Forums > Specific Focus > Home, Garden & Construction in Mexico

Georgia

Mar 22, 2002, 12:52 PM

Post #1 of 8 (5616 views)

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Solar applications: pool, hot water, electricity

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I live near Jocotepec and am contemplating building a pool. I understand there is an outfit in Ajijic or Chapala that will install a system (I think it's called an "Israeli system"??) of heating the pool with solar energy. Naturally , with the price of gas and plenty of sunshine, it occurs to me that hot water could certainly be heated by solar energy and electricity at least supplemented with it. Anyone out there doing this?

Georgia

Mar 22, 2002, 12:53 PM

Post #2 of 8 (5607 views)

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Solar applications: pool, hot water, electricity

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: I live near Jocotepec and am contemplating building a pool. I understand there is an outfit in Ajijic or Chapala that will install a system (I think it's called an "Israeli system"??) of heating the pool with solar energy. Does anyone know about this system or the company that installs it? Naturally , with the price of gas and plenty of sunshine, it occurs to me that hot water could certainly be heated by solar energy and electricity at least supplemented with it. Anyone out there doing this?

Dutch

Mar 22, 2002, 3:55 PM

Post #3 of 8 (5610 views)

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Solar applications: pool, hot water, electricity

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: : I live near Jocotepec and am contemplating building a pool. I understand there is an outfit in Ajijic or Chapala that will install a system (I think it's called an "Israeli system"??) of heating the pool with solar energy. Does anyone know about this system or the company that installs it? Naturally , with the price of gas and plenty of sunshine, it occurs to me that hot water could certainly be heated by solar energy and electricity at least supplemented with it. Anyone out there doing this?========================================
Georgia, scroll down this forum to the swimming pool posts of Gale Newlin. She has a website that may be of some help. The pool and spa supply store in Bugambilias (SP?) Plaza may sell solar systems, as does the Hot Spring spa store in Riberas. Haven't dealt with them, so can't vouch for their competency or competiveness. We are planning on building a spa, and later a pool and would like to use solar as a supplementary heating source. Perhaps by jointly looking for solar equipment, we could negotiate a better price with a supplier. If you're interested, send an e-mail - we'll be coming down to Lakeside the first week in April. I also know a competent contractor who you may want to bid on your project. We have a large solar system on our pool in Las Vegas, BTW, which has given us good service. Finding information on solar heating Lakeside is not easy, but we would be happy to share what we've learned thusfar with you. Regards, Dutch

Loco

Mar 22, 2002, 8:34 PM

Post #4 of 8 (5608 views)

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Warm water/air rises

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I didn't find Dutches reference to a web site ... but my suggestions are; a pool is a heat (solar)collection mechanism in it's self ... so how warm do you need it. If you don't have a gas fired backup ... then your temperature will follow the weather.The 'warm water rises' refers to a natural cirulation system on a grade. If you have a downhill slope from your pool you can use a black PVC grid as a collector ... and the hot water will rise to the pool. PVC can be small - up to large 6" drain field type.The tricky stuff would be keeping the pool level even, regulating temperature even a little ... and keeping the whole system clean/filtered/disinfected. I would imaging a good pool builder could supply (and install) all the fittings needed for an external solar system.

Dutch

Mar 22, 2002, 10:24 PM

Post #5 of 8 (5607 views)

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Warm water/air rises

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: I didn't find Dutches reference to a web site ... but my suggestions are; a pool is a heat (solar)collection mechanism in it's self ... so how warm do you need it. If you don't have a gas fired backup ... then your temperature will follow the weather.: The 'warm water rises' refers to a natural cirulation system on a grade. If you have a downhill slope from your pool you can use a black PVC grid as a collector ... and the hot water will rise to the pool. PVC can be small - up to large 6" drain field type.: The tricky stuff would be keeping the pool level even, regulating temperature even a little ... and keeping the whole system clean/filtered/disinfected. I would imaging a good pool builder could supply (and install) all the fittings needed for an external solar system.================================================Check out "Costs of cleaning and filling pool" about mid-way down in this forum. Lana refers to her website "Bluewater" near the end of her post. With regard to the use of PVC, Loco, I doubt you would get much heat gain from even the smallest diameter pvc pipe...every solar collector I've seen uses a very small diameter tube - lots of them - and none uses pvc.BTW, when sizing the collectors for our home in Las Vegas, we were told to get at least 60% of the surface area of the pool for the collector area. We decided to oversize it, and installed 480 sq.ft of collectors for the 400 sq.ft. pool surface area we had. Even with that, we're only able to get the pool temp above 85 degrees about 7 months of the year. Las Vegas is in the high desert, however, and not only are the nights much cooler than Lakeside nights most of the year, but daytime highs for about 5 months of the year are also below Lakesides. Our pool has about a four foot depth average.

Loco

Mar 23, 2002, 1:10 PM

Post #6 of 8 (5607 views)

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Warm water/air rises

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My idea was an old HomePower magazine project, very low tech. Simply a large coil of flex-plastic pipe (4-6" dia) placed below pool level. I tried to find metion of it on their web site but they don't have much of the old stuff any more ... not even the older CD's they used to sell.

Richard w

Mar 24, 2002, 11:26 PM

Post #7 of 8 (5607 views)

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I use a solar heater omn my pool

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.
Here outside Chicago I mounted a solar unit on the North side of my garage roof . It adds about 4 weeks to our season. North side you ask? Well it was for esthetic reasons. We would otherwise have to look at the collector ALL the Time. I lost some of it efficiency without question , but the wife is happy and in the end, then so am I.
Pick wars you can win teheheheh :)
Yes by the way it is constructed of hunreds of 3/8 osd. black tubing. The collector is 8'x20(one more 4'x20' panel would have helped by at least 50%) my pool is 18 x 38 average depth of water exceeds 48"
PS GPH flow is determining factor as well . too slow your not get 100% too fast also a problem .

Richard w

Mar 24, 2002, 11:27 PM

Post #8 of 8 (5608 views)

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I use a solar heater on my pool

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