After hearing
Paul's podcast and seeing some
discussion about natural swimming pools, I am convinced that this is a great way to go as far as having a multi-purpose pool goes. What I'd like to do is to figure out how to heat one during the winter in Ohio where it can get down to zero and sub-zero temps, but is usually 20-50 during the fall, spring and much of the winter.
I have thought about a kind of greenhouse approach with perhaps fresnel lenses to heat up some burried water basins. I live behind a hill, so I get some direct sunlight in the early to late afternoons. I could potentially couple this with a
rocket mass heater system. It would be really nice to double this as a green house for growing things whilst being able to swim year round and harvest fish for food (thinking tilapia + duckweed style?).
Any thoughts on what might work? I think it's crazy to spend money on a pool that can only be used for a single purpose and only during the summer in our area, so this seems like a nice multip-purpose fit to have diversion and utility.