Swimming pools blog

Nick,
It depends on where you are located. I have been researching solar
pool heating. The common black mat collectors disappointed me. THe
required square footage relative to the pool surface area was in
excess of 50%. I can just see 250 sq ft of black mat on my roof.
They were also a bit expensive - so I decided to go off on a tangent
because of the cost, visual appeal (or lack of) and I’m basically a
DIY’er — This was in early October 2002.
I researched collector area, heat absorption, evaporative heat
losses, thermal availibility, the whole nine yards. I received a
tremendous amount of advise from a expert who frequently visits the
alt.solar.thermal news group
The bottom line was that if you can increase the insulation value of
the cover, you can get away with a heck of a lot smaller collector
area. Typical blue bubble covers are approximately R-1 in value. In

my area (South New Jersey), I would require 250 square feet of
cllector with an R-1 cover. If I can insulate to an R-3 or R-4
cover, I can reduce my collector area to under 80 square feet.
Evaporative losses account for 70% of pool water heat loss.
I have the excel sheet completed and I will upload it into the FILES
section later today. The sheet contains the following links
1. Obtaining your longitude, latitude, with this you can obtain solar
insolation data
2. Link to solar iinsolation data for your location (US only)I do not
know where to get weather data for other countries.
3. A few other links for constructing your own panels.
Once you have your weather data, you enter your pool surface area,
desired water temperature, and the R value of your cover. It then
calculates your required collector area. I am currently coming up
with a scheme to increase the R value of the cover without it being
burdensome to handle.
One thought is to create a layered blanket by buying some old blue
bubble covers and using grommets to “staple” them together if you
will. Our pool is 16 x 32 inground. So I would have to make two 16
x 16 with three layters or so of bllue bubble cover. This will give
me about R3 and a collector area under 100 sq feet for months april
and October.
I’m also working on creating simple, inexpensive yet efficient solar
thermal panels using material found at Home Depot / Lowes. I have
them drawn but have not made one yet. I should have this done in
March.
Anyhow, I will upload the excel file if anyone is interested in
seeing the effect of insulation versus collector area.
Regards,
John