DIY Solar Pool Heater - Simple & Easy Design - Did it work? | Anika's DIY Life
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- Make a DIY solar pool heater using inexpensive material in a weekend. And find out if it works!
Get LOTS more details and update on if these homemade solar pool heaters helped increase the days we could use the pool - www.anikasdiyl...
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Lumber - pressure treated 2x4
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Find out how it worked for us - www.anikasdiylife.com/diy-solar-pool-heater/
Your link doesn't work
@@RobertHunley Yes, it does work.
It's been 2 months or so. Would love to "Find out how it worked for us" but no new information given. It's all just word for word verbatim, everything said in the video. Just a shameless plug to your website? We'll just assume you've been too busy. Either way. I wouldn't invest in neither the time or the money unless someone can actually prove this works, undeniably show desirable real world results. which I did not see here. All we saw was mildly hot water coming out at a trickle (on an extremely hot sunny day) which will have exactly what kind of impact!? And if it's 100F outside anywhere, why in hell do you need the pool above 70ish to swim in it. I would want it cold so you can COOL yourself off on it, isn't that the point of an outdoor pool?! Have it warm when it's cold out and cold when it's warm out and this project does nothing to address that. Sorry but I have to agree witha few of the comments, looks like a flop. Thurs no cheap way around heating a pool.
@@itechhen Dude! 70 degrees is way too cold for a pool. 78-82 degrees is the norm, at least round these parts, but I even find 78 degrees a bit too cold, personally prefering 82-85 degrees.
@@itechhen I'm sorry but you are incredibly rude if you haven't figured out by now that the solar heating panels do work and are sufficient ways to heat a pool then why are you even looking into this it's no one's job to show you that this is a science that works the only difference in this video and other videos is showing different ways she clearly showed you the increase in temperature and I believe on her website link it also shows the supply list which I found hopeful I don't know it looks like you just want everyone to do the work for you and then you're incredibly rude on top of that
This is a good initial concept if you have plenty of sun. After researching materials needed to make this and doing what today's productsoffer, I decided to opt for a tankless electric 8 gallon water heater. The cost difference was $100 more and getting the tankless water heater including all the material such as miscellaneous timers hoses water transfer pump. The pros are I get on demand hot water up to 150°The negatives are to be tested yet still have to see what the electric bill is. The hoses needed to get hundreds of feet just to get hot water does make sense but with what we can do with today's technology there are newer options. A typical water heater for a pool would costs thousands but I only had to spend a few hundred. Thank you for your video.
No need to restrict the flow. The amount of heat energy going to the pool will be the same. In fact when impeding flow you may end up with less energy transfer.
Few understand this.
100% This. I've watched at least 20 videos of people making these.. I don't understand why everyone restricts the flow to a trickle. I understand that it's cool to see a 40+ degree difference in temperature but you are just hurting the pump. The energy still ends up in the pool no matter the flow rate.
Just buy a low power pump that has enough head pressure for the hose length you want to run and leave it unrestricted.
Think about commercial pool heaters. They work great but you can't feel or barely even measure a temperature difference coming out of the jet when 50 gallons per minute go thru them. They still heat the pool up.
yes to this, the heat rise slows down exponentially, where if you stop the flow and open the tap a few hours later it would have reached very near its temperature ceiling. There is probably an optimum flow rate, although this would probably be negligible in comparison to just letting it flow at the pumps full ability. So please try with the tap fully open. I am heating a 4600 litre pool with a homemade one and getting around 4ºC rise from it on a very good sunny day in the UK (yes they do exist ;-). Also, you may want to put it in a box with glass or acrylic window to make use of the greenhouse effect. Nice video :thumbsup:
There is an optimum flow rate. Depends on length of pipe and pump power. I find my pump on full flow, the pipes don't get warm at all. I slow the flow down until just the very end of the pipe becomes warm.
@@monoman151 The pipe isn't getting warm because the water is taking the heat energy and putting it in your pool!
Excellent discussion. I have watched a lot of DIY water heater projects and they are all concerned about how nice their projects are NEVER focusing on efficiency.!
Ur tutorials are detailed and simple to understand and follow. Appreciate your style of teaching. Ty
Appreciate you watching! Thanks!
