3. How effective are Solar Pool Heaters really? - Results of full test

Do these Solar Water Heaters actually work? if so, are they worth having? And what does the evidence look like?
I have had 10 temperature probes monitoring a number of points across my 4600 litre pool every 15 seconds over a number of days; this to understand how effective the solar heaters are throughout the day and show you the truth backed up by figures (from my findings).
Hopefully, you can use this information to make an informed decision in buying, making or just relying on the environment to heat your pool.
Plus, all this data is available on my website for anyone to use if required here: www.dev255.uk/solarwaterheater
Or Now on GitHub Here: github.com/Dev255/ArduinoData...
Please feel free to leave comments and questions, I will be happy to answer as best I can.
Also, please like, subscribe, and/or share this video. Thank you :-D.
Items used in this project: www.dev255.uk/what-i-bought
Project contents: -
• 2 x Arduino Nano (ATmega328P)
• 2 x NRF24L01 Wireless Transceiver Module (AMS1117-3.3 chip)
• 2 x SMA Antenna at 2.4GHz
• 2 x Voltage Regulator Module
• 10 x DS18B20 temperature probes/sensors
• 1 x 5V 2 channel Opto isolated Relay board
• 1 x 16x2 character LCD Display Module (HD44780)
In this video, find out about: -
• Specific Heat Capacity of Water
• Make your own Data Logger
• Home Made RF Data Transmitter
• CSV file shown in Excel
• Heating an above ground pool using Solar Energy
#WelcomeToMyGarage
#dev255
#solarwaterheater
#solarpoolheater
#poolheater
#homeprojects
#summerprojects
#sommerprojects
#homediy
#homemade
#doityourself
#poolwaterheater
#athome
#solarpoolcomparison
#homeexperiments
#arduinoproject

[@KellenChase]

oooh... nerdy as hell. I love it. I plan on making one of these, but a little larger, and need to see if I can integrate a controller with the Pentair Intelliflo smart pump. I love the data logging, but I may have to dig in to what an arduino or pi can do to automate the heating. thanks for putting out what you're putting out.

[@Dev255]

No worries, glad you liked it, you've encouraged me to get the Arduino code out on my website quicker, I will upload the transmitter and receiver Arduino sketches and share it here and in the comments.

[@Dev255]

Hi, I've uploaded the Arduino Code, feel free to take a look on GitHub here: github.com/Dev255/ArduinoDataLogger Or on my website here: www.dev255.uk/solarwaterheater Happy to help if you have more questions. Regards, Neil.

[@papakopa]

I enjoyed all three parts of your video very much - thanks for sharing and also thanks for taking the time to interact with the people in the comments asking for advise or wanting to exchange some ideas - much appreciated!!!

[@Dev255]

No dramas, glad you enjoyed all 3 parts and read the comments, I feel it's important to follow up as I have learned a little more and will make a new one this year with all suggestions applied.

[@tamarakennedy4976]

You are so brilliant...you are amazing....wow.

[@bigbankj2108]

Great video!

[@Dev255]

Thank you 😁

[@andrecarvalho8679]

Hi Neil, awesome test. I am thinking of building something similar but smaller (so that is possible to link more heaters, in case of more power). I wonder how much the new absolute black paint (vantablack or musou black paint) in cooper pipe would affect the efficiency of this systems. Cheers

[@Dev255]

Hmmm good thought, it may improve the panel a bit, although is fairly expensive, would be good to see the results. I'd love to take all the suggestions and make a really efficient panel.

[@LukeBernier]

How are you not streaming the data inside to a computer via wifi? Seriously, this is impressive.

[@Dev255]

Hi Luke, Thank you 😀👍, I decided to log the data at the pool Arduino to ensure there was no data loss, plus we have a fairly long garden so WiFi may have been an issue. It wasn't going to be a research project, just to heat the pool a little for my kids, but was quite interesting to find out how effective they are.

