Swimming Pool Solar Heating
Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Dirk in Solar Panel Articles
Solar heating is a viable option to keeping your pool warm across the year. It relies on the process of heating water through a chain of solar panels which are exposed to sunlight, and absorb the heat. It isn’t based on photoelectric cells which generate electrical energy from sunlight, instead it’s a more direct conversion of heat in sunlight to heat in water.
The water is fed through the solar cells by the pool pump. The solar panels can be installed on the roof of your place, or they can basically be installed at floor zero in a bracket. The roof level panels are out of the way and not taking up any space in your garden, but the water may need a booster pump to help it battle against gravity on the way up. Either way you will have to angle your solar panels so that they face the sun correctly for your latitude. In the northern hemisphere, this implies that your panels meet face to the south. In the southern hemisphere it is the other way round.
Doing this means that you get the most efficient assimilation of heat in the coldest months of the year, when you need the energy most of all.
But what happens on extraordinarily hot days? Does this water continue to heat up until the pool is worryingly hot or even dangerously hot? No, the solar system has a thermostatic controller which makes sure the temperature of the pool does not go too high. When the temperature is just right, the water isn’t diverted through the panels, so no additional heat is added to the pool. Alternately, you might transfer the water to heat a water tank, which can then be used for other household needs, but this is not compulsory.
Because the sunlight is less intense during winter months, swimming pool not sufficiently good to keep your pool hot all year long. It would definitely stop freezing, but to get nicely warm water in the wintertime months you could need to beef up your solar panels with a more normal heater such as a gas powered heater. However, the solar powered system would pay for itself because it is so much cheaper to run than the gas heater, which will only have to be used now and then.
Whichever route you used to heat your pool, you should definitely get a pool cover and use it to keep heat in when the pool isn’t in use. The majority of the heat that is lost from the pool system is lost from the skin of the pool itself. Using a cover to conserve the heat can halve your heating bills!
Click here to see a site which will give you a giant discount on all of the hardware you need to install pool solar heating.
By: Eli Simpson
The water is fed through the solar cells by the pool pump. The solar panels can be installed on the roof of your place, or they can basically be installed at floor zero in a bracket. The roof level panels are out of the way and not taking up any space in your garden, but the water may need a booster pump to help it battle against gravity on the way up. Either way you will have to angle your solar panels so that they face the sun correctly for your latitude. In the northern hemisphere, this implies that your panels meet face to the south. In the southern hemisphere it is the other way round.
Doing this means that you get the most efficient assimilation of heat in the coldest months of the year, when you need the energy most of all.
But what happens on extraordinarily hot days? Does this water continue to heat up until the pool is worryingly hot or even dangerously hot? No, the solar system has a thermostatic controller which makes sure the temperature of the pool does not go too high. When the temperature is just right, the water isn’t diverted through the panels, so no additional heat is added to the pool. Alternately, you might transfer the water to heat a water tank, which can then be used for other household needs, but this is not compulsory.
Because the sunlight is less intense during winter months, swimming pool not sufficiently good to keep your pool hot all year long. It would definitely stop freezing, but to get nicely warm water in the wintertime months you could need to beef up your solar panels with a more normal heater such as a gas powered heater. However, the solar powered system would pay for itself because it is so much cheaper to run than the gas heater, which will only have to be used now and then.
Whichever route you used to heat your pool, you should definitely get a pool cover and use it to keep heat in when the pool isn’t in use. The majority of the heat that is lost from the pool system is lost from the skin of the pool itself. Using a cover to conserve the heat can halve your heating bills!
Click here to see a site which will give you a giant discount on all of the hardware you need to install pool solar heating.
By: Eli Simpson
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