Solar Pool Heater
Last year I installed a solar pool heater that I made myself. I just T'd the 2inch pipe coming out from the pump and the T side was 1 inch. Thus, th...
Last year I installed a solar pool heater that I made myself. I just T’d the 2inch pipe coming out from the pump and the T side was 1 inch. Thus, the T slips off some of the circulating water and runs it through a set of 1/2 inch black tubing. There are two headers at each end and then the water comes out onto the slide and back into the pool. The pool temp on this day started out at 68 degrees in the morning. Granted it was a nice sunny day and the outside temp was about 74. The pool water was up to 73 degrees during the shooting of this video and the water coming out of the solar heater was almost 79 degress. It had been 80 degress coming out most of the day even though the air temperature was 74 for most of the day. This was a relatively cheap way to achieve solar heating for your pool. Now each pool is different so I am not sure of your set up but this was a pretty easy way to set up the solar heater. I might add additional tubing and another header at each end this year in order to increase the pool temp even more. NOTHING LIKE FREE ENERGY FROM THE SUN TO HEAT THE POOL!!! The pump still runs off of the grid and isn’t solar. Maybe someday I will upgrade the pump to solar.
Related posts:
- Please read this if you are in NY and have a swimming pool solar heater that was installed by a L.I. company.?
- FRESNEL LENS SOLAR HOT WATER, Heat Solar Pool Heater Solar Swimming Pool Heater
- solar pool heater for inground pool possible with a pool floor cleaner thing?
- solar water heater simple DIY project
- DIY Solar Pool Heater?
Nice job and nice pool. Was thinking of doing something along the same line but not as long as your setup. Do you think that metal piping (galvanized, copper etc.) would get hotter if it were painted black? I would think so. May be more costly of course. What’s your take on that? Thanks for the video and info!
Copper might be a good idea but it would be WAY more expensive to do it that way. Remember that you want enough water “sitting” in the tubes to keep the water temperature getting hotter. Shorter piping would limit that somewhat. Copper tubing was never in my mind as the cost would push it up to buying a Propane heater I think. Could be wrong but never really priced it out. The tubing is cheap and works.
As of today I had a chance to check the pool. 81 degrees and it has been 61 degrees at night. Kids are in the pool almost everyday….most of the day!!!!!
Hey, nice set up. I’m going with a little more volume. Tapping off my 2 inch pipe, after the pump, filter, chlorine generator, right before it goes back to the pool. All clean water will get bypassed to the heater. I’m using larger pipe for more surface area to gather heat, plus the more diameter the pipe, the less speed. Smaller pipe will shoot the water thru it fast, which we don’t want. The pipe wil remain 2 inches until it goes to the manifold. The manifold will distribute to 1in pipe.
I have headers at each end and a valve at each end so I can vary the “flow” out of the unit. The wider pipe is a good idea. Let me know how it works. I was going on the shoestring budget and seems to work well. I problem I had this year was that it would get up to 80 degrees and then it would rain for three days and drop the temp back down to 75 and then it would work back up. Strange Summer…so much for Global Warming. I was looking forward to swimming in the pool in November!
In Ga my pool would get up to 96 deg. in August. At that point I will have another bypass to run the water to a set of pipes burried along side the shady side of the house to cool it off.
Now that is climate control!!!
that will kill your pump right?
The same amount of water is pumped through the system and no extra pressure according to the Pressure gauge so IMO it will work fine with my current pump. Can’t speak for all makes and models but I have used this for two full seasons so far and my pump is still working fine.
OK, better than nothing- barely. At least it’s out of the way, but would never do in the early or late season. A dedicated insulated covered heater would produce 110 deg water. But good work.
Hey IronHorsez88,
This system works well and a solar cover would help as well. I have had two solar covers over the years and they tend to wear out fast and then I have little pieces fo round plastic punchouts in the bottom of the pool to vacuum out. The combination of both will raise up the temp and help prevent heat loss at night.
Are you in the U.S. and which part? I’m in SC and hoping to transfer to AZ whew!
Nortern NJ. Friend of mine is moving down to SC just north of Charleston. Why move to AZ?
@RocketMaker10000
Now how do you feel after 8 feet of snow this year?:) N Az has sunny skies, a few winter flurries and not the killer heat of Phoenix. BTW when I said earlier about a solar cover I meant some heat retaining material like clear plastic or plexiglass covering the black poly pipe that you have on the fence then back this with an larger heat absorbing material like black aluminum you know – typical solar design.
Why dont you buy the panels and put them on your roof?
Too expensive. Tight budget right now. Roof is very slanted and not fun to get up on to do installs. Not a bad idea for anybody else though. If the economy turns around I will consider it again.
If you put the hoses tighter together they will in turn keep each other heated so instead of having a huge gap in between each hose keep them closer together and they will heat the pool even more efficiently
@MrEcunningham
Good point but it would block the view out to the yard. The liner ripped over the winter so the pool is actually empty now and I am measuring for a new liner and I am going to make some video of the project to post on Youtube. Stay tuned.
what if you coil up regular garden hoses and place them on your roof and buy a regular utility pump nothing big theyre bout 99 dollars USD then you dont need to use the pool’s pump at all
@MrEcunningham I don’t feel like having a bunch of other pipes in and out of the pool so I will use what is already available. The pump runs fine with this Solar heater but right now I am measuring it for a new liner.
if you put somthing black on the bottom of your pool it will help to absorb heat and warm your pool.
@MrCoryjohnson1 I don’t think the pool will look as nice with a black bottom. It looks really nice as is so I don’t really want to have the pool black. I have a solar cover and the solar heater here and I can usually raise the pool temp pretty fast provided the outside air at night doesn’t pull it way down.
Is your filter programmed to run at certain times during the day? I ask because if the filter runs at night and the valves to the solar system are left on it will act like a radiator and release the heat into the atmosphere. Just a thought.
@odius94 It has a timer that can be programmed to run day or night. I run it during the day because that is when I have the most people in the pool. Plus my electric company doesn’t give any discounts whether I run it at night or during the day. They used to offer better deals at night. Since they don’t do that anymore why bother running it at night. I recently put in a new liner. See my other videos and the water that was delivered was 58 degrees. Got it up to 80 in 6 days with it.
@RocketMaker10000 Nice. I’ll check out the other vids now.
adfasdfasdfaf