Diy Solar Pool Heating - An Amazing Solution For Diy Solar Pool Heating

A swimming pool, is it such a good idea?

A villa with a swimming pool seems to be high on the wish list of most people coming to live here in Spain. The thought of owning your own pool conjures images of glamour, especially after watching all those glittering movies and seeing the lifestyle that movie stars enjoy – most of us hanker for a chunk for ourselves – and why not.

Being a proud possessor of your own swimming pool isn’t all a bed of roses though. The first thing you have to learn is how to actually handle it. If you’re not prepared to put in a little work, forget it.

Swimming pools garner mess.

Leaves blow in, dust falls, insects settle on the surface and drown. A swimming pool collects spiders, ants, and sometimes mud –rainstorms are often filthy, especially the ones in the Alicante area of Spain. All manner of dirt is washed out of a previously dusty atmosphere and deposited into your sparkling pool.

Most modern swimming pools have a pumped filtration system of some kind to help maintain it in a healthy state. The system filters out surface and suspended matter, but inevitably, debris settles on the pool floor

A swimming pool has to be cleaned at least once a week so be prepared to handle a water vacuum cleaner – twice a week sometimes. After debris has been sucked into the sand filter, the filter has to be backwashed to rid the debris to drain. Several times a year the whole of the swimming pool floor and walls need brushing, and the water subsequently treating with flocculent. Brushing creates a cloudy haze in the water and sometimes this takes a few days to settle unless flocculent is used

A swimming pool needs constant maintenance even in winter

How much of the year can you swim

The chemical balance needs to be carefully controlled on a regular basis to avoid bacterial growth and algae formation. The last thing you or your visitors want is to catch something nasty after taking a leisurely dip. At the very least, the level of pH and chlorine has to be maintained. Tablets are available to adjust both. Some tablets are multifunctional and add an anti-algae component, and flocculent to keep the water at its Sunday best.

But how often are you able to use the swimming pool?

Most people are under the impression they’ll be swimming for most of the year - rubbish. An outdoor swimming pool is only useful for about four months of the year –yet still needs to be maintained…. Ouch!

Help is at hand - DIY solar pool heating.

I’m not one for wasting energy, time, or money, and for me, not using the pool is a waste. I search for ways to improve – and improve I do. First on the list of enhancements was a swimming pool cover…. Wow – great improvement - my first step towards DIY solar pool heating. It really made a difference

Solar pool heating - Heat heat heat.

Outdoor pools gain solar heating from the sun, absorbing 75%–85% of the solar heat energy that strikes the pool surface. This is an important contribution to our DIY solar pool heating requirements. It isn't all gain, though. A pool cover will decrease the DIY solar pool heating gain contribution to some extent, depending on what type you use. A transparent bubble cover may reduce your DIY solar pool heating energy absorption by 5%–15 % .... but just think of the overall gain - it's some heck of a sized DIY solar pool heating system....

Bubble-wrap covers

A blue translucent bubble-wrap cover allows energy from the sun to heat the swimming pool, acting like an enormous DIY solar pool heating panel. The swimming pool cover also insulates the pool and keeps the heat in at night: a win-win situation - heats the swimming pool during the day, keeps the heat in at night – what more could you ask? An unprotected swimming pool can loose up to 3 degrees Celsius overnight. With a swimming pool cover, the DIY solar pool heating loss is reduced to 1 degree Celsius or less.

A swimming pool cover not only heats and insulates, it protects pool water from evaporation. Evaporation is evil. Evaporation wastes the precious resource and in doing so removes heat from the pool - bad, bad, bad. Wet your finger on a windy day and see how much colder it feels.

With the combined effects of heat input, insulation and protection from evaporation, the temperature of a covered pool can be more than 8 degrees Celsius higher than a similar uncovered swimming pool.

If you use your pool during the day, for maximum advantage, take off the cover just before swimming and replace the cover as soon as you're finished.

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Gains here, gains there...

The benefits of a swimming pool cover doesn’t end there. Dust and leaves collect on the swimming pool cover instead of in the pool – and can be washed off in a safe area – so reducing debris problems in the swimming pool. Not only that, but chemical consumption is greatly reduced, a great environmental benefit. Overall, having a swimming pool cover makes a lot of sense and should be treated as number one priority on the list of pool improvements and DIY solar pool heating.

Pool temperatures can be further improved by adding external DIY solar pool heating panels. The only problem with commercial devices is capital expense. A homemade DIY solar pool heating system can be installed at a much lower cost.

I installed 180 metres of 15mm copper tubing formed into a zigzag matrix, painted matt black to give maximum thermal transfer, covered it with transparent roof plastic to avoid heat loss to surrounding air, and added a water pump. The pool pump delivers 60 litres of water per minute, and the exit temperature of the water from the system on a warm sunny day is at least 1 degree Celsius higher than the input.

So let's do the math

Amount of heat transferred with the DIY solar pool heating = mass x change in temperature x specific heat

q = m(DT)Cp

Where:- q= quantity of heat m= mass DT = change in temperature Cp= Specific Heat

In SI units we should use grams, metres and seconds.

The volume of water per second is 1 litre, which has a mass of 1000 g. The specific heat of water = 4.186 per gram Change in temp = 1C

Therefore q = 1000 x 1 x 4.186= 4186 joules

A joule is defined as 1 watt of energy dissipated over 1 second. We’re dealing in seconds, therefore the heat energy is equivalent to 4186 watt

In excess of 4kW of heat is continuously added by the DIY solar pool heating – a nice little bonus - leave that on for 6 hours a day and it makes a difference.

And more?

With a swimming pool cover and a DIY solar pool heating system, the swimming period can be extended by three or four weeks at the start of the season and a similar period at the end – a nice little extension. What more could you wish for…

Okay, the DIY solar pool heating works ... Now what inexpensive mod can I do next?

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