0 Heating a Pool with Solar

When it came to heating options for our pool we automatically knew that gas heaters were out of the question. They are expensive to operate and they have a huge impact on the environment with their natural resource depletion and greenhouse gas emissions.

The options left were to not heat the pool at all or to install solar. We weighed our options and decided that since we live in a colder climate we needed to have some sort of heating system to be able to enjoy the pool for longer than a month or two each year. Hello solar heating!

There were two options available to us. A plastic system that would have to be taken down each fall and reinstalled each spring or a rubber system that would stay up all year. We went with a rubber system by Enersol. It requires less maintenance, will last longer, have less issues of breakage (so less wasted materials), is BPA free and it is made within 45 minutes of our home. 

As a kid I remember my Dad going outside every morning and turning dials to open the valves that would allow water to flow to and from the solar panels he had built on the roof. Yep, my Dad made his own solar panels! I thought it was so cool but knew it was a pain having to manually turn it on and off each day. The system we installed for our pool solves this problem. The system is hooked up to our pump and control center so it allows us to preset the temperature at which we want it to kick in and send warm warm from the roof into the pool. Once the temperature is back above that preset number the system shuts off and stops pumping water from the panels on the roof and instead just pumps water through the filter and back directly into the pool.  This system is saving us a ton on the energy required to run the pump as it has to work less if it is not pumping water to the roof to be heated.

If you don't have the rough angle, space or direction to mount solar to it it does not mean that you can not get solar to heat your pool. Talk to installers about options like mounting the panels on the roof of your shed or creating a platform specifically for them in your backyard. 

This is the company we used to install our solar. Small, local, experienced and did an awesome job.

If you have a pool what type of heating do you have? Have you thought about solar if you don't have it?

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