Black Plastic Pipe Solar Water Heater

The upper left pipe on the box is the input and the lower right hole is the output.

Black plastic pipe solar water heater.

Installing black polyethylene pipes or poly pipes provides heat for your swimming pool with the help of solar power. In hawaii with a solar hot water heater we had pvc melt and sag because of the temperature of the water running through the system. You will use 2 abs pipe now as it is less expensive and it is black to attract the sun and heat. Attach the home s hot water supply to the pipes in the box.

The flow of the water down the 1 1 2 pvc pipe through the 1 1 2 ball valve will draw the water from the solar heater into the water that flows into the pool. Black abs 50mm pipes filled with water are arranged in a herring bone pattern on a roof to pick up heat from the sun for a nice warm shower. Just a large can of black spray paint might help with the uv breaking down plastic. The water will exit the box and enter the house at a substantially higher temperature.

The features of this design are as follows. A long loop of 2 inch black pvc tubing that is a bypass into your pool s water pump hose are the basics of a solar heating system for your pool. In addition pvc is usually not uv stabilized and will become at the very least brittle in the sunlight. Most garden and hardware supply stores sell such pipes so getting them should be no problem.

Add 90 degree elbows and run the pipes to approximately 4 6 past the roof edge. As the cold water is pumped into the box sunlight will be absorbed into the black surfaces heating the pipes. So there you have it you can actually build a semi decent fully fledged pool heating system out of 13mm poly pipe at a fraction of the cost of a commercial system if you follow these tips and most importantly size it right. I would not use pvc in anything directly plumbed to the thermal collector.

Many people spend over a thousand dollars to get a heater for their pool but by putting in a solar system it s possible you can spend about one fifth of that. Batch process so never goes from hot to cold. It s all about the best way of channeling all the heat from the sun into the pipe and into the water.