Nice video filled with good tips & trix. I'm setting up a solar powered pool heater right now and my goal is 30°C / 86°F in the pool. I'm starting with 250 meters / 820 feet of 20 mm / ¾ inch PEM hose in a flat rooftop setup. A 20V rainwater barrel pump (2,000 liters - 528 gallons / hour) will be connected directly to a solar panel, so it's a completely automatic system controlled and powered by the sun.
No sun = no pump = no heating.
Since I'm located at 60° latitude in the northern hemisphere, I'll guess it'll be some problems and remakes to solve along the way, but it'll be fun.
Keep up your good work
I build a heater with 200m of 16mm PE pipe. I use a 12V 20W pump with up to 800l flow per hour. The power comes from a 80W solarpanel with 22Ah Akku. It warms 6m³ from 20°C to 26°C in 4h. Output on sunny days is between 30 to 46°C . This winter i will build an vegetetableoil heater using an 8kw diesel car heater, for lesser sunny days, because northern germany is not so overly "sunkissed".😔😔😉😉 last month i added a programable clock to startthe pump in the morning and stop it at late afternoon.
We are considering doing this in our backyard. Thanks for including the things that you would change. It helps with the final design.
Thanks
I tried a solar heater. The water coming out of the hose is warmer then the water in the pool, but it only raised the pool water tempurature a 1-2 degrees. The solar heater works best when it is a very sunny day, which is also when you least need to raise the pool water tempurature. The heater also takes up space in your yard. A lot of work and money with very little benefit.
There are a lot of these shown online. I like this one because the material, in wood is minimum if you are just using radiant heat and not trying to trap it. However, others have mentioned to slow down the flow to increase the temperature of the water coming out. This is not necessary. Heat always moves toward cooler median. By slowing the flow you increase the heat, but decrease the flow. This is actually counter intuitive. By decreasing the speed in which the water, it heats the water more, but because the water is not hotter than the hose and air around it, you in turn cause heat to leave the water and heat the hose/air... It would be more efficient to allow the water to flow faster and absorb heat, because it still will, since the water is cooler than the hose and air immediately outside it. While you may not feel much of an increase in the temperature, you increase the flow, increase the temperature of more water, and not lose heat to the air outside the hose. Over the course of time, you will increase the temperature of the entire pool at a slightly faster rate because you are losing less heat to the air. Want to test this? Place your hand on or just outside of the hose, near the end of the run, an see if it feels warm or hot. If you feel heat, then you are losing heat... Good luck
The best setups incorporate a black base with a clear color to retain heat . Also, no additional pump is needed if you tee out of the return line.
Necessity is the mother of invention! Great job!
Great video and details . Even better getting your kids involved. Considering this for my tiny 8 foot pool .
Thanks for the video I really appreciated how you laid it out, your explanations were simple enough that I took on the task of building a coil today. I did it by myself and it probably took me 30 minutes once I had all of my supplies together. My sun is intermittent today so it's hard to really get a feel for if it worked. I bought essentially all of the same parts you used so I'm hopeful once my sun is constant that the water will heat up. I also haven't painted anything matte black yet so I could still do that too. I thought I'd share my cost breakdown because I didn't have the extra hoses or anything other than the screws to do this project.
I got most of my supplies from my local chain hardware store (w/orange logo):
$40 - 5/8 inch contractor hose 100ft
$20 - x2 input/output hoses 25ft each (I need them to reach the roof of my garage)
$11 - 1/2in 1-hole straps 100pk (enough for 2 coils)
$10 - gooseneck shutoff coupling
$2.65 - x4 1.5x2.5x96 lumber (I went cheaper and lighter than 2x4s)
Total = $111.60
The pump I purchased from your link for $61.53
I could have purchased some things cheaper online, but I wanted to get the project done the next day and the pump is the only thing that would get delivered that quickly. Something to be aware of if purchasing from your local hardware store, each coil will cost closer to $100 each, but if it works it will be worth it.
Use a pallet. Use Irrigation tubing not hoses, way cheaper. Use perforated metal hanger straps with screws to secure loop to the pallet. Wrap whole thing with plastic sheeting. Let pump run unrestricted.
What kind of plastic sheeting? Love this idea
Cover pool at night. Restrict evaporation. Boom.
