pool solar-DHW

[barnartist]

Im shopping for a solar heater for my pool (24' above ground) several options on the net. Anyone with suggestions?
I have a DIY one I use currently, but Im thinking of using it to heat one of my wood fired storage tanks and thus have DHW help.
I see many of these rubber matt type heaters.
Thanks!

 

[Redox]

Pool heaters are easy. You can lay a dark garden hose on the ground and get usable heat off it without even glazing it. You only need to get the water up to 85F, unless you are looking for a hot bathtub. I research these for our club's pool and I think the Heliocol looked like the best, IMHO.

http://www.heliocol.com/

We never did anything with it, though.

FWIW, any heat you add will be quickly lost due to evaporation. This is why most pool heaters cost a fortune to run. My sister put a solar blanket on their pool during the drought we had a few years ago to stop evaporation and said that the pool got TOO hot, and they were shaded a lot of the time. Just be sure to take it all the way off when you swim. I can't imagine the horror of getting stuck under one while swimming.

Chris

 

[Gooserider]

My take on Heliocol from reading their FAQ was that they might be good for pool heating, but not for any other heating application such as DHW or hydronic house heat. They have a rather weasely statement that one of their units might be useable for DHW pre-heating, but not really reccomending it.

By their own statements, they say that their units are intended to heat large volumes of rapidly pumped water to a relatively low temperature, which is good for pools, but doesn't do much for storage, while a more standard panel is intended to heat smaller volumes of slowly pumped water to a much higher temperature, which might or might not do much for a pool, but certainly would be good for DHW and thermal storage tanks.

Thus, if the ONLY thing I wanted to do was heat my pool, I might consider a Heliocol system, but if I wanted to do additional things, I'd look elsewhere. Assuming I was doing a full boat hydronic setup (which I've been dreaming about - just need the money and the required GAF) I would probably do something like a conventional panel setup plumbed as a drainback system, feeding into a mass storage tank, and possibly the DHW tank. I'd run an HX loop to the pool, in addition to the rest of the house. That way the solar would first warm the storage tank and the DHW year round, and one could then optionally heat the pool with the extra. I'd also use the pool as a thermal dump in the summer (in the winter use some loop in the house...) This way I figure the solar would do me the most good by providing the "free" heat where I have to have it first (cutting down on wood or other energy consumption) then doing the luxury of heating up the pool.

Gooserider

 

[Redox]

I suspect that the same problem is going to appear with any panel designed tor pool heating. The temperatures are going to top out at about 100F before the plastic begins to weaken. This isn't hot enough to really do anything with, except heat a pool. I contend that the applications are different enough that you are not going to find a panel that will serve both purposes very well. In order to generate temperatures useful enough for DHW, you are going to need a collector with a glazing, particularly in a cool climate. The glazing adds to the expense and would make a collector large enough to do the pool very uneconomical. Keep in mind that most DHW heaters top out at 50Kbtu, while most pool heaters start out at 150Kbtu and go way up from there.

Try a solar blanket on the pool and save your pennies for a "real" solar setup.

Humbly submitted,
Chris
R1100R

 

[MainePellethead]

I have a Solar heater that my son got me from the pool store. Its about 4'x10' long....has numerous small water tubes running through it and back into the pool. (It has a valves on it to shut it off too) Its made of black hard plastic. In 45 minutes in direct sun you can have cold water into nice HOT water to inject into the pool. It heats my 24' Round by 5' deep(deeper in middle) nicely. I have it mounted at an angle on my back fence directly in the sun. It raises the pool temp. at least 10 degrees but work better when used along with solar blanket. I ran an underground line to my pump. Works super. How I use mine is....approx. about 3 times(sometimes more) I will turn on the valve for the heater and pump the piping hot water in the heater into the pool. It needs about 5-6 hours of sun a day to get the max. performance out of it. I can get my pool temp. pretty high if I want....if the water gets to warm for me I dont turn the valve on the heater. I like to pump alot of hot water towards the end of the day in case we want night swimming

Thats how I do it The heater was about 100 bucks maybe 4 years ago....they havent raised in price much if any.

 

[Gooserider]

I suspect that the same problem is going to appear with any panel designed tor pool heating. The temperatures are going to top out at about 100F before the plastic begins to weaken. This isn't hot enough to really do anything with, except heat a pool. I contend that the applications are different enough that you are not going to find a panel that will serve both purposes very well. In order to generate temperatures useful enough for DHW, you are going to need a collector with a glazing, particularly in a cool climate. The glazing adds to the expense and would make a collector large enough to do the pool very uneconomical. Keep in mind that most DHW heaters top out at 50Kbtu, while most pool heaters start out at 150Kbtu and go way up from there.

Try a solar blanket on the pool and save your pennies for a "real" solar setup.

Humbly submitted,
Chris
R1100R

We can't use a solar blanket for a couple of reasons...

1. Our inground pool is a "free form" wierd shape that would make it really difficult to get a blanket on and off of - though this would be a solvable problem.

2. We have a Polaris pool cleaning robot. These units use a floating hose, and are not compatible with solar blankets (or pool toys, or any other sort of floating thing on the pool surface for that matter) - however we love our robot and wouldn't swap it for any sort of solar blanket. The amount of work and effort that it saves on pool maintainance is well worth it - just empty the bag on the bot at the same time I do my chemistry check and pull the crap out of the skimmer basket. No scrubbing, no vacuuming, etc. needed. It would be nice if they had a hose that would work with a solar cover, but I don't know of ANY bot types that will work with one.

Gooserider