Heating a pool with no sun and no budget

Jump to latest Follow Reply
DanielleOv

DanielleOv

0
Jul 6, 2018
53
East Brunswick, nj
Hi All,

I was here last year with a green monster, we tossed that one and got all new this year. So with that said, we have a TON of trees and not alot of sun to heat the pool. Since we dropped 10k on getting this pool up and running, we don't have the money to buy an expensive heater this year. Any advice on budget friendly ways to heat the pool. We are having a tree company come in for some quotes on trimming back some branches but we have some REALLY HIGH trees which I know will be costly to remove.

Thanks!
Danielle
 
Great idea to get as much sunlight on the water as possible as your first step!

You can probably find a cover for very little money, and that warms the water more than most anything. What the cover is actually doing is stopping evaporation, and it's evaporation that causes the water to cool the most. It doesn't have to fit perfectly, because even if you just covered half the pool, you would notice warmer water. Keep the cover on at night for sure, and daytime if it's windy. Take it off when it's full sunny so the water can absorb the heat from the sun.

Some people talk about covers for as little as $100, so definitely shop around.

Nice to meet you via TFP! :)
 
Danielle:

Definitely purchase a solar cover. Get one a little bigger for the pool (length) and cut in half, with some over lap. Be careful and keep your chlorine levels a little higher as once the cover deteriorates (slowly), you could experience what I did. They really should be put on at night and removed in the morning (around 10 a.m.) I have a heat pump and still use it for the next few weeks and the last 2 weeks of September until closing. You can also glue together with round caps 1" PVC and this helps you roll it up. Your pool is rectangular and if you do not have a diving board, purchasing a real makes a lot of sense. Most of your heat loss is through evening evaporation.

E-Bay is a good place to start as the prices are less expensive than Amazon, or directly through the vendor (for some reason). Good luck and keep us posted!
 
Thank you everyone, I think we are definitely getting one but we do have a diving board so I don't think the reel would work as I'm sure it doesn't make sense to go over it because air will escape in between. Is there a big difference between the full cover vs the rings that are magnetic?
 
Try finding a company that will work reasonably and fair. You do not need to cut all the trees down, especially at $1,500 per year. Have them come in and trim the tree's to allow more sunlight in. No matter what you will still be faced with cold water. In NJ, we have very cold nights until about June 15th, and then the cold nights begin the first week of September.

Having a heater is a must, but you can also overcome this by using a solar blanket. Given that your pool is 20*40, you can easily cover the entire pool with a solar blanket. Cut it in half and overlap by 18" - 24" on each side in the middle of the pool. Your dimensions will be 20' by 22", cut in 2 sections. The cover will be more expensive given the size of your pool. Go out and purchase 1" PVC (10 feet) at least 2 of them and glue them together. Add rounded end caps and glue them on. This way, they will not fill with water and float. Then use them to roll the cover off and on. You can even stick the 20' 1" PVC in the skimmer (on an angle) and this will hold the cover down with strong winds.

Because of your situation, you will need to use the cover all the time when pool is not in use, and in addition you should keep your chlorine levels at least 10-15% of CYA as it slows the water movement on the surface. Brush more often and you will be surprised how much heat you can "retain", not gain. You will slowly come up a few degrees per each day and have the water into the 80's. A little more work, but to spend over $10,000 (or more) between adding a heater and cutting down tree's does not make sense for a short season in NJ.

Good luck and keep us posted. Thank you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shirker
Catanzaro said:
Try finding a company that will work reasonably and fair. You do not need to cut all the trees down, especially at $1,500 per year. Have them come in and trim the tree's to allow more sunlight in. No matter what you will still be faced with cold water. In NJ, we have very cold nights until about June 15th, and then the cold nights begin the first week of September.

Having a heater is a must, but you can also overcome this by using a solar blanket. Given that your pool is 20*40, you can easily cover the entire pool with a solar blanket. Cut it in half and overlap by 18" - 24" on each side in the middle of the pool. Your dimensions will be 20' by 22", cut in 2 sections. The cover will be more expensive given the size of your pool. Go out and purchase 1" PVC (10 feet) at least 2 of them and glue them together. Add rounded end caps and glue them on. This way, they will not fill with water and float. Then use them to roll the cover off and on. You can even stick the 20' 1" PVC in the skimmer (on an angle) and this will hold the cover down with strong winds.

Because of your situation, you will need to use the cover all the time when pool is not in use, and in addition you should keep your chlorine levels at least 10-15% of CYA as it slows the water movement on the surface. Brush more often and you will be surprised how much heat you can "retain", not gain. You will slowly come up a few degrees per each day and have the water into the 80's. A little more work, but to spend over $10,000 (or more) between adding a heater and cutting down tree's does not make sense for a short season in NJ.