I have a small pool, threw foam core boards over it at night. Keeps air moving across water from cooling at night. My husband plumbed landscape tubing (cheap black) straight into pool pump system. No exposure of chlorinated water to another pump. $ Landscape tubing is inexpensive and you can add endless feet of exposure. If it is attached and enclosed in a material that absorbs and holds heat, cement board backer painted black and topped with polycarbonate sheets, increases heat retention.
@@sunnygirl87 I wish you could email me a picture of this! I have cement board here and just bought 300 ft of irrigation hose today.... Tomorrow I'm building something
@@PaulaOakman did u build it?
Nice simple design. You shouldn't restrict the flow with that ball valve. Yes the water coming out of the end won't seem as hot, but you are moving a lot more volume. Basically you are not getting the full efficiency and heat out of your system. The restriction also makes your pump work harder and draws more electricity. You can google this if you are skeptical, but I do have a degree in thermodynamics. ; ) Nice work though.
How about putting a black covering over the pool, and use the pump to circulate the water? Shouldnt that work better?
Yes a higher velocity drops the temperature, however it produces the same heat energy because is the additional volumes of warmer water.
do u know how is this called? as i couldnt explain it to my friend.he thinks that if water goes slower it heats more water, if goes faster it heats less water.i tried to explain him that it doesnt matter, as water system is closed, you are not adding more water, he could understand that, also guy in shop which was seliing me electric water heater told me that i need slower pump so water have time to heat up when going trough heater.i tried to explain him how it works but he didnt understand either.has this thermodynimic thing name or something which i can show to prove?
@@s9benne The purpose of a thermostat in a car is to allow the engine to reach operating temperature BEFORE cooling it down. Think of the term "warming up the engine" - you don't want 35 degree coolant cycling through the engine you just started. Does a pool heater need an equivalent? Sure, but only if the water in the hose is significantly colder than what you're trying to heat (the rest of the pool).
@@martinm2074 Well, the sun gives about 1KW of energie per square meter. no mater the flow, that will be your energie input.
@@s9benne a thermostat is to keep your engine warm, not to cool it down. eg: when restricted, the water in the radiator cools down more.... yet at the same time the water in the engine gets warmer. the ideal temperature for an engine is about 92 degrees C. at that temperature the engine does not melt, butt the fuel vaporizes easily. to get to that temperature quickly, the termostat is closed till aprox that temperature.
That’s the most explanatory solar pool vid. Thx
Thank you for sharing. As a lot of commenters have said. Your goal is to push water through the tubing as fast as possible. Think about it this way. If your pool is 20,000gal your minimum pool pump would be 40gpm or 2400 gph. In 8 hours you would cycle your whole pool. All the water in your pool passes through your filter. Now for a pool heater. Imagine if you could have the same flow rate but only increase the water passing through your solar system by 5 degrees on average throughout 8 hours. Now at the end of one day, all of the pool water has had its temp increased by 5 degrees. Across 3 days you would have a 15-degree increase in the pool water temp. This does not take into account the pool temp drop at night and a few other factors. But it is a simplistic explanation of why everyone says higher flow and lower temp increase is better than trickle flow and higher temp. Another test is to touch your hoses. If they are warm you are not flowing high enough and you are losing energy that could be in your water. If you cover them with a greenhouse effect the touch test will not work but more energy is trapped and more heat will go into the hoses.
Test your setup: Turn flow rate all the way up. Put your hose in a 5-gallon bucket and time it and take water temp. Take the system and split it at the pump so you have two hoses about 100 feet long. Put both of them in a 5-gallon bucket and time how long it takes to fill and take water temp. Even if you are only seeing a 3 degree increase your pool may heat up faster than slow high temp water. The goal is the removal of as much heat from the system as possible. The colder the hoses are due to the heat being transferred to the water. Hope this helps. Thank you once again for your video.
Use free pallets for the base.
Cover the coils with plastic to reduce convection cooling.
Do not run water through both coils. Put a Y connector between pump & coils with two return hoses. You will get twice the volume of heated water.
Would putting the return hose deeper in the water increase efficiency.?
Did you use flat black paint on the hose and insulate the back?
Wow! Hose is so cheap in the US. For me I think cheap 12mm (1/2 inch) black pvc irrigation tube would be better as the hose would provide some insulation. Thought about going for 25 mm (1 inch) tube but think capillarity would improve the flow if smaller. As others say I dont think you actually need the pump although you would need to prime first by filling the tube but you could do that from a tap. Anyway, great video Anika and family!
