Pool Heating ?

Q: Im looking at heating a 15ft circular pool depth 3ft, what is the best way to construct a solar box to heat the circulating water.

A: What a coincidence - that is the exact same thing I'm going to try to do. I'm thinking of a solar setup. I have two 75 inch by 35 inch double pane insulated glass packs. They came out of a sliding glass door. I wanted to sandwich 1/2 inch copper in between one of the glass packs and a sheet of black painted ply wood. I may use the second glass pack in series if I have to. I had planned to fill the tubing with antifreeze for better conductivity and so I didn't have to tear down this winter. The copper would connect to a small pump for circulation from the solar panel to a copper coil heat exchanger hung inside the pool by the filter discharge to help distribute the warmer water. My major concerns have been whether 160 feet of 1/2 inch i.d copper tubing is going to contain a sufficient quantity of fluid to effectively transfer enough heat to make a difference in raising the temperature of 4500 gallons of water. Going by (loosely) the temperature gain I have been getting from 100 feet of 5/8 in plastic garden hose on a reel caddie after four hours of direct sun, I have seen the water temp rise to 115 degrees throughout the entire length. This is what gave me the idea about the solar heater for the pool. That, and the fact that we have been unable to use the pool due to low temps. It takes 2 weeks to get to 82 degrees and then our air temp drops to 48 at night and 66 during the day and we start all over. I have the same pool, 15 ft across and 3.5 ft deep. I priced 1/2in soft copper yesterday. $54. per 60 ft. 3/8 is $47 per 60 ft but I'm afraid that it may be too small. I though about installing an auxiliary heating system that the copper would be run thru (wood burner or lp gas) but that introduces pressure issues that I really didn't want to have to deal with. (Family killed when swimming pool explodes) As far as the box itself, what I have seen have been quite simple. A solid backing, painted black, of usually 3/4 in exterior grade plywood that allows you to attach the tubing to. Plywood walls on the four sides to hold the glass or Plexiglas up off the tubing by a few inches and two holes drilled to allow the tubing to pass out of the box. Optimally, the box is built so that it can pivot to get the most direct sunlight. You don't have to have a closed system but the water would have to travel so slowly through the tubing to gain heat that the pool will have lost that heat in the meantime. That's why I'm going to build the equivalent of a radiator that lays flat along the inside of the pool wall. I don't know if any of this helped but if you have any suggestions they would be appreciated.

Discuss It!

Most Popular Articles

More