Solar pool heating in the state of Pa. How effective?
Question:
My family used a solar cover on our pool for a while, but it only really warmed up the top few inches of the water.
Here in the northeast, I've seen people use the bubble wrap style covers with moderate success. What looked even more promising is a long coil of black hose which hooks into the pump. As water is drawn from the pool, it is circulated through the very hot hose, filtered, and then returned back to the pool. It seemed to work well and is a very simple and effective way to heat the pool in a green way.
Pazdons answer is an effective idea that I know works very well. The more hose that you can get on the roof, the better, within reason, of course. Each coil should have at least half of it's length exposed to the sun for that loop to be effective.
Another often over looked idea is to use plain old rubbing alcohol. This one of the main ingredients in the "sun fish" that are sold in Pool/Spa supply stores. Simply pour 8 to 16 ounces into the pool. You can't feel it, nor smell it, usually. The only way to see it is to get the right angle of view near a water return so that you can see the interface between the film the alcohol creates and the water itself. This will not do anything, or anyone any harm unless a person is allergic to this alcohol. What this does is make a very thing film on the water surface that prevents some of the sunlight from leaving after it has entered the water. It is like having a one way mirror on the water surface. This works very well, I used it a lot for my pool. It'll warm up a cold pool in about 1 week.
Kerry K, I'm not sure about the alcohol, as it evaporates even faster than water.
We use the sun to heat out pool here in Toronto, Canada, lots of black hose looped back and forth in a glass frame with black painted bottom lying on the ground. Some days the pool is too hot to swim in and we are north of PA.
It all depends on how much pool you have, how much heating surface you have and what the temperature is in and around the pool.
There are some commercial dealers of solar pool heating systems in Pa.
http://www.heliocol.com/find/usa/...
This particular manufacturer lists charts for heat benefits for different areas using their product. I would guess that using any type of solar heating would react much the same way. Maybe not as efficient as their product but still have a similar curve.
http://www.powermat.com/sizing.html...
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