So a friend of mine is a pool engineer. We were talking about these systems. What you’ve got to remember is you need a blow off valve for when the pool has reached temp. There will always be water in those coils so if you stop the flow to the pool it’s going to become superheated.
yeah I found out that the hard way!
Shut the pump off and gravity will pull the water back out of the hose.
Maybe try using a sheet of plywood for the hoses , saves a lot of time . Thanks for the informative video .
I live in Vegas. And this would just be a huge energy saver. I love a warm pool. This would be amazing. A whole day using this set up in Vegas would be amazing.
Anika, if you have a/c units you can place your hoses above the exhaust fan (120F) air, not too close so you don't obstruct the air flow.
great build. Congratulations
Nice good 👍👍👍
Greeting from indonesia tanks.
At Home Depot they have black tubing it’s irrigation tubing it comes in a coil it’s rigid sort of like PVC but more bendable than PVC. And not as flexible as hose. And they sell the connectors for them also that twist into place stick to pieces.
Way ahead of you we did this years ago here in Michigan with our above ground pool. We had coils set up on pallet wood pallets and they were in the back of the yard we did have to rotate them towards the Sun a few times. We also had them on our garage roof. We had it rigged where it went right into our pool pump and all of that. When it was 70° out our pool was 95!
Plus you have to keep your pool covered at night! To pool covers at night one the bumpy kind of has air in it and a regular like a winter pool cover over top of that. And if you really want to you could throw in a punch couple air pillows. You’ll have a crank in your crank the pool cover out over your pool.
The more coils you have the more warm warm water that comes back to your pool all they do is circulate your pool water through the hoses and back into the pool. Also it’s important to lead some spacing between your coils each tube needs to have a tiny bit of space between it because the more sun that can hit every side of that coil heats faster than all the coils wrapped tight against each other!!
Excellent explanation. Thank you!
Good idea. I recommend not to put inside of the water a 120V electric pump in order to avoid accidents. Use an a 12 V transformed pump.
I have a plan for you. Paint some of that south facing wall black, then notch some 1x3 lumber every 2 inches to hold the hose (or irrigation pipe) use masonry screws to hold the boards to the wall. Of course you have already painted the would black, make sure you have a cap over the 8 or 10 vertical 1x3's. Cover with a layer of poly-carbonate green house twin wall sheeting from the greenhouse supply store..
The bottom line question: What is the net temperature gain of the pool, and the total size? Also, some space between the coils would allow more insolation to strike the hose surface. Using the concrete as a heat sink also has some merit, as would a solar pool cover.
Nice Video Anika. Simple, Practical & Informative. There is one major issue that often get overlooked however with Pool Heating Systems and that is that its pointless going to the trouble of Heating the Water if the Pool is not thermally covered. On Low Volume Flows (i.e. heating only a very small % of the total water volume per unit of time) The inflow of Heated Water is diluted rapidly in the proportionately larger Pool Water Volume and dissapates far too quickly to have any effect on raising water temperature effectively. Covering the Pool Surface with a Thermal Blanket would allow the temperature to be retained longer in the Pool over time HOWEVER the circulating flow through the Heating System needs to be proportionately larger to really work. I dont know the answer but would guess that a minimum of 10% water volume should circulate per hour in order to raise total temperature reasonably.
Great post . It's worth mentioning the flow rate should be as high as posible . This is counter intuitive , Anika wants hot to the touch water coming out , but heat transfer to the pool will be greater without the valve and max flow.
I really like your videos. What you need is a little solar power. Just put the same concept to a different rule. So, put it on plywood, paint it black and put the coils on top. Raise the hose about 1/2 inch off the plywood. Solar-powered.
It would be interesting to see results if you used irrigation polyethylene and insulated the back with a radiant barrier.
It's going to take all summer to get 10 degrees warmer the way you are doing this DIY...
Did you read the article I linked?
We bought a solar heater mat (6ft x 12ft) that hooked in line to our pool's return line and it made the water so warm, we rigged a ball valve to by-pass the heater for when the temps got too warm. Now this is in Connecticut, where average temp of water without heater is 75*-80*. With the heater, no bull crapping, the temp of the water went as high as 116*. Too warm. We learned to regulate it to keep the water temp around 100*. Just right. Extended us to late october.
How many gallons were you heating?
