DIY Solar Pool Heating
Have you ever been in a heated pool and marveled to yourself at how wonderful it is to be able to swim at night or during winter without freezing? Well, you can accomplish that for your swimming pool too by installing a DIY solar pool heating system. As you will see from the steps below, the process is fairly simple.
- Determine how much power your pool will need for heating so you can determine how many solar collectors to purchase. The best place to put solar panels is on the roof so they can soak up the maximum amount of sun.
- Connect all the solar collector panels together using steel clamps to hold them in place.
- Use chalk to mark where they will be mounted so they are properly aligned.
- Drill the mounting clips into the roof so they are secured.
- Attach the solar collector straps over the collectors so they do not get shifted out of place during bad weather.
- Lay out pipe lines that will run from the collectors to the pump. You will need one row of pipe that will feed water from the pump to the collectors and then another row to feed the warm water from the collectors back to the pump. Try to maintain straight angles with the pipes.
- Attach the piping to the roof with pipe straps and drill them down so they remain anchored.
- Install a differential controller that will help to detect when the sun is bright enough to allow your collectors to heat the water.
- Preset the temperatures on the controller.
- Connect all of the valves that allow water to be diverted to the collectors, warmed and then returned to the pool.
- Connect all sensors that are used to detect the temperature of water in the pool as well as water in the collectors.
Although these steps may seem a little detailed to you, you will be surprised at how simple the entire process is. Just source the right materials and get a hand from somebody to help you complete the process in less than a day.