Hi, I want to buy a solar heater for pools.. I came across install it yourself heaters. The Vortex, Hi-Tec and powermat. I guess I like the Hi-tec and Vortex cuz their website looks encouraging.. Any ideas or suggestions? Anything would be helpful. If anyone tried them and they suck, plz say b4 I buy any!!
What is your approx location in the world? IF your in southern Canada, or lower USA. I have herard good results with just using Black PVC piping on the non street side of a roof. The black pipes heat up with sunlight or regular ambient air and also offers some pressure as it comes of from the roof. But you do need a good pump to get it up there. For Solar pannels, in general the tech has really progressed in the last five years. But your global possition has some effect to get the best angle of sunlight.
I live in Egypt. The sun here is excellent around the year. May be just December to February it is kinda cloudy. I may make this pipe system but I need to have a good heater to make sure I am getting a good use of sun rays. Besides, the Hi-Tec is not an expensive thing. I have dealers here of solar heaters that want me to pay $3225!!! Do you imagine??? rippoff :S
That price range is excatly why I mentioned the PVC pipes. You just need to create a nice frame work on the roof and pump direct to pool or through pump if you have multiple jets. It very cheap to make and with the ambiant and sun heat from you should get a lot of warmth from it. But stupid question, if your in Egypt, wouldn`t you want cold water to cool off? I can understand warmth here in Canada (we try to stop if from frezing) but in Egypt it gets hot, like really hot. What Temperture range are aiming for with the water?
Egypt has a warm weather not hot... That's why tourists like to visit.. Nice weather, sun, monuments and some sea stuff (scuba diving, water sports..) anyway, this is off topic Actually this is my pool temprature around the year: winter is 12 degrees celsius. spring is 18-20 degress celsius. summer is 30-32 degrees celsius. autumn 22-20 degress celsius. I want my pool to be in the 28-30 celsius. This is the only acceptable thing for me.. other than that, it's cold and not comfy.
Sorry, anything above 20C I consider Hot. I am odd though. I like and prefer 15C to 18C. That is perfect shorts weather. A 15C increase should be possible with the black PVC, but when not in use you have too cover with a solar blanket. Otherwise the lower ranges (10C in spring should be easy). In the summer you may want to pipe it through you air conditioner to get it down to 30C But seriously, you would definetly what a shut off value for the summer period. Because as I said 10C should be easy, so it would go from 30 to 40C.
Then you definitely wouldnt like it in Nevada, where it was 52 Degrees Celsius three years ago and windy. it felt like Death Valley was an oven....WOW
We are going off topic here guys plz stick to solar heaters Do I buy that hi-tec? a solar blanket? or a hi-tec and a solar blanket? or do I get some PVC pipes, paint them black, and make a heater myself?
Good job you don't live in England Yazer because a solar heater just would'nt work here,Now if it was rain powered.............
Oh how I miss the Off topic thread I created while back. For more reading on the PVC idea take a look at: http://www.flasolar.com/phorum/read.php?f=2&i=118&t=64 http://www.eline2000.com/eline/solar/solarpool.htm http://www.suntrekind.com/system.html These sites have some good info on the pipe way of heating the water. Also the first site has some scarry info on no success. I should have asked you if you are hands on person or pay to have some else do it type. Because the pipe way is very simple technology that you could easily construct if you are handy. However if not then just getting a kit would be easyer. From the limited reading have done on this, I would recomed the thin small diameter pipes, less than half an inch and cover cover you roof. Aim for a Tight mesh of tubes. The reason I wouldn't go solar pannels yet. Is the horror stories I can acrooss with required cleaning to be clear, repair from animals and seem generally very expensive for good pannels that will give you a noticeble temp difference. Buying black PVC at less than 1/2" seems cheaper and easier as you will also get radient heat. The heat that doesn't come from direct sunlight but UV rays that penitrate though cloudy days. So yes you can heat on non sunny days, and you can even heat with the UV that comes off the Moon. With an added solar blanket I think you would be golden.