@@jonathaneaves5840 it was a 16 ft round 52 inch deep pool. I believe it was 23,000gallons total, give or take 50.
The only problem if ya wanna call it a problem was the higher the water temp was, it seemed like we were adding more chlorine due to the elevated temps 'burning' it off quicker.
Good video! Guessing you all are computer science or electrical engineers… temperature and flow rate are inversely proportional but thermal energy entering the pool water is roughly the same regardless. Allowing the tubes to become significantly warmer probably allows more heat to escape into the air as rate of convective heat transfer rises with delta T. In other words, let the pump run full. The outlet temp will be slightly higher than inlet temp even if you can’t measure it easily but the energy being moved into the pool will be the same or better with fewer losses at the coil to air exchange. A trickle of scalding hot water “feels” like it’s doing more than a torrent of luke warm but you have to do the math to actually know.
put your hose in a enclosed box with a polycarbonate front to maximize the effect. material needed: 3/4" plywood covered in silver fence paint. 2x4" for the sides and a 3/4 inch piece of polycarbonate for the front. use the same hose layout you have now but hold it in place with a cross made out of plywood or thin strips of wood. No need to restrict the pump.
Really enjoyed the video. We live in North Florida where our swim season usually ends in October. I have a 33000 gallon pool and it gets cold quick when the temperature changes. But I have a really big patio roof that I’m going to put about 500 feet of irrigation hose on the roof. Probably going to have to get a bigger sun pump to get the water up 12 ft though. But I plan on extending the swimming season till December and open back up in February hopefully!!
We live in north Florida also. We go tubing at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
when it's all said and done, the commercial rooftop mounted thermal collectors are not much more than garden hoses, and designed to maximize heat gain by maximizing surface area.
The faster you can move water from the heater to the pool and back will give the greatest heat transfer to the pool. Thats why commercial solar heaters are in parallel. You don't want the in and out to be radically different. The return water from the solar and pool supply should track within the smallest amount possible at the greatest flow rate and they rise in unison with a delta T of no more than 2 degrees.
Thanks for sharing, Will improve if:
+ Connect them in paralel instead of séries
+ Increase flow
+ Place system inlet and outlet apart (inlet should be from the bottom where is cooler)
"+ Place system inlet and outlet apart (inlet should be from the bottom where is cooler)"
What?!
@@itechhen so the pump suction is at the coldest part of the pool and the discharge is away from the suction, you don't want to be pumping the warmer water back through the system
Great tip. Thanks for the view.
You need to run the heater coils in parallel for better efficient heat transfer from sun to water coming in from pool pump!
Finally, someone with an engineering mindset does this. Visited the blog. Nice flow rate chart. Vids show 70F temp. You State 78F with the heater. Worth Pointing out in the vid.
God i love your brain. I couldn't figure it out but thats exactly what i was trying to do thank u
Can even float maybe pool cover hmm lol
Finally someone using a garden hose instead of irrigation hose. Is there an uodate hiw this is doing?
If you do two large coils and use the piping for irrigation and modify the outlet that water is put in the pool you can save electricity from a separate pump. Two coils gives more distance to handle faster flow. Just drain the pool below the valve that water is flowed in the pool with its own circulation and modify that to connect the solar to that and the other wind of the solar back in the pool. If not you can always keep that method and get a solar panel at harbor freight cheap for powering the pump.
Great video. Thanks a lot.
You are welcome!
"the water doesn't have time to heat up". That's a misunderstanding. You need to run the water at maximum flow. Sure the water comes out cooler but you are adding more heat into the pool per unit of time.
I'm not claiming to be an expert here. If the flow rate is low, and the water come out hotter, isn't this the same net effect as if the flow rate is high, and the water was heated less? In the end, isn't it the same? Genuinely curious thanks.
@@plutonium9 actually, it's not the same. If the exit temperature is only 1 degree hotter than the entrance, then that would be better than a 20 degree difference. For example, if you had 2 setups, side by side and felt the hoses on each, the one that feels hotter will be the less producing one. If the heat energy is still on the rubber hose, it's not in the water that is flowing through it, therefore you are losing heat. You want the water to cool the hose and as it cools the hose it absorbs the heat.
@@plutonium9 Your idea is right, but I think in reality you always deal with losses and a low flow rate introduces more losses than a high one. Basically what Hives2Honeyfarm said, but it doesn't really explain it. But he's right in that you want the water to cool the hose down as much as possible, and that happens less when restricting the flow.
