Pool solar heating recomendations?

Hi all

looking to replace our aged and damaged solar heating tubing that has been up
on the roof for about 12-15 years, but has so many leaks that it hasn't been
used for about the last 3 years, and isn't really able to be repaired any more.

I wondered if anyone had looked into the different types of tubing available
and whether there were any recommendations from anyone ?

It seems hard to find comparisons or impartial reviews on whether different
thickness of the collectors makes a difference, and whether the different
methods of securing to the roof are better or worse than others.

Lastly, does anyone have any knowledge of whether the guarantees supplied
by the vendors are worth the paper they are written on ?

I'm based on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Many thanks,

Neil
 
Whatever you do, don't go and use S*pr3me solar heating, their after sales service for me left a very bad taste in my mouth.
 
Don't have a pool but since I'm a bit of a ghetto/DIY type of guy I've always figured I would just get a whole heap of 13mm polypipe and fittings and rig something up myself. Would just need to make sure there is enough polypipe in parallel so as not to create too much pressure. Heaps of cumulative cross-sectional area should reduce the flow rate to allow the water time to absorb a bit of heat.
 
I think a lot of people are using heat pump hot water systems now as they are so energy efficient

Thanks Ausprop

That's probably a good idea for new installations maybe ?
Seeing as I have all the piping and pump / controller in place,
I think it would be more cost effective to just replace the collector tubing.
 
Thanks Ausprop

That's probably a good idea for new installations maybe ?
Seeing as I have all the piping and pump / controller in place,
I think it would be more cost effective to just replace the collector tubing.

We are planning a new build - so far it seems solar is still most energy efficient for hot water - followed closely by the new heat pumps.

Cheers
Stella
 
wow - our solar carked it about 2 years ago (full of untracable leaks) so we ripped out the ancient roof rubber and instead of replacing i was thinking about getting the pool repainted in a dark blue.

but this heat pump idea sounds great.
 
Do you have a pool blanket? For me that is all we have ever needed to heat the pool, generally have given us an extra three months swimming a year then an unheated pool, and we are swimming before out friends who only have solar heating.
 
have a blanket and it does make a difference ... the pool is actually at our old ppor that is currently rented out (and we hope to move back into in 1-2 years).

the problem is that the pool is on the eastern side of the house - and starts to move into shadow shortly after noon, so doesn't get the warming afternoon sun.

as a child friends has a black cement pool and it used to be about 5 degrees warmer than our white/light blue one (was really really nice), other friends had a dark blue pool and it used to warm up earlier in the year, and stay warmer, than our solar heated pool.

dark colours attract the sun/heat.

i'd like to get the pool warmed up when we move back in. the current internal colour is that totally untrendy green/brown and scratchy pebblecrete that also has a few patches. i've spoken to experts who can paint a thick membrane surface on (after acid washing and etching), in basically any colour, and lasts around 10 years. the surrounding tiles were terracotta and the waterline were brown/green, but we replaced them (and the water line tiles) with a very nice offwhite tile - sorry no photos.

however - if the heatpump option works well, might just do that as the pebblecrete doesn't look as bad now that the terracotta/green is gone.
 
Two stories:

A neighbour at an existing house recounted a story of one of his friends who literally bought a roll of 20 mm polypipe and put it on the roof of his house. And ran it off a very small circulating pump. The result was that the pool became so hot, circa 35C, that it was unpleasant during summer.

Another house across the road from where a work collegue was living. The owner used an old valiant car radiator as a heat exchanger with a small circulating pump. The result was steam coming off the pool during winter.

Both properties are in Melbourne.
 
Two stories:

A neighbour at an existing house recounted a story of one of his friends who literally bought a roll of 20 mm polypipe and put it on the roof of his house. And ran it off a very small circulating pump. The result was that the pool became so hot, circa 35C, that it was unpleasant during summer.

Need more than one roll...several hundred metres worth probably, 13mm would be better.

Another house across the road from where a work collegue was living. The owner used an old valiant car radiator as a heat exchanger with a small circulating pump. The result was steam coming off the pool during winter.

Both properties are in Melbourne.

Exchanging heat from where?
 
Need more than one roll...several hundred metres worth probably, 13mm would be better.



Exchanging heat from where?
You maybe right regarding the 13 mm, unfortunately I cannot confirm the size with the old neighbour as we have each gone our different ways. However, as the story goes, it was a single roll.

The valiant radiator was painted black, boxed with timber, had a glass/perspex cover and apparently relied on the sun.

The point with both these cases, was that the cost was very low in comparison to commercially available units.

Another work collegue, who worked in the solar section, used to pump the water from his pool onto his colourbond garage roof and collect it in the spouting downpipe for return to the pool. Whilst I did not see this arrangement, apparently it worked.
 
i've spoken to experts who can paint a thick membrane surface on (after acid washing and etching), in basically any colour, and lasts around 10 years.

Lizzie - do you have any further information / contacts about this.
Ours is pebblecrete too, and i'd like to know what options there are ?

Cheers

Neil
 
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