Do you love to swim? Want to enjoy the water throughout the year, but fear the chilled water in mid-winter? A solar swimming pool heater could be your answer.
While swimming pool heaters are generally beyond the budget of an average person, if you have your heart set on swimming in winter, a solar heater will keep energy costs to a minimum. While installation costs are high, maintenance is relatively low.
In addition to heating pool water, the solar heater also cleans, adds solar lighting and adds a touch of elegance to the pool area.
However, ensure you have a pool cover to reduce evaporation and keep up regular maintenance of the pool and filtration system.
The only drawback of a solar heater is that its energy is totally reliant on the sun, so if you live in an area that experience heavy snow or has long periods without sunlight in winter, think twice before investing.
Working of Solar Swimming Pool Heater
Generally the blueprint of all solar swimming pool heaters is constructed of the following four central objects:
- Solar collector: The central device in the solar heater, it plays an important role in collecting the sun’s energy and heating up the water in the pool, while circulating it at the same time. Most plastic collectors contain ultra-violet screening materials called inhibitors and should last for 10 to 15 years. Ideally, they should be installed facing a southerly direction.
- Filter: Other than heating the pool water, it also cleans out debris to the water is garbage-free. The water is collected in the collector situated in the heater for filtering the debris.
- Pump: The water is collected in the collector region and gets filtered there. Once it is filtered, the pump pumps water back into the pool from the collector.
- Control valve: A controller controls the in-flow of water into the collector and out-flow of water from the pump. Sometimes automatic and sometimes manual, the controller valve is a vital part of controlling the heating process.
