Solar pool heating is the most cost effective and energy efficient way to heat your swimming pool. Traditional swimming pool heaters can be prohibitively expensive to operate and maintain. Solar pool heaters cost nothing for heating energy, require little maintenance and are completely silent.
One major benefit of solar pool heating is that you can extend your swimming season without significantly increasing the cost of operation. Many reports suggest a solar pool heater can double your swimming pool season. The sun is the energy source for your solar pool and because it is free you will never have to worry about increasing costs like you do with natural gas.
Solar pool heaters can be installed in new or existing pools. You can even keep an existing heat source as a backup for cloudy days or extended periods of cold weather.
The existing pool or filter pump is used to move water into the specially designed solar panels (called solar collectors) which concentrate the energy from the sun and transfer that as heat to the circulating water. Water temperature sensors placed throughout the pipes and solar panels are attached to a solar controller which determines the best time and temperature to circulate the swimming pool water through the solar panels. They come on when there is sufficient solar energy to heat the water above the current pool temperature, and they go off at night when the solar energy is minimal. This makes swimming pool operation and temperature control completely automatic.
Another advantage of solar pool heaters, thanks to their design, comes during extremely hot weather or in hot climates. By only circulating water through the collectors at night when the sun isn't shining on them and the air temperature is cooler, you can actually cool the pool water in anticipation of a cooler pool on a really hot day.
No matter where you live, there is probably plenty of solar energy to heat your pool. Even at high Northern latitudes the sun emits enough energy to heat a pool for an entire season. The Canadian government has an extensive research program and recommends solar pool heating as the most economical solar application. Many new pools in Canada are being built with solar pool heaters.
Remember, you aren't limited to just solar panels for your pool. You can use direct solar radiation to heat your pool by painting it a dark color to absorb heat - like a passive solar pool heater, you can use solar electric panels to power an efficient circulating pump, and you can use a solar pool cover to assist in heating and keeping the heat in the pool when not in use. No matter what climate your pool is in, there are plenty of ways to use the sun to power and heat your pool.
In the Northern Hemisphere, you should have a site for your solar collector panels that faces South. This is not critical, with East and West being acceptable, but South provides optimum performance in less than ideal weather conditions.
For top performance and tuning efficiency you want the angle of your panels to face the angle of the sun during the season you need it most, so the sun is shining directly straight on your panels during that season. Seeing as how the sun is at different heights in the sky throughout the year, a guideline has been to angle your panels at your latitude + 10 degrees for summer heating, and if you operate your swimming pool in winter and need winter heating you should angle your panels at your latitude minus(-) 10 degrees. Consult a solar pool heating installer in your area for exact numbers. Make sure your site can provide adequate solar exposure for your collectors. Most sites can, at one end of the pool or the other.
The size of your swimming pool solar panels are critical to top performance. There are various solar pool heater calculators to be found on the Internet, but a general guideline is this. If you can position your solar panels to face the sun (usually South or overhead) then the size of your solar panels should be at least 75% - 100% of the surface area of your swimming pool. If your solar collectors have to face another direction then you may have to increase the size of the solar panel area to achieve the same results.
Although you can build your own homemade solar collector panels from plans or kits, for anything beyond experimentation you may find it more economical in the long run to purchase pre-built panels because they are well made and usually expected to last 15 to 20 years with warranty lasting just as long. Even though building solar heating panels can be a DIY project, they are usually heavier than commercial products causing more stress on the supporting structure. Commercial products are usually smaller, lighter and easier to install, requiring less consideration for the supporting structure.
Although solar heating your swimming pool seems like the perfect idea, you should consider a few points while making your decision.
Solar pool heaters raise swimming pool temperature gradually and are therefore used in conjunction with a solar pool cover in many locations. You can keep your solar heated pool water from losing heat to evaporation or the wind if you keep the pool covered when not in use. Without the use of a solar pool cover the size of the solar collector panels would need to be increased significantly. Fortunately a pool cover has many other benefits besides retention of heat such as keeping the water cleaner, preventing evaporation of water, and reduced chlorine consumption.
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