Being able to take a dip in your swimming pool is one of life’s greatest luxuries, but it can be difficult to enjoy such a thing during the peak of winter.
Your swimming pool will likely get unbearably cold during such weather, so you might want to try using a pool heater to bring the pool temperature up to comfortable levels.
The only problem with a pool heater is that it uses up a lot of energy, so you might want to look into using solar energy to warm up your pool water. Even the most inexpensive swimming pool heaters would defeat the purpose of their low price by driving up your energy bill to unsustainable levels.
Diy pool heaters are surprisingly easy to make, since all you really need is some homemade solar disks. A solar sun ring can go a long way towards ensuring that your ground pool stays warm in a self-sustaining and energy efficient manner.
Why You Should Make a Solar Pool Heater For Your Swimming Pool
In this article we’re going to be discussing how you can go about making a solar pool heater of your very own, thereby attaining energy self-sufficiency without the often extensive cost of purchasing such pool toys from the open market.
1) It’s More Affordable
A solar pool heater that you might buy from an external supplier would usually cost hundreds of dollars, so suffice it to say that you would be a great deal better off with a diy pool heater that you can make on your own.
The money you would save can be further used to invest in more solar related appliances and tools as well. This is perfect for people that want to slowly work their way to being completely off grid and energy self-sufficient.
2) Quality Control
An added benefit of a diy pool heater is that you will have more control over the quality of the solar pool that you make. You can never be entirely sure that solar sun rings that you buy from a store would last as long as you need them to.
Hence, diy pool heaters would go a long way towards setting your mind at ease. Solar rings are arguably the most important pool supplies that you could possibly purchase, and being able to make them for just a few dollars is definitely an advantage you would want to obtain.
3) Better For The Environment
Wanting nice, warm pool water to swim around in is understandable, especially during the biting cold of the winter season. However, it should be noted that excess energy consumption through grid based pool heaters is not ideal from an environmental standpoint.
For one thing, it could potentially accelerate climate change since most energy provided by the grid tends to be derived from fossil fuels which are responsible for most of the emissions that are currently causing the climate crisis.
4) It’s a Fun at Home Project
Being cooped up indoors can take a real toll on you, especially if you have kids. Kids need a project or an activity that they can use to expend some of their pent up energy, and you need a way to develop a closer bond with your kids as well.
Making a solar blanket for your pool with your kids can be the perfect way for you to bond with them and help them take part in an activity that would give them no small amount of intellectual stimulation as well as some physical stimulation for good measure.
Items Required For Pool Heating
The supplies that you would need to make solar rings for your ground pool are quite simple. They can be bought from virtually any store for just a few dollars, and putting them together to convert your swimming pool into a solar pool wouldn’t be all that difficult either.
The first thing you will need is a tube of resistant vinyl, but if you can’t find anything of this sort then hula hoops can be used to make great solar collectors as well. You also need simple garbage bags, enough that you can make two sheets out of them on each side of the hoop.
The rest of the tools you might need for solar rings are rather basic. Just some duct tape, a pair of scissors and some pool noodles will round off this list of requirements for diy pool heaters.
How to Put Your Solar Sun Ring Together
Now that you know what items you might need to make inexpensive swimming pool heaters, the next step would obviously involve figuring out how to put them together.
This process is pretty simple too, which just goes to show that opting for a solar pool tends to make things easier for you along with helping you save on monthly costs.
Step 1
The first step involves wrapping your hula hoop in the garbage bags. Remember that you shouldn’t leave any loose surface area during this process.
Ideally your garbage bag should be stretched taut on either side of the hula hoop. This will ensure maximum solar reflection for your ground pools.
However, you might face a bit of difficulty keeping the garbage bags taught. One reason for this could be excess plastic on both sides, so you might want to try to find garbage bags that are of an ideal side. Although if you can’t manage to find something that would be useful in this regard, there’s no need to worry.
Step 2
Both the duct tape and the scissors will come in handy during the next step. Once your hula hoop is placed securely within the garbage bag, you should tighten the surface through the use of duct tape.
You can trim away any excess garbage bag that might be bunched up at the edges to create a neater look as well as to facilitate easier floating when you put this device into your pool.
Step 3
This step involves bringing your pool noodle to the right size. Your homemade solar disks will require one pool noodle, but it would be too long to work with so try cutting it into four pieces.
Pool noodles are flexible but they can’t be bent without damaging them. The four smaller pieces can be evenly spaced around the solar rings for optimal floatage at all times.
Ensuring that the pieces are of a consistent size is of paramount importance though.
It can be easy to make a mistake if you try to directly cut the pool noodle into quarters. Instead, try to cut it in half and then cut those halves into further halves.
This makes it easier to ensure size consistency because judging the sizes of two halves through sight alone is relatively intuitive. Similar sizes for all the pieces will help your solar ring float more evenly.
Step 4
Now that you have four evenly sized pool noodle pieces, what you need to do is to make a slit in them. Some people might prefer using a paper cutter or extendable razor for this.
However, we feel that a pair of scissors can work just fine.
They might make it difficult to make a straight cut though since the handle can get in the way, so if this is a problem for you you might be better off using a straight razor instead.
Just make sure that the slit is deep enough that it penetrates to the hollow interior of the pool noodles. It also needs to be reasonably wide so that the hula hoop can fit comfortably inside of it.
Step 5
At this point you have modified all of the pieces of your solar cover and are ready to put the whole thing together.
Simply slide the pool noodle quarters onto the garbage bag covered hula hoop. Ensure a similar amount of space lies between each of them.
And with that final step, you are now done making a simply pool heating hack that barely costs a few dollars and is ridiculously easy to make!
Even children would not face any trouble making this kind of solar blanket as long as they have adult supervision.
A Bonus Step That You Should Be Sure to Follow
In order to ensure top notch pool heating you should be sure to make an adequate number of diy solar rings. The larger your swimming pools are, the more rings you will require so you should purchase your supplies accordingly as well.
You don’t want to fall short on any of the requisite supplies after all. Ideally you should try to cover a majority of the surface area of your swimming pools with diy solar rings.
It’s pretty much impossible for your water to get too hot in a solar pool, so don’t be afraid to make a large quantity of these rings and add them where necessary.
How Do Solar Sun Rings Work?
When you first take a look at your inexpensive swimming pool heaters, you might wonder how something so simple could have such a strong impact on your pool water temperature.
Simple Heat Absorption
The vinyl that you use to cover your hula hoop, or alternatively if you use a garbage back, is perfect for absorbing energy from the sun.
While it’s not effective enough to be used as an outright solar cell, it should be noted that you don’t need very high energy efficiency for a solar pool.
All you really need is heat absorption, and this is something that your homemade solar rings will be really great at.
Water Conducts Heat
Optimal surface area in your solar ring will ensure that it catches all of the sunlight that is coming its way. However, another thing that you might be concerned about is how the water will absorb this energy.
Simply put, water is an excellent conductor of heat. If an object on its surface is getting hot, this heat will dissipate throughout the rest of the liquid as well.
While something like this might seem unlikely to you, it has to be seen in order to be believed. Make a solar ring yourself to see how effective it can be!
