Question:
I have a above ground pool and I would like to make a solar pool heater. I
assume you would use black flex pipe. I also would like to by-pass it at times.
Has anyone done this?
Answer:
Sure have. I've got 6000 feet of black irrigation pipe lying on the southern
slope of the property, and it's been heating my pool for nigh on 6 years. I
plumbed a "Jandy" valve in just after the filter, one side leading to the
solar, the other leading back to the pool. The heated water is returned through
another PVC ball valve into the pipe leading back to the pool. Tom
Work at your leisure!
I have approximately 300' of black pipe spread ot all over the south facing
slope of my garage roof. I have found that it works much better if you can
cover the pipe with a layer of poly to ward off the cooling effects of the
wind. On a hot sunny day, the water comes out of the pipe so hot that I can
only hold my hand under the running water for about 5 seconds. We had the
pool tempuratyer up to 102 degrees f. last summer before I finally decided
it was time to bypass the heater.
I simply used the filter pump that came with the pool. It does not have
enough lift to push water to the roof of my garage, but I found that by
filling the 300' of black hose with my garden hose prior to hooking up the
pump, it works just fine.
This years plan is to mount all of the hose on to two sheets of plywood that
I will paint black. After mounting the hose, I am planning to cover
everything with black poly with hopes of extracting even more heat from the
sun. I will be starting work on that this week.
