Owning a swimming pool has many benefits, its a brilliant place to relax after a long day and at the same time do some light exercise. Exercising in your swimming pool puts no strain on joint, and therefore is a much better option compared to jogging, its also good when recovering from joint injuries. The pool is also a brilliant place to hold parties and barbeques. To make the pool the best it can be, you obviously want to keep it in the best condition possible, this means keeping it clean and heated to a temperature that actually invites you into the water, not to scare you away from using the pool. To help keep the pool clear, and try and retain some of the heat a pool cover can be used. Pool covers are brilliant on keeping out debris and can also provide some insulation value to help keep the pool warm, but how do you get that heat into the pool in the first place. Well, traditionally you would simply have used oil or gas burners. While there are still many fossil fuel burners on the market, the running costs are simply unacceptable. One thing you always have to remember is how a pool contains such a large volume of water, and heating such a large volume takes time and a lot of sustained energy. Using fossil fuels such as oil or gas will cost literally a small fortune. Therefore alternatives do have to be sort after, such as using solar energy and solar water heaters.

A Instruction Video of a DIY Solar Heater

There are various videos of different solar water heaters, however the most suitable design to heat pools are passive solar water heaters. The passive solar water heater is a solar thermal collector which is placed on the ground, for example next to the pool. It works be capturing the solar heat and transferring it into a black water storage vessel. The hot water within this vessel can then be used to heat the pool.

The Components in a DIY Passive Heater

To start to build a solar water heater, you simply need to make a visit to your local hardware store and spend a few hundred dollars. You will first require a suitable black water storage vessel with flow and return pipes. How large the tank needs to be will be based on calculates on the volume of your pool. You will then require materials to construct the solar thermal collector the water storage vessel is positioned in.

Go Ahead, Make You Own Solar Heater

The process of making your own solar pool heater is much simpler than you may think, and can be very rewarding not to mention you can save thousands. There are no complex features or components and the design has been proven to be very reliable.