You are welcome. As others note, it depends.
Water that's warmer than its surroundings loses heat.
The usual goal is to have water at a temp. that's warm enough to be comfortable, and not go broke doing it, or with an excessive amount of hassle, either as a lot of labor or an insult to aesthetics.
In warm climates, losses may be low enough that any heat addition is unnecessary.
In cold climates, and/or for extended use, more attention to reducing heat loss (a cover), or more heat input to make up for losses, or both, will be required. Not needing as much additional heat input via a cover is always a less expensive option that a solar or a fossil fueled heater, and therefore the first step. After that, and depending on what you want out of it, a solar pool heater may be the next step.
Just opinion here: CH4 ("natural gas") seems to be reasonably cheap lately and looks to remain so (???) for some time. As big of a fan of solar as I am, and depending on how big/costly/visible/etc, a solar pool heater might be for your situation, I'd consider/investigate a gas fired heater as an alternative to a solar pool heater - but only after an effective pool cover.
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Thank for J.P.M for the useful piece of information. Seems like pool cover is an great idea.. Will surely use them in our pool. So, will I need a solar heater if I use a pool cover??Leave a comment:
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Go to : energy.gov and search for "pool heaters". Lots of basic info.
Before a pool heater, a pool cover is usually a more cost effective first step. Manually (human) powered covers are, by far, much more cost effective than solar pool heaters. For your situation - a not yet built design - depending on size/shape of the pool, an integral (and probably motorized) pool cover becomes a possibility. Although more costly than a cover that's manually placed/removed, it's a lot less hassle. The aesthetics are also often less of a concern.
When I lived in Albuquerque, I had a motorized cover that was very dark brown color. It therefore also doubled as a pool heater. The pool was covered when not occupied. The water temp. stayed greater than about 80 F. from approx. early April to the end of Oct. or so. the CH4 fueled heater that was in place was not used at all once the cover color was changed to dark brown. Added bonuses of a motorized cover, besides being much easier to set/remove and keep in place were that the water was a LOT easier to keep VERY clean and the cost of maint. and chemicals dropped by something like about 2/3 or more.
Like a lot of folks who own a property with a pool they must maintain, I'll never own another property with a pool. But, if I did, the first thing I'd do, if one was not already in place, would be to reduce the heat loss with a cover, and make that cover a motorized affair that was black (the dark brown was a negotiated compromise to SWMBO's aesthetic sensibilities). While more expensive than a manual cover, on the cost/benefit scale, if I can afford a pool, I'm ipso facto rich enough to trade some $$s for the avoided labor/PITA of a manual cover. If I still needed more heat, that's when I'd consider a solar pool hater heater, which heater, BTW, will then be smaller (read less $$ and probably less aesthetically offensive) when used in conjunction with an effective cover.Leave a comment:
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Solar Pool heater suggestions
Hello all,
We are moving to our new home next week, so serious discussions regarding our new home are going on now. We have left space in our backyard to construct a swimming pool. We got an outline design of swimming pool. This is the rough design of our swimming pool http://www.soldapools.com/blog/desig...imming-pool-2/. We will be making small changes and upgrade the design later. My husband has an idea of implementing solar heating in our pool. But we don't have much knowledge on how to start this process. Hope that many of you here would have already used solar heating in your pools. It would be really helpful if you share some information about solar heaters, their working and their installation process.
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