You don’t need another coil, you only need to increase the surface that catches sunlight. Lay it flat on the ground or even better 90 degrees angle towards the sun.
Enclose the coil in a glass fronted box. It will heat up even more (think about how the interior of your car feels after it’s been left out in the sun). Also, if you have plenty of sun,why not make the pump solar powered?
You would blow the budget using a photovoltaic system to drive the pump. Every dollar spent has to go towards heat gain.
Great job!! Awesome project
I built my one in a box painted black and covered with glass
cool!
Nice experiment!
Thank you!
I put a solar cover on in April, in a week the pool was 35 degrees warmer. We were in the pool early May. 😊
Please provide the resource info for solar cover you used.
If you could connect your solar heater straight to your pool pump you could do away with the sump pump and keep it running even when your using the pool. Probably the most efficient would be a solar cover over the pool that would keep the heat in it during the night and help heat it more during the day when the sun shines on it.
I feel the need to add something that nobody has fully explained about throttling down the water flow. First off, even if you could get the temp increase from 75 up to 110 degrees you are nearing an uncomfortable discharge temp for small kids. Next I'll mention that most garden hose has a shorter life span at higher temps, which is why high temp (hot water) hose is sold. (yes, it costs more) The real deal behind gaining BTUs is in this example... Think of how easy it is to raise the temp from say 75 to 85, even on an 85 degree day. It becomes less efficient to attempt raising it further because now you are dealing only with solar gain and nothing from ambient air temp. Taking this a further step, lets suppose you slow the flow to gain a few more degrees output but you probably need to cut the GPM by half to do that so basically you have less total volume and therefore less total BTUs of transfer. Last but not least, somewhere in the hose loop (maybe half way on a hot day) the water is over ambient temp (let's call that 85 degrees) and if it's 85 degrees outside your ability to absorb more BTUs is diminished by a fair amount. Again, strictly absorbing solar, but no ambient heat gain.
There's a few more items that I will gloss over... in order to heat a pool you need to gain heat faster than the surface area of the pool can give it back to the air. There are calculations available to compensate for sun / shade / ambient temp versus total surface area of the water. I wont get into those details. In the northern sections of the USA solar collector size needs to approach the total square footage of the pool surface to get 10 - 20 degree rise. I have not worked the warmer areas of the USA but suspect the numbers will be 25% - 50% of that. You also need to shut the system down at night to prevent cooling of the water.
Cheapest way to raise pool temps? (long term cost) Use a floating pool cover. (looks like bubble wrap) It does wonders for solar gain and almost completely stops evaporative heat loss. You can also save a few bucks on chlorine consumption because you are lowering the UV exposure.
BTW, you could install some hose connections (with valves) directly at the pool pump, which would cut down on the extra pump and all of those extra hoses on the deck, not to mention the extension cords. Put the whole system on a timer to gain savings on your electric bill and not run at night when it will cool the pool.
You are 100% correct on the bubble covers. We used it in our past pool and it works EXCELLENT..Almost too hot if left on long, but perfect at cool nights. Also leaves your yard nice and clean once rolled out of the way.
Seen the price of the bubble covers lately? Used 6mil 20x100 ($90) sheeting from HD. Covered entire pool, secure to coping with 100' hose around perimeter. Added some cheap floats from $ store. Lasted over a year, same as the expensive bubble covers, but got 3x the covers, (cut to fit) then the $200 cover for a 1 time use....
Hello! If you painted the pool a dark color, you have much more surface than a coiled hose to capture solar radiation and it would offer much more heat energy gain without the need to turn on a pump
Unfortunately, an incredibly huge waste of water, especially in a drought-ridden climate- California.
Great idea! I love that this was a family project ❤
Thanks! I am so so glad we made it! Gotta keep those kids occupied!
This is awesome and so practical! I love it😊
Thanks for this idea, How is the hose produce the heat… bit confused .. is there electric coil in the hose ?
The black hose collects heat from the sun and heats the water as it flows through.
@@Anikasdiylife ok .. but that would not be sufficient to hit 10000 plus gallons of water.. may be solar panel or heating coil can make it heat faster .. need some engineering though.. we too can’t use pool during winter although in texas :)
Enclose them in a box painted black with a glass lid. that will trap more heat around the pipes making it more efficient.
