Black Plastic Pipe Solar Water Heater

Black abs 50mm pipes filled with water are arranged in a herring bone pattern on a roof to pick up heat from the sun for a nice warm shower.

Black plastic pipe solar water heater.

The water will exit the box and enter the house at a substantially higher temperature. You will use 2 abs pipe now as it is less expensive and it is black to attract the sun and heat. Use transition cement to connect the abs to the pvc elbows extending them up to approximately 4 6 below the roof line. Add 90 degree elbows and run the pipes to approximately 4 6 past the roof edge.

Most garden and hardware supply stores sell such pipes so getting them should be no problem. Just a large can of black spray paint might help with the uv breaking down plastic. A long loop of 2 inch black pvc tubing that is a bypass into your pool s water pump hose are the basics of a solar heating system for your pool. The upper left pipe on the box is the input and the lower right hole is the output.

It s all about the best way of channeling all the heat from the sun into the pipe and into the water. In hawaii with a solar hot water heater we had pvc melt and sag because of the temperature of the water running through the system. In addition pvc is usually not uv stabilized and will become at the very least brittle in the sunlight. Many people spend over a thousand dollars to get a heater for their pool but by putting in a solar system it s possible you can spend about one fifth of that.

The dark color of poly pipes gives them the ability to absorb heat from the sun. Installing black polyethylene pipes or poly pipes provides heat for your swimming pool with the help of solar power. The features of this design are as follows. I would not use pvc in anything directly plumbed to the thermal collector.

So there you have it you can actually build a semi decent fully fledged pool heating system out of 13mm poly pipe at a fraction of the cost of a commercial system if you follow these tips and most importantly size it right. Black pipe will absorb more heat myth the surface area of the sun exposed pipe on your roof is minuscule compared to your solar collector area and the pool water is travelling at such a high velocity that the heat transfer in feed and return plumbing is negligible. As the cold water is pumped into the box sunlight will be absorbed into the black surfaces heating the pipes.