Heating your pool with solar panels

It never ceases to amaze me why more people don't heat their swimming pool. If you'd spent €15,000 on a car you wouldn't stop using it for 9 months every year. Thankfully there's a super efficient renewable energy solution

Solar panels are ideal for pool heating. They're at their most efficient when solar energy is abundantly available and needed most. They are usually made from tubular rubber matting. Each 2m long strip connects together at the ends, in a modular way to create one big panel. They can be placed on a roof or simply laid out in the garden next to the pool. They are very DIYable and kits can be bought for a few hundred Euros. They are connected to the output side of the filtration system so the clean treated water passes through them before returning to the pool.

A panel about half the surface area of the pool is required to make a decent difference although, in the right location as little as 30% can be fine. It's possible to buy panels similar in colour to your roof tiles but these tend to work out more expensive as the black ones absorb the heat better and therefore require less surface area. Systems can be completely automated or just work in conjunction with the pool filtering system.

Once installed, they're pretty much maintenance free and the running costs are next to nothing especially if they use the existing filtration pump.

Above all make sure you cover your pool at night with a blanket of blue bubble wrap (bâche) to keep the heat in. Alternatively, for the cooler months, you could always find a close friend willing to apply copious amounts of lard to your body before your dip! - Prices & info

If you'd like to see this in action (the panels that is) send me an email and I'll show you mine! - ecopool@mysolarshop.co.uk