Wouldn't plexiglass be better or just as good
@@rhdtv2002 I think the Problem with SOME plexiglass is it yellows in the sun which would cancel the benefits.
@@latinlil2185 polycarbonate would be fine in the sun.
thank you!!!
You could figure out how to put the hoses on the top of the roof of your shed. There’s a lot of heat energy there.
Tip: put the hose flat on a rooftop, asfalt shingles are the best. The heat transfer from the roof to the coil will increase the efficiency tremendously.
You didn’t really watch the video did you? Because I said I wanted to have it so we could put it away when not used.
@@Anikasdiylife Ooooouuuuch !
You should keep that extension cord farther away from the pool!! Accidents happen. but can be avoided
Hopefully it is a working gfci and will instantly trip
even if it's a difference of 0.1° it will still work. There's thermal energy added to the pool. You should also put the return hose at the bottom of the pool if possible so that it mixes with the rest of the water
Good work. Thanks for sharing.
A 12V pump and a few 12v solar panels would be a nice twist for your build!
12v pump is way louder than the utility pump as it must work very hard to push all the water. Also flow rate is much higher for 110v pump.. Just make sure do not run this when people are in the pool, and use CFGI plug for the pump. I have a harbor freight 12v pump and the noise is quiet loud, and 110v utility pump can barely noticeable.
🇨🇦👍🤠Add a one-way valve and a timer to shut off the pump for 20 mins at a time then run for 5 mins. Then you will not need to control the water flow.
You need enclose the coils in a black bioxwith a clear top
Pool cover works much better. You can raise the temperature by about 4-7 degrees Celsius in the pool if the difference between day and night temperature is 10 degrees.
Curious how well the garden hose has held up to the chlorination. Considered using Pex, but have read where it can break down with chlorine pool applications. Also considered using soft copper, but read where you could be introducing too much copper chloride into the water. So that leads me back to using a garden hose and also whether the time and effort is really producing good results. In the past I've used solar covers on our pool. I'll admit, these covers work well. But the last one I bought $175 only last me 2 yrs. All the bubbles started to pop and created a huge mess in the pool. So now been looking for alternative and inexpensive way to heat up the pool.
Paint the hose matt black for slightly higher temps. Or even better some "black 3.0", which will absorb almost all light :)
Did you watch the whole video? I did paint it matte black
If you are trying to increase the total heat of the pool it's more effective to move the water through the hose faster. Cool water captures the sun's energy more readily than hot water.
1,000' of black 1/2" Rainbird irrigation tubing is $100, a flat coil of which would be about 10' diameter on the roof. Polyethylene does have limited UV resistance, so possibly coat it with a black plastic-adhering primer.
First and foremost, your return should be on the opposite side of where your pump is otherwise you're just pulling in the already heated water. Drop your pump into the deepest part of the pool. As for the coils, just build a box and paint it black. Use plywood for the back, whatever wood is sufficient for the sides, and then plastic sheathing or corrugated plastic on top. You can actually attach it to your fence if you want. Add hinges to one side and foldable/adjustable legs to the other side so you can lay it flat against the fence when not in use.
I don't have a pool but I have an idea that I haven't seen on UA-cam. When the water is too cold to swim in I would float a black material directly on the water and let the heat transfer into the water. Maybe one of those black plastic ground covers submerged a little. I would try lightweight materials that float and transfer its heat into the pool water. Consider a material that could cover the entire pool surface.
Wow cool i think we should try this but my moms pool is much bigger :( its just so cold were are in Canada. Can we use this while we have a solar blanket on? And can we keep the watet hose unďer the watet running into the pool?
Thanks
You should put them in a wood box with a clear top with a smaller diameter hose you could double the length as well.
Nice video, but when I did this the flow was never going to be enough to heat my pool and its only 10k liter. Yes your test shows heat increases when placed directly into your cup but you need to show pools temperature after a day with this method.
It will take time to heat up and a day is not enough either. It takes our pool about a week of full sun to warm up enough to be able to swim. We have used it the last few years and while this isn’t as quick as an actual pool heater, it has definitely added over a month to our swimmable time vs letting the sun warm it up for us in the spring.