[@digitaloctane7371]

Welp now I know what my summer project is gonna be haha. I wonder what effect a glass pannel would have vs acrylic. I love the arduino monitoring btw ;)

[@Dev255]

Hi, cheers, the Arduino did wonders for the stats on the panel, especially in part 3, gets a little geeky. I have 2 glass panels for this year's project and will be trying copper pipe on an aluminium plate sprayed matt black, I'll compare it with last year's one using the same Arduino data logger. Good luck with yours

[@umetnic7]

@@Dev255 Really Looking forward to this years upgrade! :) any ETA? ;D

[@Dev255]

@@umetnic7 Very good questing, I'm editing it most evenings and will be uploading it for Patrons a week early, then will be out hopefully within the next couple of weeks. I have almost completed an update video on all the projects, so that should be out Friday week, that one shows the new pool heater. Hope that helps

[@umetnic7]

@@Dev255, This is awesome to hear. Thank You for getting back with this update! :)

[@Dev255]

@@umetnic7 No dramas, we are still using ours this year, so they last well

[@Rush50101]

Great video's thanks!! I went to your web site and tried to access your product links and It wont let me click on the amazon links. I'm thinking about making a roof top solar hot water system or adding a heat exchanger to offset my high electric bills from the electric hot water tank that I have. Do you have any interest in building a system like this? I just found you so I don't know if you have already, I'm going to check now. Thanks again for the way you explain things it is very good!! Rush

[@AeroL1909]

Ive got a 30,000 litre pool currently heated with a 14kW air-source heat pump that uses 2.4kW max. Not quite sure such a system would have too much of an impact for me but would be interesting to know your thoughts.

[@Dev255]

Hmm that's a nice system, my initial thoughts are to use PV panels (20% efficient max roughly), lead acid battery storage and a pure sinewave inverter to power the heat pump, where you would need around 15m squared of panels to cope with the 2.4kW power requirements of the system, battery charging and running the inverter. If you opted for direct heating of the water through a solar pool heater, then you would need around 20m squared of water heating panels for around 14kW plus a small PV to run a pump. That is a lot of water to heat though and you would lose a fair amount of heat overnight without the sun and good pool insulation. You could always increase the number of PV panels to charge larger batteries for overnight use, although it would then be best to just purchase a full home solar system. Once the pool gets to a desired temperature though it would use less energy to maintain it (again the more the pool was insulated the better the economy) so you may need less panels. Well that was a quick think off the top of my head, although there is many variables to consider with not only the energy source and consumption, but also the initial cost, etc, etc, etc. Just my thoughts. Kind regards, Neil.

[@KipIngram]

I think they get over-hyped, based on the videos I've watched today. It's worth keeping in mind that even at noon on a very sunny day, sunlight brings you about 1 kW for each square meter of collector area. And you won't get all of that - your system will always have some inefficiency. But you can use it as a "theoretical limit." Give the size of your pool (gallons) and how much temperature rise you want, you can figure out how long it would take a kW to do it. And if your pool is a "real" in-ground pool, you'll probably be demoralized at how much collector area you'd need to "decisively" heat it. So, if you're really interested in this stuff you should go through that calculation, just so you realize exactly how big a dragon you're trying to slay. There's a reason our gas-fired pool heaters cost a lot to run. But... "do they really work?" Of course they do - they do exactly what it is reasonable to expect of them. A well-insulated, well-sealed box with a transparent lid can get way up over 200 degrees F if you're not flowing any water through it to cool it. If you send water through there, it WILL come out warmer.

[@PhG1961]

Nice job ! Well done !

[@Dev255]

Thank you, glad you liked it, took a while to consolidate all the data, although was interesting.

[@PhG1961]

@@Dev255 My newer version is already on the way. Smaller panels (1.20m x 1.20m) this time with Arduino. Before I used an old computer (Arduino didn't exist or was just in the beginning) with the parallel port and a 8 channel relay interface. For the software I used MS-Visual Studio which controlled valves/waterflow. The temp. was monitored with a serial interface and 4 sensors. One disadvantage of this setup is that the data lines on a parallel port are undefined when the computer is booting. However, depending on the Bios there's a difference between some models/versions. There was a work around but still, Arduino's these days are much more suitable.

[@Dev255]

@@PhG1961 Arduinos do make life a lot easier, I used to make circuits out of 74 series logic gates and 555/556 timers, then use kernough mapping to reduce the number of gates, then Boolean logic to check the design worked before making the monstrosity of circuitry, doh, so I am very pleased with Arduinos coming along 👍. Looks like you are well on your way to having a warm pool this summer, good luck with it, would be good to see it what temperature you can get it to.

[@PhG1961]

@@Dev255 The idea is to make a time lap video and detailed overview. However, works like this are never finished..... a work in progress I call it, a bit like the never ending story.

[@Dev255]

@@PhG1961 I found that time lap works best for KZbin videos on the amount of views you get, so good luck on your channel, feel free to share your link on here.

