Piping for solar pool heater

[woodman-46]

Hello I have seen plans for a DIY solar heater for heating a pool that consists basically of a long length(about 100ft) of 1/2"- 1" black pipe coiled and fitted to a board. The sun heats water pumped through it that goes around the coil and out into the pool.
My question is would copper pipe be more efficient in this case or would there be no advantage over black plastic pipe.
I realise that sun is part of the equation but taking that aside would appreciate advice. Thanks

 

[big-all]

my thoughts
if it costs more than £10 its unlikely to give you any return
assuming no running costs like a pump

 

[bernardgreen]

would copper pipe be more efficient in this case

Copper pipe would be less efficient unless it was painted in matt black paint. Matt black objects absorb more radient heat than shiny objects.

 

[woodman-46]

Thanks for your opinions, useful. In reply to big all, we are at the moment ( in the summer) having to use a. 2kw pool heater to warm the 12ft x 12ft pool and it does a good job but over a season proves costly. There are you tube videos of the "coil" solar heaters working and producing a very warm/hot water output onto a thermometer and so with good sun they are without doubt very efficient. If made correctly I would feel sure that they would be cost effective. Thanks

 

[big-all]

5000 litres will take a lot off heating
getting the water very hot in the warming loop is inefficient as you will get more heat loss with less heat transferred
you need to get the balance right
you also need to keep in mind it could act as a cooling coil if the pool water is warm and the sun goes in
i am all for saving the planet and money so good luck and let us know how efficient it is
and all my comments are without actual experience off pool heating just from life in general

 

[Agile]

Bright sunlight produces about 1 kW per square meter.

So to get 2 kW you would need 2 sq m. assuming you could really absorb most of the incident heat. But the area of black pipe will be very small unless you had miles of it.

But the real point is how much power you need to heat and keep the pool heated.

For full depth pools heated by boilers, I usually see about 1 kW per square meter although once hot far less power is needed.

Even so, they typically take 2-3 days to heat up from say 10 C to 30 C.

Tony

 

[woodman-46]

Thanks for your replies.

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