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Solar Swimming Pool Heating: Do It Yourself?

Solar swimming pool heating uses one of two types of collectors: semi-rigid polypropylene grid panels or flexible strips that can be customized for any roof type or surface. Proper design and installation is important to avoid leaks or mechanical issues. A well-sized solar heating system in most areas can provide around 60-70% of a pool's annual heating needs with no operating costs other than maintenance.

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Sharad Ghule
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74 views

Solar Swimming Pool Heating: Do It Yourself?

Solar swimming pool heating uses one of two types of collectors: semi-rigid polypropylene grid panels or flexible strips that can be customized for any roof type or surface. Proper design and installation is important to avoid leaks or mechanical issues. A well-sized solar heating system in most areas can provide around 60-70% of a pool's annual heating needs with no operating costs other than maintenance.

Uploaded by

Sharad Ghule
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SOLAR SWIMMING POOL HEATING

Solar swimming pool heating is done with one of the two types of collectors you see in the two photos above. For simple shingle roofs or rack mounts often the preferred choice is semi rigid polypropylene grid style panels like our Powerpro shown in the photo on the left. Click that photo for more. On the right is Powerstrip. We manufacture this product. It is fle ible and it can be made in any si!e. "his type of system is used when free!ing is an issue #low pitch roof in an area where free!ing can occur$ % when systems need to be glued down as in the case of a tile roof and when it is desired that the system be custom fitted to the roof or ground space. Click that photo for more.

Do it yourself?
So% you want to divert the flow from your pool&s filter through hundreds of feet of pipe and hundreds of s'uare feet of thin black solar collector mounted on your house roof and you&re nervous about the ramifications( )ou should be. "here is more to this than meets the eye. *iverting the flow thru the black thing on the roof when the sun shines without understanding the implications is a dangerous

game. +ot Sun looks at the whole picture% including the roof and the pool mechanical system and intimately understands what is happening. ,side from the products this is really the key gap you need filled whether you are a do-it-yourselfer or a contractor or even a ma.or solar dealer. "he work itself is simple P/C plumbing. What we can offer you is the design specific to your situation and a top notch custom system appropriate for your situation with full support. If you have time and can work safely on the roof% this is a pretty simple pvc plumbing .ob.

What Will a Solar Heater Do For My Pool?


"hrough e tensive collaboration with universities and gov&t we&ve learned to simulate the performance of a solar pool heater with remarkable accuracy. We&ve verified these curves repeatedly with real systems and found e cellent correlation. 0elow is is a typical pool in San *iego C, with a little pool shade% located near the ocean where the collectors are on a south facing roof.

1223 solar means a solar heater si!ed at 1223 #same si!e$ as the top surface of the pool. We also have compiled curves for many ma.or cities in the 4S. 5o here for performance predictions more specific to your location and for a full discussion on si!ing a solar heating system for a pool.

Our Produ ts
Po!er"ro
"hese semi-rigid polypropylene collectors come in various si!es% the most common being 6 17 and you simply gang these modules together to form a bank or banks of collectors to provide the surface area needed to do the .ob. Several large factories in the 4S mass produce these with standard mounting hardware. "he e perienced and

skilled contractors that implement these systems have devised their own proprietary schemes for attaching these systems to all the various roof types. Our Powerpro collector is the best polypropylene collector we can get our hands on. We supply it with the best mounting hardware for your uni'ue situation including options like e tra rows of stainless steel plastic coated strap for high wind areas. Our no roof penetration schemes for tile roofs warrant your attention. See Powerpro for more on this collector type.

Po!erstri"
Fle ible collectors are assembled from a header pipe and a tubing strip. "he fle ibility allows use right on a flat roof in a free!ing climate. It also allows us to glue it directly to wavy s-tile roofs so very common in the big solar markets of the 4S. We&re also able to fit these systems where regular Powerpro types can&t make full use of available space. See Powerstrip for more on this collector type.

Solar Pool Heati#$ Desi$# %asi s


8ow pressure is the bottom line when it comes to setting solar up for long term reliability. )ou can&t e pect a thin plastic collector to withstand e treme temperatures% thermal movement% aging etc all in combination with stress from pressure in the water. "ake away the pressure and you compromise 9O"+I95. )ou simply allow the system to operate stress free the way it is intended and you&ve removed the source for problems. We end up solving other problems in this process and creating a harmonious smooth operating pool mechanical system. :asy to say. 9ot nearly as simple as you might think to accomplish. "his is our most common solar design for a simple pool without a spa and without ;in-floor; cleaning built in where the collectors are elevated up at least one storey. "his design re'uires that the pressure where solar ties in is low. For much more on this visit Proper Pool <echanical System *esign

Please take a look at this document It covers plumbing designs and automation options for your solar heater. We&re proud of the animations we&ve created to help educate you. 9ote that we include a bypass valve in the above design. In other words we don&t try to force all the flow to solar. In very few cases with modern day pools is it advisable to send all the flow to solar. 9ote that with almost every solar pool heating kit you can buy% the design is always e actly the same% blindly send all the flow through solar and stop reverse flows at night with a one way valve. It works but it is dumb and it overloads the pool pump and the collectors in too many cases.

Solar Pool Heati#$ I#stallatio#s a#d Roofs

Often solar pool heaters go on the roof of the house. We are often asked to re and re solar heaters for re-roofing and we discover that the reason the roof is leaking is a poor collector installation. "his thing is big and black and it e pands and contracts with temperature like cra!y and unless the collector manufacturer and the system installer are fully aware and competent at taking this into account for your uni'ue roof surface% the end result is eventually a roof leak. "he single most important aspect of solar collector design is compatibility with the roof. +ot Sun is very competent in this regard.

We also have e tensive e perience creating beautiful #beauty is in the eye of the beholder$ ground level racks for solar panels.

)ou&ll find a form buried in the si!ing section. "he biggest hurdle we all face when implementing a solar heater is finding a space for the collectors that is large enough to do what you want. "here are no magic answers. We want a south facing roof. :ast or west is O= especially if the pitch isn&t too great. 9orth is 9O 5OO* e cept for the unusual case where you don&t want a cover and you .ust want a warmer pool in mid summer. , roof that is flat is actually 'uite desirable and we have appropriate products and techni'ues available.

Solar Pa#el Effi ie# y


,ll products of this style #water flows up the collectors not hori!ontally and there are about 122-722 flow cores per 6& wide collector$ perform e actly the same because they are all the same color and temperature #black and cold$ and that&s all there is to a comparative efficiency test in this industry. We don&t need glass over the collectors because the air is warm relative to collector temperature. If you&re comparing collectors based on performance ratings published by an accredited testing agency you&re looking at the wrong features. If set up properly we can make any of the 72 collectors manufactured in the 4S operate almost e actly the same% at top efficiency.

9e t I suggest you learn more about the auto controls and plumbing and then click the appropriate link from this page to the type of roof surface you&ll be mounting the system to. Once you&re sold on the virtues of the best product for your situation click on sizing to learn all about what to e pect from a solar heater. )ou&ll find a form you can fill in so I can fully specify and 'uote your solar heater.

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