[@8thsinner]

I am looking at designing a dual solar / smokeless rocket mass either bath tub or smaller concrete hot tub in the near future. Would you be able to provide and test a data stream for that with the older panels whilst your testing the newer stuff, as I imagine you're testing that new one about now? smaller amounts of water because the heating times would vary dramatically on the smaller tub and I would be hoping to get solar only pumping on copper pipes for it. I'm also in the uk and the weather sucks pretty much everywhere so, yeah, thoughts?

[@Dev255]

Hi, I am about to test the newer panels, although unsure what tests you require. Are you looking to have a data logger to compare your dual solar project with the smokeless mass? The Arduino logger is fairly easy to set up where I have the code via my website www.dev255.uk, so feel free to use that or quiz me further here. Yep, I think we had two good summer days so far this year.

[@8thsinner]

​@@Dev255 ​ Not so much, looking for the data to heat a smaller tub space, like a normal bath tub or one person hot tub instead of a 5000 litre pool or however big your pool was I can't remember. I wish I was an electrical sort of person but I'm really not, nor do I have any money either to buy the stuff. In the future i'd be hoping that changes and if it does I'll be hounding you for info on your solar cnc set up cause thats the sort of thing i'd like to do myself too.

[@Dev255]

@@8thsinner Ah ok, so this heater collects (generates) around 500W and if you were looking to heat around 100 liters of water (bath tub size) then the following should help. Joules = Specific Heat Capacity (water = 4182) * Mass of the Material (water = 1kg per liter) * Heat rise (ºC) So Joules = 4182 * 100 * 1ºC So you would require 418200 Joules of energy to raise 100 liters of water by 1ºC Wh = Joules / time (in seconds) So Wh = 418200 / 3600 (seconds in an hour) So to raise 100 liters of water by 1ºC in 1 hour, you would need 116W As this one is around 400W average over an 8 hour sunny day (500W max) then 400/116 = 3.4ºC per hour Or, 8hrs * 400Wh (400 Watts accumulated in an hour) = 3.2kWh per day, So 3.2kWh would heat the water by 27.5ºC per day. If this was a 1000 liter hot tub, then this would equate to 2.75ºC per day. The trick is not only to heat the water, but also to retain the heat through insulation. My previous pool heater produced around 600W average over an 8 hour day and is cheaper to make than this copper version, although is a little bigger. I hope all that helps. They'll be more videos coming out for the CNC too, so please feel free to quiz me on that one too.

[@8thsinner]

@@Dev255 Sry missed this...All that math hurts my head but short of it is, looks like it's plenty adequate to fulfil the desired function then. Cool. Hope I can build it one of these days.

[@8thsinner]

@@Dev255 Whats the surface area of this one roughly? hard to guess being it's oval nature...i'd be looking at building a 4x4 frame. Probably three of them in sequence ideally, I think.

[@coffeecuppepsi]

10:29 good soldering ! so many youtube projects have shocking soldering

[@Dev255]

Thank you, I'm and electronics engineer by trade, so I've been soldering for around 25 years :-). I appreciate the compliment.

[@linas.4880]

Hi, can you tell me if perspex / glass is a must on this DIY project? I want to try to finish as cheap as possible and looking to cut some corners

[@Dev255]

Hi, they do help stop the wind from robbing the energy captured so that it has more chance to heat the water running through it. For cheapness, I would recommend stopping the wind from blowing over the tubes such as a windbreak if you have one lying around (but not blocking the sun) or possibly a polythene cover as they are fairly cheap. I hope that helps

[@8thsinner]

If your panels are suited to size you can look for old bus stop polycarbonates too, (over here they are always getting dumped) you might need to sand (progressive up to about the finest grit you can) and buff them to get a nice shine to them but it's about as cheap/best as you'll get between free and buying stuff.

[@Dev255]

@@8thsinner We don't get many here, but that is a good idea, I've used headlight restoring products on Perspex and safety glasses when they get scratched, plus it normally comes with a UV sealing spray.

[@8thsinner]

@@Dev255 On a different note completely, i've been brainstorming the whole concept a while now and was thinking, pennies, after soaking up vinegar for a few hours to bring back their shine, glue them to the base board behind the pipes. The mass and material would hold the heat for a good time I think.

