Solar Pool Heaters and their parts, how the pool’s water get warm?

Adding Solar Pool Heaters doubles the swimming season for many families. With a well sized solar pool panels the season can be extended into Spring and Automn.

The Benefits of Solar Pool Heaters

You have a swimming pool, a great fun for your family and your guests (especially the kids…). You like to get together near the pool and maybe enjoy a nice BBQ branch occasionally. The only thing is that you want the pool’s water to feel warm not only during the hot season. Well, warming a pool takes some capital investment and keep it running takes energy. But, energy is expensive, be it electrical or oil. Will you give up? Not necessarily. The sun is coming to your rescue. You can seriously consider installing a solar pool heater. True, you still need to invest money paying for the initial system cost. This might run in the 5000$-7000$ bracket, at least 30% of that can be paid back by energy tax credits (more in certain States). The balance can be paid back within a few years, after that you will enjoy free pool warm water for at least 10 years with very minimal maintenance cost. Solar heating for pools is a very efficient way to harness the sun to work for you while extending the season each year.

Lower Cost Pool Solar Water Heater

Lower budget solutions are solar pool covers and solar pool circles. Solar pool covers can complement Solar Pool Heaters or be used as a lower cost substitute

Read about 3 ways, to get cheaper active pool solar heaters (The real thing)

How does a solar pool water heater work?

Typical solar pool heaters usually include the following elements:

• a solar collector to convert sun radiation to heat
• A filter – allows the flow of water free of rubble and sand to the pump inlet
• A pump
• A flow control valve that flows the filtered water to the collector

I recommend buying the components from a reliable store, that will provide you with a discounted price, advice and after sale support. Shop Specialty Pool Products for Swimming Pool Heating Options

The water flows in a circle

The water flows in a circle: from the pool to the filter, from the filter to the pump, from the pump to the collector, from the collector to the pool.

Simple in principle, the trick is to size every element correctly.

Sophistication worth considering is to add temperature sensors to the pool water temperature and the collector water temperature. If the pool water are warm enough, an added valve can bypass the collector (so the circle is now pool to filter to pump to pool)

Types of collectors

There are 2 types:

• Mostly used, unglazed collector – a lower cost product, less efficient and more suitable to warmer sunny climate area.
• Much less used, a more expensive (an overkill in the Sun Belt States) glazed collector, same concept as the flat plate solar collector

DIY (Do It Yourself)

Once you purchased the kit, you can install the pool heater system yourself. If you want to bring a contractor, read the Site survey paragraph bellow

Buy more staff for the pool

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Site Survey

Even if you decided to DIY, I’d recommend to bring in a qualified solar thermal systems contractor to evaluate your site. A good contractor can estimate the right size of the components, especially the collector size, and find the best place (roof or garden) to install the collector and the other parts.This is a checklist for finding a contractor:

• What is the contractors past experience?
• Is the contractor licensed?
• Can he refer you to satisfied customers?

Maintenance of Solar Pool Heaters

A properly maintained system will serve you more than 10 years, with good luck even 20 years. Your two reliable references are the owner’s manual and your contractor.
The key is to keep the filter in good shape so its main job of running water free of debris through the pump to the collector is being done.Remove dust from the glass surface of a glazed collector and keep it clean.

click to view my answers on Frequently Asked Questions about solar pool water heater