Today, its now hard enough to heat our homes, never mind adding in the additional costs to heat our swimming pools. The simple reason for this is fuel is more expensive than ever before. Also, there are concerns over using fossil fuels as they produce carbon emissions and pollute the atmosphere. Within the next couple of years this will make fossil fuels even more expensive, as taxes will be increased to make people move over to greener alternatives. So what other options are there to using oil or gas. Well, the sun is the obvious choice. Capturing solar energy is actually very simple, and it can even be done with a updated pool blanket. Standard pool blankets were designed to do two main tasks, keep the pool clean and stop heat escaping. However, they don't help to heat the pool, as this was done with oil or gas burners. A solar blanket is different, it can keep the pool clean, stop heat escaping and also heat the pool. The differences firstly are that a solar blanket is clear, which allows solar energy to enter the pool. It also has a much better insulating ability compared to a standard blanket, with pockets of air trapping heat.

Pool Solar Blanket and Solar Water Heat

Though solar blankets are an excellent way to get heat into your pool, in many cases its still not quite at the temperature you would like. Therefore a way to get additional solar energy into the pool is to use a solar water heater which can sit next to the side of the pool.

Homemade Solar Water Heater Design

Below is a video of a solar hot water heater. This is a passive solar water heater and one of the best designs to be used for pool heating. A black water vessel sits within a reflective solar capture box. This works on a similar principle of the solar blanket, just a more concentrated form. This design of solar water heater is very cheap to make and reliable. Using a solar blanket and solar heater will generate all the heat you need.

Equipment For DIY Solar Water Heater

The basic components of a solar water heater are a black water storage vessel, flow and return pipes, a pump and an insulated solar reflector box. The size of the tank is chosen on the size of pool you wish to heat. As the tank is black it can capture more solar energy, and as the tank is within a solar reflector box this can really provide huge amount of heat to the pool.

Building Your Own Solar Pool Heater

The design of the passive solar water heater is so simple, it is easy enough for practically anyone to build their own unit, saving thousands of dollars.