solar pool heater

[sulfee]

http://www.solartubs.com/Solar-Pool-Heating/ I sure about the quality or the origin of their offering. Has anyone have looked into this before? If you have any other options you know are worth the time to check out, solar pool heater

[Naptown]

http://www.solartubs.com/Solar-Pool-Heating/ I sure about the quality or the origin of their offering. Has anyone have looked into this before? If you have any other options you know are worth the time to check out, solar pool heater

In mild climates way too expensive and complex for the average pool
If pool heating only on an outdoor pool for say an April- October swim season in the north simple plastic heaters are more efficient and cost about 1/5 or less of what that costs

[Kenneth P. Coleman]

Well I like the solar pool heater idea but its too much expensive and easy to affordable for everyone. But the solar pool cover is a much cheap way to heat up pool water.

[J.P.M.]

Well I like the solar pool heater idea but its too much expensive and easy to affordable for everyone. But the solar pool cover is a much cheap way to heat up pool water.

Pool heaters work. Pool covers work. Heaters, solar or fossil fuel fired, cost more than pool covers, usually by a fair amount, but don't usually need a lot of attention. Pool covers can cost a lot less, but need more attention and owner involvement to work optimally. There ain't no free lunch. Also - Sometimes pool covers can be thought of as having some safety issues, particularly if small children and/or animals are present.

[OvertheSun]

Sometimes pool covers can be thought of as having some safety issues, particularly if small children and/or animals are present.

My pool cover is the automated type you've mentioned in other posts. It is a safety cover, so when it's closed, it can support the weight of a adult or child walking across it -- Not that I would advise testing it. There are/were ads showing things like elephants and cars supported by these covers. That's actually what sold me on it to begin with when my daughter who was 3 years old at the time and did not know who to swim, was playing with a ball at a friend's house and ran across the covered pool to retrieve it.
One of my dogs (a Maltese) likes to sleep on it. Kinda like a waterbed, i guess. Only a dangerous if it is partially open because someone could get trapped underneath the cover. But of course, not all covers are safety covers.
In terms of expense, it was about the same price as the solar pool heater, both installed when the pool was built in 2005.
One downside is that it collects water. The simplest solution is to open it when it rains, but that's one more thing to remember. Maybe that could be automated with a rain sensor? Pumping the water off is a pain and slow. The wet/dry shop vac works faster than the little pump supplied with the cover. Can't close it if it has a lot of water on it. If it gets a leak and fills with water, elevate the area with a boogie board or you'll never get the water off.
The other issue is with design. Has to have parallel tracks that the mechanism runs along, so pool shape is limited, unless you install an elevated deck surrounding the whole pool that you can put the tracks on. I was afraid that would be a trip and fall hazard. My tracks are under the pool coping, which isn't something that can be easily retrofitted to an existing pool.
You can get a manual version with a big crank. But everyone i talked to who has one of those regrets it because it is no small feat to open and close (great for upper body strength, I guess). The pool winds up unused because it is too difficult to open, or the cover is left off after use for the same reason.

[Volusiano]

My pool cover is the automated type you've mentioned in other posts. It is a safety cover, so when it's closed, it can support the weight of a adult or child walking across it -- Not that I would advise testing it. There are/were ads showing things like elephants and cars supported by these covers. That's actually what sold me on it to begin with when my daughter who was 3 years old at the time and did not know who to swim, was playing with a ball at a friend's house and ran across the covered pool to retrieve it.
One of my dogs (a Maltese) likes to sleep on it. Kinda like a waterbed, i guess. Only a dangerous if it is partially open because someone could get trapped underneath the cover. But of course, not all covers are safety covers.
In terms of expense, it was about the same price as the solar pool heater, both installed when the pool was built in 2005.
One downside is that it collects water. The simplest solution is to open it when it rains, but that's one more thing to remember. Maybe that could be automated with a rain sensor? Pumping the water off is a pain and slow. The wet/dry shop vac works faster than the little pump supplied with the cover. Can't close it if it has a lot of water on it. If it gets a leak and fills with water, elevate the area with a boogie board or you'll never get the water off.
The other issue is with design. Has to have parallel tracks that the mechanism runs along, so pool shape is limited, unless you install an elevated deck surrounding the whole pool that you can put the tracks on. I was afraid that would be a trip and fall hazard. My tracks are under the pool coping, which isn't something that can be easily retrofitted to an existing pool.
You can get a manual version with a big crank. But everyone i talked to who has one of those regrets it because it is no small feat to open and close (great for upper body strength, I guess). The pool winds up unused because it is too difficult to open, or the cover is left off after use for the same reason.

