I see that he used expensive green braided hose pipe in the video, That is not heat resistant and will separate after a while, maybe you could use HDPE or LDPE which is heat resistant and more durable and cheaper. Buy it in big rolls from Global House.

Anyway as the topic has turned into a construction exercise maybe its time to move it to DIY

Or maybe it should be in pools but lets try there first

I have to correct my dear colleague Rimmer, this is clearly a swimming pool topic, and everything in thaivisa has its own little sand box

Yeah, that is pretty much what I am thinking of! Will probably use an aquarium pump. They are cheaper and have not that much power = medium flow rate.

ok....back from HomePro. One aquarium pump 40W. Enough power to pump up to the 2.50 m roof height. green water hose 10m and then a black LDPE hose 25 m.

Pool temperature still 26 degrees at 4 pm. Water coming out of the black pipe has 27 degrees. A first success!

https://plus.google.com/photos/100793164189640120154/albums/5690734569901141377?authkey=CMqI6-aCtqHQ_wE

I wonder how much it will help if you mount the pipe on a pained black matt background?

manufacturer from Spain. a zillion manufacturers in China but zero price information.

What do you think of these?

http://www.solarsunrings.com/

ok guys, stage two has been inplemented. raro spent the afternoon painting a laminated board black and mounting the pipe onto the board.

https://plus.google.com/photos/100793164189640120154/albums/5690734569901141377?authkey=CMqI6-aCtqHQ_wE

As you can see 25 m of pipe doesn't go far, so we have to add at least another 50 m. The result is still 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature, 28 over 27 today.

What do you think of these?

http://www.solarsunrings.com/

cannot really see what this is supposed to be...

Check out the link then. Suppose to be solar rings you put in your pool to warm it up!

Congrats on your 1 degree, BTW.

Check out the link then. Suppose to be solar rings you put in your pool to warm it up!

Congrats on your 1 degree, BTW.

I's about as efficient as having a pee in the pool...

ok guys, stage two has been inplemented. raro spent the afternoon painting a laminated board black and mounting the pipe onto the board.

https://plus.google....CMqI6-aCtqHQ_wE

As you can see 25 m of pipe doesn't go far, so we have to add at least another 50 m. The result is still 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature, 28 over 27 today.

we are less interested in the output temperature of your solar system and more interested how much it raised the pool temperature. may i assume that the water temperature is up at least 0.017358ºC?

What do you think of these?

http://www.solarsunrings.com/

cannot really see what this is supposed to be...

I have seen something similar, though they were a bit smaller, non inflated, hard, clear plastic.

Really heated up the pool but were a slight pain to remove and stack up when going for a swim.

ok guys, stage two has been inplemented. raro spent the afternoon painting a laminated board black and mounting the pipe onto the board.

https://plus.google....CMqI6-aCtqHQ_wE

As you can see 25 m of pipe doesn't go far, so we have to add at least another 50 m. The result is still 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature, 28 over 27 today.

we are less interested in the output temperature of your solar system and more interested how much it raised the pool temperature. may i assume that the water temperature is up at least 0.017358ºC?

...that was an optimistic estimate....raro's research labs are working on it....

ok, we added another 50 m of pipe and (fanfare!!) the water coming out of the heater is 4°C hotter than the water going in! We can certainly increase this further by adding more pipe, but next step in improvement will be that bubble wrap cover.

Flow rate about 280 liters per hour, say 1/4 cbm to keep it simple. So we heat up 1/4 cbm by 4 degrees or 1 cbm by 1 degree ....naa....that does not suffice yet!

raro's research labs will report back after implementing the bubble wrap cover!

ok, we added another 50 m of pipe and (fanfare!!) the water coming out of the heater is 4°C hotter than the water going in! We can certainly increase this further by adding more pipe, but next step in improvement will be that bubble wrap cover.

Flow rate about 280 liters per hour, say 1/4 cbm to keep it simple. So we heat up 1/4 cbm by 4 degrees or 1 cbm by 1 degree ....naa....that does not suffice yet!

raro's research labs will report back after implementing the bubble wrap cover!

Great! Making progress!

Our pool is now 26 due to the warmer weather. Still not up to Naam's standard of 29.

So we heat up 1/4 cbm by 4 degrees or 1 cbm by 1 degree ....naa....that does not suffice yet!

more than sufficient for a medium sized aquarium.

for pool heating a brilliant idea, easy installation.

source: http//www.naams_bullhightech_library.org

If you're going to transfer heat efficiently, you must break up the boundary layer next to the tube / hose wall. Laminar flow sucks. Turbulent flow rocks. Tiny pumps and garden hoses = laminar flow.

