Has any one run pipe in your pool deck to use the heat on sunny days to help heat pool? New to FTP and about to do a DIY 20x44 IGP.
Pipe in pool deck
- Thread starter Kellym
- Start date
I have never done so. It is a very feasible idea as long as you have A LOT OF PIPE. Bridging the expansion joints in the concrete would cause you some issues but nothing that couldn't be worked out, I bet.
Re: Re: Pipe in pool deck
Very interesting!
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BigJD said:
Very interesting!
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It should work just like a heat pump transfering heat to pool and cooling the deck at the same time. Now i just need to figure out what pipe will work best. The link helps a lot.
Np. Check out pex supply online. This approach probably makes sense with concrete decks. Not so much with pavers.
BigJD said:
I second this ^
PEX would probably handle the expansinon and shrinkage cycles better than metal pipe or pvc. If you really want the most bang for the buck you could use black integral color in the concrete. You'd get 3'rd degree burns in the summer but the efficiency of your system would go through the roof.
Keep us updated if you decide to implement this.
I really doubt you would see much, if any change in water temperature with this kind of thing. It takes a tremendous amount of BTU to raise a body of water even 1 degree. A 20,000 gallon pool will take ~166,000 BTU to get one degree of temperature rise. There's no way pipe under a deck will transfer that much heat to get even 1 degree before that 1 degree is lost to the ambient air. Save your money for a heater 
We're doing an idea like this this year as we speak. We're taking 100' of black pipe and coiling it in a plexiglass covered box. Then hooking it to the pool as normal. We did this a few years ago and besides a few leaks it worked well for heating up the pool. That is until a tree fell on it.
http://ffaat.pointclark.net/blog/archiv ... eater.html
http://ffaat.pointclark.net/blog/archiv ... eater.html
gtojohn
0
- Apr 8, 2011
- 79
years ago I built a solar heater for my first hot tub. 100' of 1/2 polyethylene under an old window, using a aquarium/fountain pump. actually got too hot a few times. drawback was cooling on cloudy days. I left it off on a cloudy day that turned sunny and my pipes blistered and leaked and my glass cracked from thermal shock! Under the deck looks way more elegant than most solar heating. Anytime you have a good temp diff you can heat something. Concrete in the sun well over 110 degrees, also because of its mass has lots of thermal storage, here sidewalks stay warm to touch until after midnite!