The flow rate wont really matter. Its adding some "X" number of Joules (energy) per second to the pool regardless of the flow rate. With the slower flow rate, youre getting a higher output temperature, but on a long enough time scale it will be irrelevant. The higher flow rate may help since youll have more water in contact with the inner surface of the hose.
first of all comments who speek wise!
hi so I saw another video where they did this but they used a copper coil section on a grill. He also used a hose a spray on the end in order to again trickle the water.. In that case, where it’s not dependent on the entire hosing system, being heated by the sun, just a relatively small portion of the coils being hot AF on the grill… would it still be better to go at maximum flow rate?
@XclusiveChiq I'd say so yeah. Heat transfer slows as the difference in temperatures diminishes. So, the faster you're pumping it through, the cooler the water in the line will be, the greater the difference in the temperature is between the water and the heat source, the more efficient the heat transfer will be.
Have a question for you guys about the pool heater. How did you connect the sump pump to the hose? Did you just saw off the first part of the plastic elbow-connector?
Nice family project. Thanks for sharing. I'm curious for the results on longer terms.
Put them in a box with pvc glass on top. Thermal dynamics means your losing as much heat as its going through the pipes as your losing
It looks like you've got to use multiple pumps for a long time, to heat the pool effectively. Is it still using less electricity than a regular pool heater? Is it still using fewer non renewable resources overall (Including processing of metal, plastics, etc.)?
I just lay my 200 foot garden hose on the concrete deck in the sun out of the way and it does fine.
My question is did it actually make the pool swim able when you wanted it to? I was curious if it actually raised the overall temp of the pool
Instead of putting your 'hose circle' at almost and 90 degree angle( standing up ), try about a 15 - 20 degree angle. also, like others have mentioned, try putting a sheet of glass on top of those 'circles' in a 4' x 4' 'box ( 2" x 4" sides attached to a 4' x 4' CDX sheet of plywood & all this painted blk ). Just a thought.
It isn’t at 90 degrees. It is at an angle on the wall. We don’t have enough yard space to have it laying down. Which is the reason we built it such that we can move them easily. Adding a sheet of glass would have been our next step but it worked well without it and we didn’t need it.
Very informative and factual video. Anika, would you say that if a person wants to heat just an inground hot tub that a single coil unit could work ?
I read a few of the comments but didn’t see anything about how long it takes to heat up the pool. If your pool is it 70° and you turn this on, does it take a week to get it up to 75°? I want my pool to be at 80° is it in possible to expect that to happen with this kind of set up? Thanks, in case you didn’t notice, I am completely new at looking at solar power through hoses for your swimming pool lol
All well and good. The question is at what rate of flow (Gals/hour) using your 2 x 100 foot sytems does it take to achieve an one degree increase IN THE POOL (what was the total volume of water in the pool?
You can calculate yourself to death and that won’t help a thing. Make it and maybe try using your existing pump to run the heater you get what you get and don’t through a fit!
I am going to try the guage port on the filter to put water through the coil
Try using a bubble insultaor pool cover..it works really well for us.
I found it extremely annoying to get rolled. And the rollers are like $400
I just bought an adapter to connect a standard black garden hose to one of the water run jets (after the water runs through the pool filter). Then I loosely coiled up the hose on the pool deck (which gets pretty hot and probably heats up the hose faster). On a hot Texas day the water coming out of the hose is too hot to touch!
I've just tried the same thing, 1 1/2" to 3/4" adapter and connect black hoses. It seems a lot easier than getting a seperate pump. I've got 200' going and it seems to bring temp of water up about 10 degrees at full flow on a 75 degree sunny day. It has occurred to me that this system will also cool water at night if left connected on a cool night.
Put a big black tarp over the water, the sun rays will hit this and will directly heat the water, much easier and quicker. Your effective area the sun is hitting right now is only a square meter, where as you could use the entire pool as a receiver if you covered it with a black cover.
and make a solar copper ionizer to use under the black 6mil sheeting from HD.
Hi, Anika. We just got the pump. Dumb question here: is it safe to swim while the pump is on in the pool?
I wondered the same thing
Plug it into a gfci receptacle
For those who are wondering: I'm using a 3000 gallon an hour pump and it pumps out 87f or around 30 celcius
Q = m . c . ΔT no need to restrict the flow
Just buy a suncollector on Amazon
You need to encase it. Most of the heat comes in the form of IR. So you need to encase it in plexi glass or something similar that then allows for NO airflow to cool it down.