Pool Heater

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andysutt

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Jun 8, 2007
86
Arkansas
Im interested in adding a heater to warm some of the water in my pool.

It gets sunlight but I'd like to use it for longer during the year also, and on cloudy/colder days warm it up a bit

Any ideas on whats a good brand, where to buy them online, and how to install them..

Im new to pools but thought this would be a good idea


I searched the web but all I find ins ones that are 2000 dollars or more..
If I can find something more affordable I'd go for that.
 
The least expensive are solar panels. Even one panel will help, though more is better. You can lie the panels on the ground or mount them on top of something as long as they have a good number of hours of direct sunlight. Solar panels start around $200 if you are reasonably handy and install them yourself. Gas/propane heaters are not too expensive to purchase, a small one will run $800 or $900, but the install can be expensive depending on your situation, and operating them can be very expensive. Heat pumps are very expensive to install but much less expensive than gas/propane to operate (unless you are in CA or another area with very high electric rates).
 
Wow, I don't think I'll be getting one of these then. Considing I dont ahve that much in the pool setup yet. I dont want to invest in one of them until I see if this pool is gonna hold up or not.

I had thought about wiring up a small water heater in my shed and running a line from there over to the pool and then just adding some hot water whenever it gets cold.... May work temporarily


How does the solar panels work? One panel would prob be ok for me now, and thats within my budget.
 
Solar panels are typically 2'x40' or 4'x40' sheets of plastic full of small tubes with headers at the ends that allow you to connect them to your plumbing. You lay them out in the sun and run some of your water through them when the sun is shining. The sun heats the panel, which transfers the heat to your water.

You need to install an adjustable valve in the return to send part of the water to the panel. If you have more than one panel you would plumb them in parallel. Fancier systems include electronic controls that decide when to run the water through the panel and when not to, but it is often practical to simply run the pump during the day and not at night and always have some of the water going to the panel.
 
Yes, it heats faster. First it increases the total area gathering solar hear. Sun the falls on the pool heats the pool and sun that falls on the panel also heats the pool. Second the panels absorb more heat per unit area than the pool does because they are black, while the pool is probably not black.

You might also want to think about getting a solar cover. That will *greatly* reduce the amount of heat you lose from the pool at night.
 
Not sure the hot water tank will help much.

Even if you get a 100 gallon hot water tank, and heat the water up to 140F, adding it to your pool which is about 5000 gallons would increase the heat from 70F to 71.3F or so.
 
I have a heatpump but this year added a pair of 2'x20' solar panels. I bought them on e-bay and including the piping and fittings I bought at the homedepot the total cost was under $200. When the sun is on they heat up the water quite a bit and have almost totally eliminated the need to run the heat pump now that the pool is already at a nice temperature. I use my solar cover at night in my 20' x 40' IG pool.
 

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