i wanna make a solar water heater for my pool,,,any ideas or plans?

Question

i've built my own pool,,,approx 36k litres volume,,,i have a roof space of 3m x 8 m ,,,,i live in sunny south africa and it the sun,,,,i'm looking for simple and effective designs,,,maybe the do's or dont's

Answer 1

dunno

Answer 2

It's not difficult. You can go fancy with making headers etc or just go the lazy way. Lazy rules if no one has to look at it. You'll need 200 feet ( more the merrier) of 1 inch poly irrigation pipe. Lay it out on your roof as a spread out coil. Secure it. Have both ends of pipe come down to your equipment. For a basic, manually operated set up, you'll need 2 T's ( 11/2 X 1 X 1/12 ) I'm assuming you used standard 1 1/2 inch poly pipe at your equipment. And you will need preferably a ball valve, but a gate valve will do 1 1/2 inch. Depending on what type of valve you use, you'll need fittings to go from it to 1 1/2 inch poly ( male adapter usually). Hook up the first T on the filter return (where it leaves the filter and goes back to the pool), use a couple inches of 1 1/2 pipe to make room for the valve, then add your valve, then a few more inches of pipe and your last T. From the last T, plumb into your return line. Hook up your lines from the roof to the T's. It doesn't matter which goes on what. You're done. This is the most basic solar heater you can build. The valve acts as a throttling valve, When it's partially closed, it sends water up to your roof (now the easier route), gathers heat and comes back down on the other side of the throttling valve and back to your pool.
Theres a few things though. You'll have to do trial and error to get the water flowing at the right speed through the coil to maximize the heat it picks up. Too fast is no good, too little no good either. That's why I suggest using a ball valve. It's easier to adjust and you can mark the position that's good for flow on the pipe, under the handle, so it's always easy to adjust.
The other thing is, that solar will heat during the day. At night, unless you open the throttle valve up to stop the flow up there, it'll also cool it down as fast as it heated it. You still keep your filter running, if ya like, just open up that valve, so that it's choice for least resistance is now direct to the pool and not the solar.
You could always at a later time, add temperature sensors to the solar, one on the roof and one in the plumbing to control an automatic valve, but it's going to cost about 200 bucks, mainly for that electrical valve. Up to you. Also, you can add more pipe to this installation at any time, quite simply and cheaply, making the solar heater even more effective, as long as you have room on the roof.
A commercially made solar unit, usually retails for about 1,000 dollars not including installation and all the repairs that you have to do to the darn things, like replacing O rings, split panels, defective temp sensors and the like.

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

Their is a magazine that can help called Solar Today. Good Luck

Answer 5

the cheapest i ever heard of was to lay a black hose on your roof in a serpentine layout and connect one end to your filter pump. the more hose the better.

Answer 6

it would not work...you would spend more on parts to make one and it would not work as well as a store bought unit.

They have these black panels that you attaching a water input and output hose to now...the water goes though it like a car radiator but the big thing is black plastic making the water warm.

its the cheapest and best product i have tried.

see more here
http://www.powermat.com/

and here
http://www.poolgear.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPRODGROUP&ID=265
(my setup)