use of pool deck as a source of solar gain

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heaters. I can't imagine you could build one for what they sell for.

Do a websearch for solar pool heaters. Tons of info along with sizing information.

Next time you fly into Florida, observe all the solar pool collectors on roof tops :)

hot rod

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Arend ter Keurs

using pool deck as solar heat gain source

I am an HVAC contactor who loves to think and work outside the box. I have a present job site where I would like to try to capture the solar heat gain in approx. 1000 sq ft of concrete pool decking by using 1/2" PEX and appropriate number of loops and lengths. Any thoughts or comments?

[Deleted User]

Sure!

Where you going to store all that energy?

You can use it to heat the pool IF the pool needs it, and you can pre-heat DHW, but those two loads are seriously limited by storage tank capacity.

Swimming pools heating loads are parallel to ambient temperatures. Once the air temps exceed the pool water temperature, the need for energy is nil. If the energy is left in the slab, it is lost at night through night sky re-radiation and convection.

You could store in it the Earth, provided you have an ideal situation (rare) whereby you don't have to worry about the ground water wicking away the energy you are storing in the ground. IF you can find, or create this condition (shallow wells, or horizontal loop fields) you could store the "free energy" falling on the face of the earth below the earth, and "harvest" it with a ground source heat pump at a later date.

The temperature of the storage ground will not be hot enough to warrant a direct exchange, but what the heck, the energy was free, and you could raise the co efficients of performance of the GSHP by a few points, which makes it very much worth while.

This process has been successfully done by the Japanese for snowmelt in the mountains of Japan, and will be the subject of a future article to be presented for all the world to see in Contractor Magazine in the near (Fall) future.

Other than pumped parasitic power, their snowmelt system uses ZERO energy...

Thanks for reading, and thanks for thinking outside of the box, and welcome the the Wall, where thinking outside of the box is an accepted and promoted practice.

ME

Cliff Brady

Checkout Sunergy

http://sunergy.ecosmartinc.com/

Unknown

BEEN THERE DONE THAT

Quite a few jobs.

One here in the east, you can contact WIRSBO, oops I mean Upinor for the details. Tell them it was used at a house for a famous Indie car driver in Narbeth, PA (Can't mention his name). We used the snowmelt tube in the driveways, ran the glycol through heat exchangers. During snow melt we would heat the glycol, during summer we would use the snowmelt system to heat the tanks. Then an exchanger to the pool. Worked nice. I think we had 126BTUh/sq foot for the solar. The enginnering students at Lehigh University did all the loss/gain figures.

In California we had a few systems. We used the radiant tube in the deck going into an exchanger then heating the pool water.

In both cases, the decks and driveways were cool to walk on (a plus for people that can not walk fast). The pools were warm. If the pool becomes too warm simply run the system through the night... nice solar loses!

wheels

scott w.

winter

I assume that there would be a way to completly drain the water out of the pex tubing in the pool deck before winter?

Unknown

glycol

Scott,

Why drain them? They are sealed and put through exchanges so the Pool water never contact the PEX. PEX hates high chlorine levels.

The systems we have in areas that could freeze have glycol in them. The one in Narberth PA is used as snowmelt in the winter.

wheels

The ones in Calif are not in freeze zones, hence just water.

[Deleted User]

Wheels...

I think he's referring to the link that Cliff Brady linked to...

Hopefully no one in their right mind would even consider making a solid make up connection to ANY system filled with antifreeze...

Been there, seen the after math, wish I hadn't.

ME

Plumdog_2

give us a hint

was it Mario "somebody"?

Unknown

why yes

that is indeed the residence!

Very nice large house with a sports bar in the basement.

wheels

scott w.

Would this work as a solar heater?

If you had many feet of black tubing in a coil and installed it inside a five sided glass box with the bottom of the box painted black; would you get enough BTU's of heat to use as a solar pool heater? Just pump the pool water through the black tubing and back to pool. How to figure btu's out of the coil?