Swimming pools are hotting up. Exploit the sun’s natural energy and extend your swimming season.

Kathryn Alexander tells you how.

Living in sunny South Africa, where the sun shines long and hot, it makes perfect sense to use the sun’s energy.

It’s free and it can extend your swimming season by as much as four months.

All you need to do is install solar panels and link them to your pool pump.

This will enable you to heat the water in the pool to a comfortable temperature for swimming …

at a time when it would normally be too cold to swim. It really is that easy. Even though there is an obvious cost factor to install a solar heating system, once it has been installed, there are absolutely no running costs. Even when it’s cloudy, the sun’s energy continues to do its work.

“The basic principle is to run enough water through enough black stuff on the roof to get the pool warm.”
Ann Kruyer

During this process, the water is heated naturally to between 24 and 34 degrees celsius. As Ann Kruyer, whose husband Dave designed Solar Specifics’ South African Delta-’t’ solar heating system explains: “The basic principle is to run enough water through enough black stuff on the roof to get the pool warm.”This, she says, was a foolproof explanation she found on the internet during a research session to find out more about the ‘black stuff ’ her husband uses to heat swimming pools - including their own. She is unapologetic about the fact that she doesn’t know how solar panels work.

All Ann cares about is that her own pool water is heated gently to perfection by a solar panel using the generous free energy of the sun so that she can be comfortable and relaxed in the water. For those of us who don’t have husbands capable of this kind of design capability, it does help to know that designs which incorporate individual tubes reduce wind load and allow the roof on which the panels are installed to breathe and dry out. It also helps to know how they work.

The panels Solar panels may be configured in different ways.The most common method is to install a continuous row of panels without any breaks. If there is a change in the level of the roof, the panels will need to be linked by additional pipes.

The size and area to be covered by solar panels will depend on a number of environmental and physical factors. These include the length of time the swimming season can reasonably be extended in your area; where exactly the pool is located; and how much shade and sunlight the pool is normally exposed to. The direction and angle at which the panels are to be mounted on your roof should also be taken into account.

For optimum efficiency, solar panels should face north. If this is not possible, additional panels may be required to run the system effectively. A roof with a very high pitch will require more panels as will a pool which is located in a very shady area of the garden. Any waterfalls, cascades and fountains in the pool will also effect the efficiency of the water heating process.

Most people employ contractors to install solar panels and these experts will determine how many panels are required for optimum performance. If you decide to go the DIY route, Brian Ross, a solar heating expert, has a rough, but useful formula based on conditions in Gauteng: His calculation method also assumes that you will be mounting the panels on a roof with a minimum pitch of 15 degrees. Simply multiply the surface area of the pool by 40% and then divide this by the surface area of one panel. Brian’s South African company, Solar 2000 imports pool solar heating equipment from the European-based FAFCO, pioneers of swimming pool solar heating worldwide. Panels are made of a durable, lightweight patented, polymer-based Polyolefin material which is resistant to corrosion, electrolysis, pool chemicals, ultra violet radiation, extreme temperature fluctuations and
mineral build-up.

The collector construction is in the form of fine matt-black tubes and the pool water flows through these without the use of any type of heat exchanger. In 2003, FAFCO and Solar 2000 launched a swimming pool solar heating system which is suitable for the DIY market. The Sunny Max is a one-panel system which can heat pools with a surface area of no more than 28 m2 to a desirable pool temperature. Each panel is 6,1 m long, 1,3 m wide and has an effective surface area of nearly 8 square metres. A panel weighs about 18 kg and when full, contains about 38 kg of water. Tested by various international research organisations including the Commission of Europeans Joint Research Centre, the DIY system has a heating power output of 52,1 KW derived from free solar energy. Each DIY kit comprises a solar panel. a vacuum breaker, an end cap, two adaptors, eight hold-down brackets and four lengths of black strapping. The size of your pool will determine how many solar panels will be required.

Article sourced from the NSPI website: http://www.nspi.co.za/ with their full knowledge and permission.