solar heating a swimming pool?

I know it's the wrong time of year to be thinking about swimming pools, but I'd like to have the winter to work on a idea we have. We'd like to find a way to solar heat our swimming pool. We live in SW Idaho where it gets HOT during the day in the summer, but still is cool at night. That means our pool looses any heat it's built up during the day. Any ideas on how to construct something solar that would heat it? Perhaps black hoses strung across our house roof and a pump?  Thanks!

My folks had a solar-heated swimming pool that worked ok even though the heaters were not in the correct orientation to the sun and were partly shaded.  Even in Idaho you should be able to heat the pool ok for afternoon swimming if you orient the panels properly in full sun.

I wish I had more info but that's all I have! 

seems to me that if you could glue packing bubble wrap to black polyethylene, you'd heat your pool and insulate it.

maybe all the pumps and stuff would be unnecessary.

a dream of mine, probably crazy, has always been to have a small pool or even a hot tub INSIDE of a greenhouse..so we could use it here in Michigan all year around..of course it would have to be made of non rotting material and vent so it didn't get TOO hot in the summer..a motel near here had a pool in a glassed enclosure and it was so nice in the winter, i loved going there..guess it is still there..too

Brenda, have you read "Solviva" by Anna Edey?  She had a hot tub in her greenhouse!    I think she now has a tub in the greenhouse attached to her home (or maybe it is her home/greenhouse!) I can imagine the most beautiful relaxing setting, soaking in the tub surrounded by flowers and fruit....

Brenda, nothing like using a hot tub outside in the middle of a snowstorm.  We've used ours many times during the winter.  Your body stays warm enough after you get out to walk in the snow and make it back inside the house.  You can also try the Scandinavian practice of diving into the snow and rolling around after a hot soak.  A real eyeopener!

I think in a greenhouse a hot tub would raise the humidity level to beyond tropical creating molds.  Plus, the trapping of sanitizer fumes may not be too healthy for you or the plants.

There are solar hot water systems designed for pools. They are actually the cheapest systems available. These are simply black mats with tubes inside. You might as well cover your pool at night.

i actually don't think i would want my greenhouse pool really HOT..I'm not really into hot tubs, but warm would be nice..and the pools at a few motels around here are in giant greenhouses and they are wonderful..I just can't drive that far any more to go there regularly..they are basically large glass houses over the pools..

I was thinking on a much smaller scale..but the greenhouse i have right now is just too small for a pool or even a hot tub..

I'm not sure if i'll ever have one but it is my biggest possible future dream for here...i would think pool over hot tub to have some movement, but a 10 x 10 pool with a say 16' square greenhouse over it would be fine for me..leaving the corners and back for plants with the pool off center to leave access to the plants..probably sunk into the ground rather than above ground..possible an oval pool on one side would even be better?..having my other greenhouse this would mainly be for tropicals..

Hi Alayne, I think the best solution to your problem is to purchase a swimming pool heater. There are various choices of pool heaters today that you can buy on pool supplies stores. My tip for you is to just open the heater at night and turn it off during day time.   

Pools lose most of their heat through evaporation.  The most cost effective thing you can do is put a pool cover on when your pool is not in use. 

Rabid Chipmunk wrote:
Pools lose most of their heat through evaporation.  The most cost effective thing you can do is put a pool cover on when your pool is not in use. 

True.  We covered ours and it helped a lot.  I also tried using a utility pump, black hose, and hot patio.  No actual data to report but it seemed like a good idea.

yes, priority #1 is preventing the heat from evaporating with the water.  Those blue bubble covers should be on every night.  Learned this while living in Arizona, where we get a lot of radiant cooling at night even in the summer.

There are rooftop systems you can buy for solar heating instead of buying a gas heater.  If you have the right run exposure, they work wonders.  It's just a series of coiled black polyethylene tubes that recirculates pool water using your pump.  THere's a differential thermostat to control a diverter valve when you need heat.   TroubleFreePool.com is the helpful discussion forum for folks with specific questions on pools

Suq Lee, a swimming pool heater will use electricity, which causes extra use of fossil fuels, solar pool heater takes energy from the sun which will heat the earth any way and put it in your pool. Massive difference if you care about the future.
A friend of mine installed tubes under his slate roof which water ran through into his swimming pool, but it got too hot in summer. I don't get this heated swimming pool idea at all, i swim to cool down. Heated swimming pools breed microbes and the bad guys are not kept in check by the good guys like in a natural situation, people sweating in your warm swimming pool, swimming in each other peoples sweat, kids wee and saliva, it doesn't matter they tell me the chemicals will kill the microbes. But chlorine stinks and pricks my eyes, and still you swim in other peoples dead skin particles, snot , dandruff and sun lotion flowing on top. It just doesn't appeal to me, but have fun folks, you're not harming me.

Why not make a natural swimming pool? No chlorine needed, the plants break down waste, you create a biotope for frogs, insects and animals eating snails, you can have flowers growing in your swimming pool.
People take existing swimming pools and convert them into their own paradises which help birds insects and wildlife.

Paradise