Solar Pool Heater Pump

Fred Rappuhn

We have a above ground 12,500 gal pool and my son & I would like take a try at building a solar heater. So far we are thinking building 4- 4'x4' collectors and run 1/2" plastic irrigation tubing in a coil then in to larger supply & return header and tap this into the 1 1/4" filter/pump hose.
We plan on mounting on the garage roof that's 5' away from the pool, garage roof is approx. 14' high.
My concern is to much head to have the pool pump lift the water and push threw a 1/2 pipe. So my thoughts were to install a pump just to move the water through the collectors. Thinking a pump with a low visolosity as to give the water time to heat up as it moves threw the collectors.

Am I thinking along the right lines and what pump would you reccommend??? Any other input would be greatly appreacted.

heatguy

Fred unless you have some training in solar or hydronics or a friend who does i wouldnt try this .You have a good chance of getting scalded or blowing something up

hot_rod

you might

use the pool pump, and pipe in a bypass so most flow goes to the pool and a small amount through the collector.

If you go to the FEC Florida Energy Center web site, look for the Pool Heating Manual Design and Installation, they have formulas to determine pump sizing and capacity. It tells you how to run those calculations. Typically pool pumps have some extra capacity. If not a separate pump that would have a 14" head and move 3 or so gpm would be sufficient. Graingers have a lot of pump choices.

If you keep it an open system you shouldn't have any excessive pressure problems, pool collectors are simple animals.

Not too slow on the flow, the faster you move the fluid through the collector the better the transfer. Going too slow, and allowing the water to linger and collect more btus just drives up the delta t between the pool water temperature and ambient and the loss from an un-insulate collector will steal a lot of those btus. 5-10 degree delta t works.

Tom Lane hs an excellent book with a lot of pool info. "Lessons Learned' 1977-today. recently updated.

hr

hot_rod

dp