Solar Heating for the Pool – the Adventure Begins

By Lauren Dansey

At our home in Westlake Village, we power our home with a dual solar electrical system.  A 9.2kW Kyocera system is on the roof, and we also have a 3.2kW patio cover system.  Because of these two systems, we don’t pay an electric bill, and when we recently decided to put in a pool, we were concerned about the added cost each month to heat it.  Our home, our car, and our business are all  powered by solar, so we thought it was only natural to heat our pool with it.
We have a small yard, so we’re only putting about 100 square feet of concrete around the pool, but we decided to put in a small in-deck pool heating system.  Tubes are put into the concrete when it’s poured, and water is circulated through the tubes.  When the cement heats up, it heats up the water, and that warm water is circulated to the pool.  The cool water running through the cement (before it heats up) also serves to cool down the concrete slightly.  This system works well for people who are putting in new cement and don’t have a lot of room on their roof for a rooftop pool solar heating system.  We’re also considering adding some rooftop pool solar.  There’s not a lot of room because of the solar electrical system, but Heliocol now has some small rooftop panels available.  Between that and the in-deck system, we should be able to cut our pool heating bill substantially.
We will post updates and pictures on the installation as it progresses.