Passive Heat Using Homemade Solar Disks

[alisonquilts]

AnnaK,
I used that particular pic because you could clearly see the plug - it just happened to fall in the seam where pieces of my pool cover were joined (I cut up a 20x40' to make these; haven't used all of it yet). Most of the plugs hit a bubble, and it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Alison

[AnnaK]

Thanks a bunch, Alison.

We cut our cover into strips and sections, look at it on our pool pages site in my sig below. I'll be limited with the diameter depending on how wide the sections are. Your instructions are very helpful.

One year we took the cover off the pool, that was before we had cut it, and laid the whole thing out on the lawn to dry. That lawn has never been the same since!

[stuckpipe]

These are really neat. How much heat gain or temperature increase do you think or believe you get?

[alisonquilts]

These are really neat. How much heat gain or temperature increase do you think or believe you get?

I am really not sure, partly because for one of the two full summers we have had the pool open we were also using the HeatSavr filled fish, which would confound any results. On late spring nights which are clear and still the night time air temp is often 30 edgrees F lower than the day time high. Without the lily pads we drop 6-8 degrees, with them we drop maybe 2 degrees. We keep our pump off at night, which allows the pads to remain in a single layer (for mazimum coverage) but we still only have about 60% coverage so...

Also, we have a very shallow shallow end (9-10") and a shallow end (22"), as well as the more conventional depths. My guess is that we lose heat from these areas very quickly, especially when the pump is on!

In the morning, before the pump has been turned back on, if I swim under a lily pad that has had the sun on it already (with still water underneath) the water feels significantly warmer (how's that for precision?!) for eight inches or so under the pad.

We stop using them for July and most of August because the water is too warm by then.

Alison