Connecting DIY Solar Water Heater to In-Ground Pool Filtration System

[poolman4000]

I'm considering building one of those DIY solar heaters using the 1/2" black irrigation piping. As an FYI..... I currently have the solar blanket which works very good; however, it typically only lasts about 1 year before all of those triangular bubbles start breaking apart and I have to clean handfuls of them out of my skimmer & filter basket (I'm on my third solar blanket cover in 3 years). Anyways, I want to run this irrigation tubing off of my filtration system, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it. I have 2" pvc piping which I could easily install a tee and ball valve; however, you wouldn't want to completely divert all of your water away from the outlet jets because then you wouldn't get the circulation in your pool that you need. Does anyone have suggestions on this? Do I install a valve and only open it slightly so that not all of the water runs through the irrigation tubing? Also, should I have the irrigation tubing feed BACK into the 2" pipe and then run it through the jets into the pool? Or do I just put the irrigation tubing (outlet side) directly into the pool?

The other option is to simply run the solar heater off of a sump pump completely separate from the pool pump; however, this is not ideal.

 

[mas985]

Welcome to the forum!

Unless you have free tubing, it is usually not a very cost effect option. Many on the forum have tried. Plus you need a very large amount of tubing for a reasonably sized pool or you won't get much heat gain.

As for installation, it shouldn't be any different than commercial panels. Normally you have a solar valve after the filter to redirect water to the panels, and then a tee right after the solar valve to recombine the water into the main plumbing.