cheap self made pool heater needed


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Old 06-05-18, 06:01 AM
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cheap self made pool heater needed

friend has a 15 ft soft side pool and asked for suggestions for home made heater for it. the area around the pool is limited due to topography so even if she had the money. something like that 4 x20 black plastic thing would work in her yard. also lotta trees around so getting any sun is just not fun.

i told her id post here and see suggestions. we have seen the home made bubble wrap on hula hoop type things. and even a large bubble wrap would be too unwieldy with nowhere to put it when out of pool.
 
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Old 06-05-18, 06:15 AM
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What did you have in mind as a "home made" heater? Anything electrical will need to be made to code. Without sufficient sunlight any solar heating will be marginal.
 
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Old 06-05-18, 08:14 AM
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Heating water is expensive. It's expensive at home for hot showers and it's even more expensive when you try heating thousands of gallons in a pool. Worse is it's a pool with little or no insulation and will quickly cool. So, when you said "even if she had the money" I would have to say no.
 
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Old 06-05-18, 05:14 PM
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Google "DIY solar pool heater". There are a lot more ideas there then I can type.
 
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Old 06-05-18, 09:26 PM
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If some sun makes it to the pool a solar cover would be helpful. Most of the heat loss in a pool is at night. The cover will help to keep the heat in.
 
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Old 06-07-18, 05:37 AM
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covers and solar panels are cheap at places like in the swim.
 
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Old 06-07-18, 10:43 AM
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Simplest heater I can think of is a sump pump with a 5' section of pipe and fire hose nozzle set to fogging, pointing straight up. Run it during the hottest portion of the day. Heat transfer from hot air to small cold water droplets is very efficient.

If you want to get really fancy, put it on a ThermoCube temperature switch, so it automatically comes one when it's warm enough.

As to the bubble wrap, they don't take up a lot of space, they just roll up
 
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Old 06-19-18, 04:07 PM
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Have some numbers for a hot-air misting water heater.

Been filling an in-ground pool from a garden hose for about 52 hours.
Been running a 1/2 HP sump pump to push water through a 2" hose to a fire-hose nozzle set to misting.

Garden hose puts out about 2 liters over 20 seconds, so after 48 hours that's about 5,200 gallons, or eh, 43,400 poinds of water Water out of the garden hose is ~56 degrees,
Water temperature in the pool is now at ~73 degrees. Not bad, 17 degree increase in temperature.
Well, that's eh, 738,000 BTU of heating.

Cost is 1/2hp or .38 KW @ 14 cents per Kw/H x 52 hours, for a total of $2.77.
So, fairly efficient, about a quarter million BTU per dollar spent.
 

Last edited by Hal_S; 06-19-18 at 04:37 PM.
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Old 06-19-18, 04:12 PM
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Hard to respond when I see a previous reply posted.
 
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Old 06-19-18, 04:35 PM
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Board told me the post was too short, didn't show up until I'd re-written the post!
 
 

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