I have a Cover Pool safety cover like you explained above. I designed it into the pool before I built the pool, so the cover rolls up into an underground enclosure. There's nothing protruding above ground. My pool is irregular shape, but designed such that 2 parallel tracks can be place along the pool anyway.

The primary purpose for this cover is safety. It does help retain the heat somewhat, but it's not the bubble kind with air in between to help with the insulation, so I don't really know how well it retains heat. I wouldn't put it in just for the purpose of keeping the water warm. If you keep your pool covered during the day, the sun is not going to help heat up the water. It does help keep dirts and debries out of your pool. But then you'll need to wash it up as you roll it up to clean the dirt and debries off, or else the dirt will get to the underside of the cover and get the pool water dirty.

After I've had it for a few years, it started developing pin holes on the cover. It also started ripping a little bit here and there and I needed to patch up the rips all the times. I think mine was warrantied for 7 years, but already about 3 years into it, it was in bad shape already. I tried to get a warranty replacement for it, and the manufacturer/installer blamed it on my not keeping the water chemistry in balance, causing the pin holes problem. I showed them kept records of my water tests to prove that I keep my water chemistry in check regularly. They reluctantly honored the warranty and replaced it for me. But that's just a 1 time replacement. Sure enough, a few years later, the same problem occured again and this time it's no longer under warranty because they don't warranty the replaced cover. The cost of replacement at the time was around $1400. That was too much for me to have to replace it every few years, and by that time my kids were already old enough that safety is no longer an issue for me. So I opted to just leave it alone and rolled up in the box.

Also, over the years, the cover will shrink and become stiffer and make it harder to roll it in and out. So even if you don't have pin holes problem, don't count on the cover lasting forever. I'd say every 4 or 5 years, you'll need to fork out a lot of money to replace the cover on a regular basis. My 2 covers didn't even last more than 3 or 4 years each.

Overall, because it doesn't last too long, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have small kids to make it worth having. Definitely not a real solution to keep water warm enough to extend your swimming season.

[OvertheSun]

[QUOTE=Volusiano;96339] I'd say every 4 or 5 years, you'll need to fork out a lot of money to replace the cover on a regular basis. My 2 covers didn't even last more than 3 or 4 years each.

QUOTE]

That stinks! Ours has lasted almost 9 years so far. A couple patches (from the dogs, mostly, and a couple places that received some slight damaged from flying embers during the San Diego fires in 2007, which came within about 1/2 mile), but it's still relatively intact.

Maybe the local environment has an effect? Or the material is different?

My understanding is that the cover may not actively absorb heat, but it helps reduce heat loss at the surface, where the majority of the heat is lost in a pool. May not be as effective as a bubble-wrap cover, but if it was a dark color (ours isn't), it might absorb some heat, too. We have solar heating, and I haven't compared the temp with versus without the cover, so I don't really know....

[Volusiano]

That stinks! Ours has lasted almost 9 years so far. A couple patches (from the dogs, mostly, and a couple places that received some slight damaged from flying embers during the San Diego fires in 2007, which came within about 1/2 mile), but it's still relatively intact.

Maybe the local environment has an effect? Or the material is different?

My understanding is that the cover may not actively absorb heat, but it helps reduce heat loss at the surface, where the majority of the heat is lost in a pool. May not be as effective as a bubble-wrap cover, but if it was a dark color (ours isn't), it might absorb some heat, too. We have solar heating, and I haven't compared the temp with versus without the cover, so I don't really know....

I live in AZ so maybe the combination of heat and intense sun is not as amenable to the pool cover as in San Diego.

It may be the material, too. Mine is just a vinyl cover from what I can tell. It has some kind of thread embedded inside to provide strength.

If mine lasts 9 or 10 years, I would not have a problem recommending it to anyone.

[J.P.M.]

I live in AZ so maybe the combination of heat and intense sun is not as amenable to the pool cover as in San Diego.

