Posted 3:34 pm
      31 Jul 2009

      Sorry I wansn't very clear in that post.  I did not intend to imply that solar pool heating was a bad idea.  That was my folks' experience in the 70's and 80's.  I'm sure both the technology and fuel pricing has changed. 

      Permalink

Add a Comment

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Hello, Visitor!    Why not register?

Viewed
More
Commented
More
Advertisement