The Pommie Solar Pool Heater.

I've just returned from a trip to Western Australia, to see my sister and brother-in-law.

I had a great time.

Now winter is coming in WA.... temperatures could plummet to 20°C!!

My brother-in-law, Karl, is worried about the temperature of his pool. It's unheated.

"What you need there, Karl, is a solar panel."

"Yeah, but I've been quoted $5000...."

.... ouch.... surely we can do better than that!

So, the evening came, a few ideas mooted over a number of cold beers....












The idea is to get some "reticulation" (or irrigation pipe to the rest of us), which is an inexpensive black PVC pipe. I was concerned about it's longevity when exposed to sunlight, but there's lengths of it exposed in the garden already, and it's showing no signs of distress after a number of years.  We'll get lengths of it, and stick it on the garage roof. The water will be pumped by the existing pool filter pump, which runs for 6 hours a day to keep the water conditioned.


The following day, a trip is made to the reticulation shop, and 25m of 25mm pipe is purchased as a test to see if the pump has enough head to get the water to the roof of the garage. After a bit of faffing about, the pipe is connected to the unused water feature outlet, and water is sprayed everywhere, thankfully some of it showing we have plenty of head to get to the garage roof. A celebration is held by means of rapid consumption of a cold beer .....













... and an emergency fishing trip or two....












So, some more pipe and a few fittings are purchased. A small trench is dug in record time by Karl, and some pipes buried to take the water to the roof, and up to the garage roof and back....
















... followed by a couple of emergency fishing trips ...



















... finally the array is assembled on the ground...













... and hauled up on the roof....







 secured by steel straps and zip ties ...

... by two strapping guys ;) .....


















... and a worried Karl tests the water coming out to see if the barmy Pommie has wasted a few $100 of his money ;)

The pump timer is reset to run the pump from 9AM when the sun hits the roof, to 3PM when it moves off the roof.

After testing the water temperature, it appears to be gaining about 2°C at around 10 litres per minute. Which isn't bad!












So we have a couple of cool beers, and a celebratory fishing trip....

















So here's my 2016 Holiday video.....