[@Dev255]

@@8thsinner That could possibly work, although don't know if I would be allowed to glue pennies to it. I believe you cant deface the coin and believe the bank owns the penny and not the holder (being a promise to pay the barer). I think so anyway, you could try it, although I won't be showing it on a video, haha. ;-)

[@nickkitson]

Hi Neil - think the links on your 'what-i-bought' page are broken.

[@Dev255]

Hi Nick, I have just checked all the links, although they are working for me. If you can't get them working just type the first part of the item description into your Amazon search and it should come up with the right product. Hope that helps.

[@soulartronics]

when you made your new panel, you assumed a flow rate. how did you know the flow rate? i saw no info on that. thx.

[@Dev255]

Good question. I ran the pumps into a 10litre bucket at the same height and with the same pipe lengths and calculated exactly 10litres flow over time.

[@MrRedneck1488]

Why did you not close the sides of the panel? Catch more heath. I did it with my panel today.

[@Dev255]

I didn't want to make it too heavy and as little cost as possible, the next one will be glass fronted, fully black and reflective backing.

[@tamarakennedy4976]

Soooo, which was more effective?

[@Dev255]

Hi Tamara, it was the home made one :-)

[@nate30]

That's awesome unfortunately on a larger pool I don't think 500 watts would make any difference Mabie 4 of those put together would make a huge difference

[@Dev255]

Hi, quiet possibly, although I have been testing out solar absorbing pool covers and they are proving to be very efficient when also using a clear dome cover over the pool too as the surface area is greatly increased

[@Knuckle_Sandwich_Hand_Wraps]

I have painted the exterior walls of my pool black, this has made a MASSIVE difference in heat, just the surface area alone warmed by the sun warms my 16ft above ground pool (its 4ft deep 20,000ltrs) up to 29 degrees C. The temp is not taken from the surface, but as low down as possible. When i sit in the pool with my back against the walls i can feel the walls are much much warmer than the water. I also have a black pool cover. Before the walls of my pool where a very light grey (almost white) and the pool was freezing. On average the pool is about 27 degrees.

[@Dev255]

Hi, that is a really good temperature to be maintained. I believe a lot of my heat is coming off the pool cover (probably 60%), I do need to do more testing. I now (arrived today) have a Sol+Guard 500 Solar Cover, so hopefully this will help. I wonder if I could line mine with something as it's only a temporary outdoor pool. With light-coloured walls and floor, most of the light is refracted and reflects back out from the light surfaces, so this makes great sense. I wonder if a part sunken pool cover under the Sol+Guard 500 would capture more heat then, as I do have my old black bubble wrap cover.

[@ritesha8050]

Is it worth it for a 3500l pond

[@Dev255]

Hi, I'd say deffinately, you would have a warmer pool than we had, were we could stay in the pool for 2 hours per day without getting cold. Hope that helps.

[@ritesha8050]

@@Dev255 thx. Also it's for a pond.there will be fish in there. Do you think that the hot pipes will affect water quality

[@Dev255]

@@ritesha8050 A yes, just spotted, you wouldn't want to swim with the fishes... The pipes would be at the same temp as the pond and the pipe should not affect the water quality, although may be best to chat with an aquarium on that point, just in case.

[@ritesha8050]

@@Dev255 thanks man the fish need warm water

[@felicia7644]

Would you please explain the data to an amateur? Which did better and by how much in temperature? etc.

[@Dev255]

Hi, no dramas, Part 2 probably explains it better here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3OahICootymkKc, where the homemade one did around 30% better than the purchased one, although does take up more space. I will be making a better model this year to see if I can get it even more efficient. Hope that helps

[@felicia7644]

@@Dev255 Thank you very much. Your videos are very good. Thank you.

[@Dev255]

@@felicia7644 Thank you for watching

[@Lorgic]

your pool is too big u need a smaller pool then u need no electricity at all good job

[@Dev255]

Hi, thank you, I will be looking at purely solar this year as I run a CNC mill in my garage purely on Solar, with a pure sine wave inverter, or could use a 12v pump. I would like to try a smaller pool, although it's for my girls to practice swimming. One of my projects this year is to heat water in an insulated closed loop like an emersion heater tank as this will have far less water and could potentially have enough heat for a daily bath full.

[@natalipo8327]

Фурако у нас

[@Dev255]

Привіт, Furako має працювати з цим так само, залежно від кількості води в ньому. Це також можна використовувати для нагрівання бака з водою; це те, що я хочу спробувати. Hi, Furako should work with this just the same, depending on the amount of water in it. This could also be used to heat a tank of water too; which is something I want to try.