It may be the material, too. Mine is just a vinyl cover from what I can tell. It has some kind of thread embedded inside to provide strength.

If mine lasts 9 or 10 years, I would not have a problem recommending it to anyone.

The old one I replaced in Albuquerque had lasted about 6 yrs, but was probably abused and neglected by prior owners. The dark brown replacement was going past its 3d yr. when we left w/no change in texture, suppleness or serviceability in one of the sunniest populated places on earth at about 5300 ft. above sea level. I'd wager 6-10 yrs. might be possible w/ reasonable care. Hadn't faded much either. Probably similar to Volusiano's. BTW, cover only replacement cost was about $500 mat. + labor as I recall in 2002. Pool was 10ft. X 40 ft. swimmable area. My wife loved the 85-90 deg. H2O temp., about mid April -> end of Oct. I loved no gas bills for the fired heater which never needed to fire.

[OvertheSun]

I loved no gas bills for the fired heater which never needed to fire.

I really love the idea of using the "waste" heat removed from the house by the air conditioner to heat the pool, since I'm paying for that anyway. But I'm having a difficult time trying to convince the HVAC contractor to look into whether it would work with my system. I've emailed back and forth with the rep from this company: http://www.hotspotenergy.com/pool-heater/ but even he's not sure because the pool heater is designed to more or less take over control of the A/C condenser. If I could use this to heat the pool, I could get rid of the solar pool heater and have more room for PV panels on the roof.

[russ]

I really love the idea of using the "waste" heat removed from the house by the air conditioner to heat the pool,

The problem there is the low temperature differential you are trying to work with - too expensive to do. The heat exchanger would become humungous with a cost accordingly.

I looked at the brochure - they are not working with the air side but the refrigerant side - that is doable however I don't know about cost effective. In cool seasons it would be useless. Actually under any condition where the AC is not running it is useless.

[OvertheSun]

Thanks, Russ! It sounded too good to be true, but i wanted to know. I became a little wary when the information about it said that the pool heater diverted the refrigerant from the AC condenser and shut off the fan. Even if it would work in some situations, i just put in this modulating HVAC system and could only imagine that it wouldn't be too happy about giving up control to a lowly pool heater. I think I should just be happy with the HVAC. It is so cool that it can acually deliver heat to one room and AC to another. Not exactly at the same time, but with 15 minute changeover. People have been telling me for years I couldn't have a thermostat in each room, much less heating and cooling at the same time.

[Volusiano]

I really love the idea of using the "waste" heat removed from the house by the air conditioner to heat the pool, since I'm paying for that anyway. But I'm having a difficult time trying to convince the HVAC contractor to look into whether it would work with my system. I've emailed back and forth with the rep from this company: http://www.hotspotenergy.com/pool-heater/ but even he's not sure because the pool heater is designed to more or less take over control of the A/C condenser. If I could use this to heat the pool, I could get rid of the solar pool heater and have more room for PV panels on the roof.

I don't get it, if it's warm enough that you have to use AC, shouldn't that mean that it's also warm enough that you don't need to heat the pool?

[SunEagle]

I don't get it, if it's warm enough that you have to use AC, shouldn't that mean that it's also warm enough that you don't need to heat the pool?

During the day the temperatures can go up quickly requiring some people to use their AC unit to keep cool.

The hot sun may start to warm pool water but due to the volume it sometimes takes days to raise it to a couple of degrees or to a temperature that people like to swim in.

My pool doesn't stay warm until we get about a week of hot sunny days.

[OvertheSun]

During the day the temperatures can go up quickly requiring some people to use their AC unit to keep cool.

The hot sun may start to warm pool water but due to the volume it sometimes takes days to raise it to a couple of degrees or to a temperature that people like to swim in.

My pool doesn't stay warm until we get about a week of hot sunny days.

That's definitely a factor. The past few weeks the temp has reached the mid-high 80's during the day and 40s or 50s at night. That plus the fact that my house was the perfect storm for inefficiency until recently. I work from home and my office could get so hot that I can't think. Until installing the zoning, I had a separate room AC in my office in addition to the central air. Before that, i had to crank the AC up so much that rest of the house was freezing. But working from home means I don't have to rent an office or drive there every day.

Plus my kids are whimps about the pool temp!