I was wondering if it was plausible to make a pool heater from an old shower unit?
It would need to have an internal pump, preferably an older low wattage unit. I would prefer to supply the power from a 13amp plug and connect the in and outs (reducers etc.)to the pools filter feeds, then remove it when the desired temp was achieved.
I was looking at some dedicated pool heaters, but thought they were too pricey and a working skip dived shower could probably do the same job!
Has any sparks or plumbers out there got some advice for me regarding best wattage unit and flow rate for pump ?...thanks.
This page shows the type of pool and inline filter used, except my pool is
I'm sure it's possible; whether it would be safe is another matter.
But aren't those pools for the days when it's Too Damn Hot - so the colder they are the better?
You'll also have problems because a 13A plug is restricted to about 3kW, and most showers are at least twice that.
Then there's the power bills, if you run it for several hours at a time...
An alternate, greener, cheaper, safer solution would be to buy a few hundred feet of _black_ garden hose and spread it around the sunny bits of the garden with the pump you seem to have for the filter running through the hose. Black hose can soak up a lot of sunshine.
I've found those decent "bubble-wrap" type covers for pools to be effective, on a sunny day they can give you an extra degree or more which I found was just right, plus it keeps all the crap and bugs out when you're not using it. I think they allow the sun to heat the water, but also stop heat loss from the surface. Definitely made a difference if you leave the cover on for a couple of hours in direct sun.
When we had one of those pools, we used a cover and if we wanted it really warm, we just put the hose on the hot tap and emptied the hot water tank into it.
I've found those decent "bubble-wrap" type covers for pools to be effective, on a sunny day they can give you an extra degree or more which I found was just right, plus it keeps all the crap and bugs out when you're not using it. I think they allow the sun to heat the water, but also stop heat loss from the surface. Definitely made a difference if you leave the cover on for a couple of hours in direct sun.
When we had one of those pools, we used a cover and if we wanted it really warm, we just put the hose on the hot tap and emptied the hot water tank into it.
Two good points, but cant imagine hundreds of feet of black hose taking up the lawn, unless my neighbour lets me use his...:-) Maybe a 3kw handwash would be better for the job! but not sure of flow rate and extended use. Though reading some personal reviews on 3kw pool heaters, a lot of negatives came up like, "only if your desperate, but don;t expect miracles" e.t.c.
I do have a pool cover but its just thin blue tarp type. I suppose the hot hose is the way forward for now. Thanks for your replies.
Had good luck and raised the pool temperature quite a bit by looping black hose up on the roof where it didn't show from the street. You can take part of the pump output to run through the hose but don't run the full output thru it as you won't get as much thermal energy transferred back into the pool. You want a slow trickle coming out of the hose. Water coming out of my hose was in the 90 to 100F on a nice sunny day. Had to shut it off once warm weather set in or it turned to pool into a spa.
as others have pointed out, too much power for a 13 amp socket,
i have a plan that when the garden is done, we'll be getting a pool like that, it'll be going in a bit of the garden between the green house and shed (which has a tin roof) and my plan is to make up a solar heater using black tube and glass panels, mounting it up on the shed roof, small pump to run water through the solar heater seperate from the main filter pump, as you need a slow flow to allow the water to absorb the heat.
an alternative for fast heat ups, i'd put a coil of metal pipe in the incinerator bin, pump water through the coil, and burn something in the incinerator.
as others have pointed out, too much power for a 13 amp socket,
i have a plan that when the garden is done, we'll be getting a pool like that, it'll be going in a bit of the garden between the green house and shed (which has a tin roof) and my plan is to make up a solar heater using black tube and glass panels, mounting it up on the shed roof, small pump to run water through the solar heater seperate from the main filter pump, as you need a slow flow to allow the water to absorb the heat.
an alternative for fast heat ups, i'd put a coil of metal pipe in the incinerator bin, pump water through the coil, and burn something in the incinerator.
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Some good ideas there...Could the heated coil method be put after the pool filter pump and before the pool inlet? (out pool out - in filter pump - out filter pump - in/out coil - in pool in) or. Would you need a separate pump; if so what model?
If the water is trickling through you'll get a little bit of water heated a lot. If it's rushing through you'll get a lot of water heated a little. You're interested in the absorbed energy, not the output temperature.
i dunno for sure, never done it yet, but one of the most sucsessfull diy solar hot water heaters i've read about, the bloke used a standard immersion cylinder and put in an extra heating coil, then ran some silicone pipe from the cylinder to the roof and back, something like 8mm bore.
he had a few home made solar tubes on the roof (i believe he tried vacuum tubes that he made him self, but think they lost their vacuum over time, ut still worked better than a flat plate collector) anyhoo, he had a little box of electrobollox that compared temperatures from all over the system, and when it decided it could extract some heat, it pulsed the pump, he found that pulsing it was better than running it continuously as it allowed the water in the pipes to absorb the heat better that if it was flowing all the time, even at a very slow flow rate, and the pulse durations varied according to the return temps and all that.
i guess heating a pool is different to a storage tank of water for drawing off at intervals,
i'd personaly use a seperate pump for the heating side of things, just so it's speed could be adjusted to get the best heat absorbtion from the solar pipes, but teeing off the main filter pump could be done as others have said, you can then vary the flow using a valve, as they do with pond pumps that run a fountian head and a water fall feature,
for a cheap pump maybe one from a boiler/central heating system? you'll have
Safety is definitely the question. With something like this, even if it goes against your DIY instincts, you want to stick with materials that were made specifically for the task; anything else is running risks that can have serious consequences (electrical failures, etc). Just my 2 cents.
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