Good luck and keep us posted. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Wow! Thank you for this great detail!!!

I was looking into the solar "blanket" (I think that's what it is lol) and was going to get a reel to go with it. Total cost was probably around $500-600. Here's the one I was looking at: Clear Diamond Solar Cover 20' x 40' Rectangular 16 Carat - PoolSupplies.com ($240 for a 20x40).

To be honest-we both work full time and have a 2 and 4 year old so I don't want to spend a ton of time on making this, even though what you're suggesting is great. Do you think that this is a good one? I'm really going by what the site says as to the best one for heat retention and heat production.

As for the trees, the problem is the trees are CRAZY Tall and he said due to some arbor laws (international arbor foundation?), they're unable to cut the tops of trees in NJ. He could lose his license and cutting/trimming the other ones seems fairly useless. We're going to watch it this weekend to get a sense of where the sun comes in and doesn't. There's one large branch that might help but at $500 and only a bit, not sure it's worth the money.

TIA!
 
Find the cheapest solar blanket that will fit your pool and think of it as something which will need to be replaced after 2 or so seasons.

If you're handy, you might want to try a DIY reel rather than buying one. Discussion at DIY Solar Cover Roller | Trouble Free Pool

The last time we had someone out for tree trimming, a similar comment was made about "topping" the trees. He didn't say it was a law, but did say he could loose his arborist certification. He also commented the health of the tree can be impacted and the way the tree grows afterward can be quite gnarly. Removing trees is quite expensive as is getting them thinned. Even tougher (at least around here), is getting someone to do anything except dead limb removal right now. Most of the work of trimming trees should be done while everything is frozen.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
gonfishin said:
Find the cheapest solar blanket that will fit your pool and think of it as something which will need to be replaced after 2 or so seasons.

If you're handy, you might want to try a DIY reel rather than buying one. Discussion at DIY Solar Cover Roller | Trouble Free Pool

The last time we had someone out for tree trimming, a similar comment was made about "topping" the trees. He didn't say it was a law, but did say he could loose his arborist certification. He also commented the health of the tree can be impacted and the way the tree grows afterward can be quite gnarly. Removing trees is quite expensive as is getting them thinned. Even tougher (at least around here), is getting someone to do anything except dead limb removal right now. Most of the work of trimming trees should be done while everything is frozen.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the feedback!
 
bobmcinnis said:
Great advice but what did you mean by “brush more often”?
Click to expand...

Bob:

I have to be honest with you, as I do not know why this was written. Brushing will mix the water, and retain some heat, but very small. Maybe I was thinking about the rotating jets. Last year, I did an experiment with the heat pump in where I had 6 regular return jets in the pool and tracked the progress, then the following day I used the 6 circulators (360 degree rotating return heads) and over a 6 hour period (same time frame and about same temperature) and I added about 2 more degrees. This was over a 6 hour period (If I remember correctly) and they spin every minute. So brushing alone will probably not do too much. The solar cover is your best bet at night and allowing the sun to beat down on the pool during the day. Sorry for any confusion.

The heat retention part is that mixing water will allow the mixed warmer water to sit below the first few inches of the surface. Most heat loss occurs on the surface. I heat my pool up with the solar cover and bring it up pretty high. I also find that the hotter the water, the faster it heats up, even though you have a similar drop at night with the temperatures. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Take this with a grain of salt, like my tiny pool. But I just started running 2 of the intex solar mats this week. They're pretty small but on Tuesday where we had full sun and only a high of 80F, the mats got the water temp up from 72 to 82 in about 8 hours. I bet if you went with one of the DIY solar mats (big coils of cheap black tubing) placed in the sun you could see some good jumps in temp. Especially stepped up a few degrees everyday.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shirker
I have zero scientific data to back this up... I have been running pump at higher speeds during the day to get the cold water off the bottom of the pool then run at lower speeds at night (completely off before sunrise) to reduce evaporation (reduced surface area). I don't know if this actually helps retain heat or not. Next year I would like to invest in some sort of cheap solar heating.
 
Do you have a sunny spot anywhere on your property? You could buy irrigation hose (100 to 200 feet of it) and coil it and place in the area where you get sun... bypass some of the water from the system into this coil and return it to the system after it has run through the tubes.
 
Of all the things mentioned, keeping the solar cover on as much as possible (since you have little direct sunlight) is 90%+ of what benefit you will gain. The others, while helping some, would be very incremental. The pool is 20K+ gallons so any small scale solar is not meaningful.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shirker
Something that I sometimes do when I have to top up evaporated water, is to lay out my long garden hose in the sun on the hot pavers and let the water run slowly through the hose. Doesn't add too much heat but at least I'm not topping up with freezing cold water.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply