Your DIY Solar Pool HeaterThere's no need to fork out dollars for e-books about making a diy solar pool heater. There's also no need to re-invent the wheel, as there are a multitude of excellent ideas already freely available for building ultra-cheap and effective heaters. 
It is possible to simply mount black polyethylene pipe (called poly pipe) onto a back board and connect a pump to it. Have a look at this excellent example of a very tidy home made water heater. The parts for a project like this are readily available from almost all hardware or garden supply shops. An additional bonus for this project is that it does not even require a separate pump. While I have not made this model myself, I have used the same components for other projects and they are incredibly easy to work with.
An even easier solution is to throw a few coils of poly pipe onto the shed roof, connect a pump and start it up. As long as the poly pipe has no kinks in it, and all the joins do not leak, you have a fast and cheap heating solution. It is important to note that the pump you attach to this system needs to be able to handle the strain of pushing the water both up on to the roof and through all those pipes. It is a wise idea to overestimate the power the pump requires. A pump operating at maximum strain will not last as long as a pump that has a light workload.The advantage of a simple approach like this is that it is very easy to modify. If more heating is required, add more poly pipe to the loop. That assumes your pump is up to the job, of course. A simplified view of this setup is shown below:
Poly pipe arrays can also be mounted on your roof, as shown to the right. The image shows a setup designed to heat a medium size commercial pool about 15 metres in length. Before considering something as ambitious as this, you will need to consider how you will mount the system to the roof, the weight the water will add to the roof and safety precautions for installation. For home pool heating, a solution like this should not be necessary.Summary You can put a lot or very little effort into your own diy solar pool heater. To get maximum benefit for minimal cost and effort, have a good look at your yard and ways you could easily and quickly mount quantities of poly pipe. If you have a flat roofed shed near your pool, then placing coils of pipe on it would be the easiest way forward. Be creative, and don't be worried about the materials involved, as they are very easy to work with. Return from DIY Solar Pool Heater to Pool Solar Heaters or return to the Green Planet home page for more Solar Power Facts.
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