Ellen decided that in Arizona we should be able to use the sun to heat the pool water and extend the swimming season. This page documents her design and installation. She found suppliers and did almost all of the work with minor assists from Bret and Dave. *Dave considers figuring out and installing the pump plumbing minor!
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| The pump circulation system needed to be changed for this to work. Shown here, where the filter system was sending water back to the pool, we added a 3 way switch (black) that would allow the water to go back to the pool as before, or be sent to the solar panels on the porch roof. The pipe that leads to the porch roof is the white pipe that goes to the upper right and eventuallly gets to the black pipe you see on the ground by the wall.
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The poolfilter / pump system is about 35 feet away from the house (with porch) so the pump has to push the water across the back of the pool along the wall till it lines up with the house. From the wall, the water feed has to go about 25 feet from the block fence to where it rises to the roof.
(Note the solar oven where solar baked beans are in progress...)
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| Eventually the water has to get to the solar collectors on the porch roof. There are two pipes in the first picture - one taking the water up to the roof and the other bringing it back down. Dave was concerned that the pool filter pump might not have enough oomph to get the water "uphill" and thru the panels, but those concerns were unwarranted.
The second photo shows the panels on the porch roof. They are installed in 2 banks of 4 each--the plumbing for 2 banks was not obvious the banks are fed separately but the supply pipe delivers to both and the returns join together to send the warm water back to the pool. The water is fed at the left side bottom of the collectors and returns from the right side top. A pressure relief valve is installed on the left top corner and an end cap on the right bottom corner of each bank. The panels slant a bit toward the intake to facilitate drainage when necessary. The cloth straps sent by the manufacturer to tie the panels to the roof disintegrated within 3 months in the Arizona sun! Dave replaced them with plastic covered electrical wire when we found one whole bank of collectors blown off the roof during the summer. Luckily they did not seem to be damaged.
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| Bret helps install panels in May |
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| The Internet offered several choices for solar panels to heat pools. They all seemed to use the same basic principle of many pvc black tubes connected by plumbing pipe and rubber tubes with clamps. The main choice seemed to be horizontal or vertical installation. There were also a rather wide range of prices. I looked at: SmartPool Sunheater 2 X 20 Sold in boxes of 2 SunGrabber 4X10-4X20 Aquasol 4X8-4X12
Harter Hi-Temp 2X15-4X40 The vendor I chose was Doheny's Water Warehouse for the SmartPool collectors because the installation kit was included with the panels making the total price less than buying an installation kit and separate panels. I had to purchase extra parts though because the panels needed to be installed in two separate "banks". I had to find the extra parts from a different vendor (PoolSupplyWorld) that sold them separately. I ordered extra roof cleats (that I didn't need when the missing parts finally came) and a pressure relief valve and got an extra end cap as well as all the connecting pipes (I used drain pipe because it is black) at Lowes. One collector box was missing the connecting tubes and roof cleats and it took a couple of months for the missing parts to be shipped. I had not pursued the request vigorously and the company apologized when I had to contact them twice about the missing pieces. The delay caused us to have to wait until the weather got cooler to finish the installation. We didn't need to heat the water in Arizona's 110 degree heat this summer anyway and we didn't miss the nighttime cooling feature that the panels advertise--the water feels good when it is hot even if it is 90 degrees. The low humidity in Arizona cools wet skin rapidly.
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When the heated water comes down the second pipe, it falls into the pool. Even flowing quickly, it picks up 10 degrees. The first picture shows Ellen measuring the water as it returns to the pool. The second picture is more of a close-up showing the temperature at 90, after circulating under the sun, when the pool water starts at 80.
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