I am also interested in doing something to heat my new pool 50km North of Chiang Rai. I have looked at heat pumps from the USA (expensive), China (cheap) and because my home is on top of a mountain, I could put solar collectors below it and allow convection to do the trick. I may knock something up with wood, glass and black paint/pipe, but if you are importing anything, let me know.

I am also interested in doing something to heat my new pool 50km North of Chiang Rai. I have looked at heat pumps from the USA (expensive), China (cheap) and because my home is on top of a mountain, I could put solar collectors below it and allow convection to do the trick. I may knock something up with wood, glass and black paint/pipe, but if you are importing anything, let me know.

Kind regards

Bruce

convection is not a solution Bruce except when using inefficient high flow with low heat absorbent surface and that would involve building a huge system with hundreds of rubberhose meters. the high efficiency of pool panels is achieved because the exposed surface is a multiple of the inner surface in which water flows.

as far a your geographical location is concerned a heat pump won't do the trick. i am using a 36k btu/h heatpump (actually a simple aircon unit with an attached heatexchanger, output >100,000 btuh/h) and have big problems in my (much warmer) area to keep my small pool (volume only 38m³) at a comfortable level.

a single solar panel 1.20x3.60m has (assuming the sun shines) a similar output and requires a pump capacity of only 250W (1 Baht/hour) whereas my heat pump draws 4,200W (17 Baht/hour).

If you want to use tubing for a home made heater, I would suggest that you look at the black tubing used for irrigation or landscaping. It has a lot of carbon black for UV absorption and it should hold up for several years in the sun. Plus, it is cheap. You should be able to get a 25mm x 300m spool. I don't know if it will make dent in the temperature of a water mass size of a swimming pool. though.

If you want to use tubing for a home made heater, I would suggest that you look at the black tubing used for irrigation or landscaping. It has a lot of carbon black for UV absorption and it should hold up for several years in the sun. Plus, it is cheap. You should be able to get a 25mm x 300m spool. I don't know if it will make dent in the temperature of a water mass size of a swimming pool. though.

indeed ideal for a DIY system. however the diameter should be much smaller to increase ratio surface:water contents. it seems to be available in Thailand. some years ago a landscaper attached a few meters to my existing PVC-pipe irrigation. have no idea of prices but a UK supplier offers it for £ 0.75/meter. fixing the hose on the roof in a meandering pattern should be no problem. the few necessary stainless steel parts can be manufactured for a few hundred Baht.

a disadvantage is the lack of flexibility which means one has to make big loops at the ends of the solar "field". 300m of that black pipe would be the equivalent of two big panels of which i posted pictures = definitely a big "dent" in pool temperature!

The tubing keeps itself rigid and round. The cost here in Phayao was 630 per roll (200m).

The tubing keeps itself rigid and round. The cost here in Phayao was 630 per roll (200m).

Raro: Can we get an update on your pool temp? We're just a tad below 27. Back into the lower part of our comfort range.

Posted 2011-01-20 13:32:25

Not sure if any one will read this but It has been a couple of years now and it seems that the sun is too much for the irrigation tube, at least in places.

At first glance I immediately thought it had been hit by the strimmer blade but after closer inspection it was clear that the hose is brittle and degrading from what must be the sun.

Posted 2011-01-22 20:56:31

We are still using the original hosing. Last year we moved it all to an adjacent field and found no problems at all. Last week I took about 200 metres to use as irrigation for our driveway privet hedge and again, everything was OK. A few of the drippers had salted up and needed cleaning, but the pipe itself (3+ years old now) was fine.

Maybe it was a different make. At the time we paid 800 Baht per roll. Don't know the maker offhand, but can look.

Raro: Can we get an update on your pool temp? We're just a tad below 27. Back into the lower part of our comfort range.

I have burned my thumb on New Year's night with that sparkling thing on the bottom of that hot air balloon thingmy...cannot swim for the time being and will report back later.

Just one little thing to remember regarding this thread, when Raro started his endeavors, it was in a cold snap, Emergency declared in some parts of the country due to the cold, (laughable in my opinion, but not the point), the water coming out of my water tanks in the morning, was , well cold, comparing temps to then is a total waste of time and even misleading.

Just one little thing to remember regarding this thread, when Raro started his endeavors, it was in a cold snap...

and in a couple of weeks nobody will think about installing some solar heating for his pool... except me because my pool doesn't get any sun radiation

We hit 27.5 today. Yes!