solar pool heater

I am asking advise from my friends on the Sport Trac Web Site. We are considering a Solar Pool Heater for our in ground pool here in Arizona. I have received one bid and it seems awfully high to me. My questions is does any one have experience with solar pool heaters? Is the cost worth the results? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks :supercool:

I don't have a pool so I really can't answer your question about the cost of Solar Pool heaters,

However I did see an article many years ago about a guy who built his own solar pool heater.



He put coils of plastic pipe under his asphalt driveway and used that as a solor collector. The cool part was that he lived in a cold climate....in the summer it heated his pool, and in the winter the heat from the pool water would keep snow and ice from forming on his driveway ! Very smart idea :supercool:



...Rich

I have had Fafco solar heat for our pool for 12 years. Cost was in the $5,000 range, but I think that was a bit high in reflection.



I live in Florida and still don't get year round swim temps; not sure how your "winter" temps are in AZ...but we commonly have lows in the upper 40's and 50's, so that zaps any warm water created during the day.



Covering the pool at night will help, but my pool has a shape that makes covering/uncovering a pain in the neck.



We can swim usually from March - October.



We have a computerized control box where we basically set our highest temp goal. IF it's able to reach the goal, it will auto shutoff/bypass the panels. It also knows to bypass the panels if routing water through them will result in cooling the pool water.



Let's say it's December, outside temp is 60 and it's a bright sunny day. Pool temp is 70, I set the control box to 80. I will not be able to get 80; there's simply not enough ambient heat. So, not only do I need sun, I also need ambient heat.



Panels need to be able to face the sun as much as possible, so facing south is best.



In my situation, I have trees in my front yard (which faces south), so I had to install the panels on the north side of my roof. To orient them toward the sun, they had to mount them on these hideous "risers" which are basically a big set of scaffolding that the panels sit on. I would NOT do that again.



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Here's a shot with the winter sun low on the horizon and you can see why they didn't want to install on the south side of the roof - tree shadows blocking the sun. If I had to do it again, I would install the panels flat on the south side because I now know I won't ever swim in Dec/Jan anyways...



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One nice thing about my pool is it has water returns along the bottom of the pool - can be compared to pop up lawn sprinklers, so they distribute the warm water evenly - no cold spots in the pool.



Would I do it again? Probably. But, if I wanted year round swimming, no.

Had a solar heater on the house when purchased. The panels were on the north side due to tree coverage on the south. Useless. Removed it and purchased a gas heater. We don't try to swim year round, however, it does extend the swimming season by a couple of months. Right now (in central Florida), the water temperature is about 72 degrees, which is too cold for me. If we wanted to swim, or were having the grandkids over, I would turn on the heater for about 4 hrs. to reach 85 degrees. In a couple of months won't need the heater until the fall.

Thanks for the replies, Bo the photo's were especially nice. I had a second estimate done and the second guy wanted to build a rack and place the panels on the ground. I was leaning towards his idea until I heard the price. Yikes, he came in at $8350.00. The first guy was $5400.00 and I thought that was way to high. At this point we have to decide if the added months of swimming justify the $$. Again thanks for the reply's and in put. Dave