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Paddling pool heater made using a DIY solar panel
by APSense News Release AdminContributor: PureVolt Solar, all things solar panel installation
An important environmental challenge of our day... How can
you have a warm paddling pool without creating a significant carbon imprint in
a nation as far north as Ireland? My kids and I decided to tackle it.
Our idea was to create a DIY solar panel that would serve
as a paddling pool heater as part of a green science project.
I'm not lying. When I was arranging this with my kids, I
was talking a big game, but I wasn't really sure how effective it would be. But
surprisingly, the homemade solar panel still performs admirably even in
Ireland. It can heat an outdoor bath or wading pool to a comfortable
temperature using only solar energy. It turns out that the time spent studying
engineering wasn't completely useless.
This was a fantastic green science project for the kids
to work on, and it has a surprisingly long lifespan, allowing for endless hot
outdoor showers and paddling pool sessions in the backyard. It's still
functional after three years.
Here is what we did.
What's required:
8ft x 4ft sheet of plywood
50m of black plastic pipe
Steeples that'll fit over the pipe
Black paint
Big role of bubble wrap (1m wide ideally)
Duck tape
Solar-powered pond fountain
2 bits of wood to prop up the solar panel (approx. 1 m
long)
Constructing the DIY Solar Panel
1. Blacken an 8 by 4 foot piece of plywood.
Get an 8 by 4 foot sheet of plywood (around €25 from
B&Q or any builder's store) and paint it black as the first step.
2. Zigzag-connect the black water pipe.
Attaching some black plastic pipe is the following step. The
cheapest 50-meter coil of water pipe I could locate on Amazon cost me around
€20. I'm glad I didn't go any shorter because we used it all up really quickly.
We had to take care to avoid kinking the pipe. To ensure
our safety, we made large twists by overlaying the pipe. It is secured by
pillars. I might try to obtain those pipe-holding strips that are used when
installing underfloor heating piping if we tried it again. That might be a wise
choice.
Make sure both pipe ends have a good length of tail because
they must both fit into the wading pool. A few meters will be required to get
it into the wading pool.
3. Include legs to support it
The solar panel needs to be raised so it faces the sun
directly. You should be able to get the panel to a position that is roughly 45
degrees for us (located in Cork, Ireland). On one side, we attach two 1-meter
legs with hinges so that we may change the angle. In order to prevent the kids
from kicking the legs out and tipping the solar panel over, we additionally attached
a length of rope from the panel to the ends of the legs.
4. Wrap bubble wrap around the face.
The front cover of the panel, made of bubble wrap, works
pretty nicely. It serves as insulation and produces a fantastic green house
appearance inside. Large rolls (1 m wide) are available on Amazon for roughly
€20. Wrap bubble wrap around the solar panel's front side. Using duck tape to
seal the edges will help to maintain the hot air around the pipes.
Although the air in the panel above is 65°C, I have
observed it as high as 85°C, thus you can see the greenhouse effect.
DIY solar panel Ireland
5. Customize your wading pool for added heat
We worked on the wading pool as well in order to provide
that extra bit of heat. It is great if you have a paddling pool that is dark in
color or even black. A plasterer's bath that we had leftover from another
scientific experiment with the kids ($20 from Amazon) works well. It resembles
a black plastic bath in essence, but there is no bottom plug (which is
fantastic because it prevents younger children from emptying the water in the
first three minutes)
In order to insulate the bath from bottom, we placed it
on an old yoga mat. To create a cover for the bath, we also cut a sheet of bubble
wrap to match its size and form. When the water in the paddling pool is heating
up, covering it makes a significant difference. It not only functions as a
little additional solar panel but also halts all heat losses due to
evaporation.
6. Use a hosepipe to fill the solar panel's pipes.
You must fill the new solar panel piping with water after
you've filled the bath or kiddie pool. You must fill the tubing connected to
the solar panel with water before installing the pump since it lacks the force
necessary to push through airlocks.
The secret in this situation is to attach a hosepipe to
one end of the pipe and spray water through it until all of the air is gone.
Once all airlocks have been removed, place your thumb on one of the pipes' ends
to prevent air from entering again, then submerge it completely in the bathtub.
7. Integrate the solar-powered water feature.
I purchased a 5W solar-powered Pond Fountain (around €20)
from Amazon, and it functions flawlessly as the main pump because it is also
fueled by the sun. Attach that while submerged (to prevent air from entering
the system), and you're ready to go!
Do you actually need a pump... a side note?
Consider convection.
You do, in a nutshell, require a pump. People wonder if
convection could be used as an alternative. Since hot water rises, couldn't you
use that to power the system? However, only if the solar panel is positioned
substantially lower than the wading pool. For hot water to rise from the panel
to the bath above, there must be a vertical separation.
My speculative engineering talents lead me to believe
that you would also require a sizable height difference. A 50-foot pipe run has
quite a bit of friction to overcome, so it's definitely more than a few feet.
For me, everything in the garden needs to operate at the same level, so a pump
is unquestionably necessary.
Solar Panel Performance
Three hours for heating.
I've noticed that it takes about 3 hours for cold tap
water in Ireland to warm up to a comfortable bath temperature. I usually set it
up in the morning, take the kids out for a little while to do something, and by
the middle of the day, there is a warm paddling pool ready for us to play in.
Temperatures reached: Nice & Toasty.
The method is very effective and, given enough time, will
warm up your wading pool to a comfortable temperature. The paddling pool can
easily be heated to ideal hot-tub temperatures, which range from 36°C to 40°C.
Hot tubs used for business shut off at 40°C. That is the upper
limit to prevent cooking the swimmers. Check the temperature before somebody
enters with care; I always have a thermometer on hand for that purpose.
Keeping the temperature constant: Only slows the cooling.
The panel is not strong enough to hold the water at a
temperature in the high 30s after the kids are in the bath and splashing
around. Without the bubblewrap cover, the water starts cooling faster than the
panel can heat it back up again. This makes a significant difference since it
prevents heat losses due to evaporation.
Even if the rate at which the bath cools down is reduced
when the solar panel is running, it is still worthwhile to leave it on after
the kids jump in.
Optimal weather.
Any sunny day between April and September.
Days with a clear, blue sky are best. The performance
might be severely hampered by even broken clouds. However, it is not necessary
for the air to be that heated. In my experience, if you choose a bright sunny
day, even if the air is a little on the cool side, the system will function
nicely from early April through the end of September.
Results of the test - The Sciencey Bit
In keeping with the tradition of school scientific
projects, we conducted several tests and recorded the results with the
intention of engaging the children in eco-related science projects.
Record bath temperature: 52 °C
Once, we set up the bath in the morning and left it
running for much of the day, raising the temperature to 52°C. However, keep in
mind that people should not enter a space that is above 40° in temperature. It
had to cool off before being used.
Record for the warmest bucket: 67 °C
We experimented with filling a single bucket with water,
leaving the panel to heat the bucket, and measuring the highest temperature of
the panel. In our situation, the bucket heated up to a scorching 67°C. If you
have a lot of patience, you could boil an egg in that.
The DIY solar panel generates 5°C of heat for each cycle
of water.
In our experiments, the water exiting the solar panel was
around 5°C hotter than the water entering.
No bubble wrap gets subpar results
The subject of whether the bubble wrap's greenhouse
effect is more beneficial than the fact that it also inhibits sunlight
penetration was brought up.
The answer is that using bubble wrap significantly
improves performance. When we performed tests without the bubble wrap, the
performance was at least 50% worse.
Online, I've observed some users simply using a coil of
black tubing. In warmer, more southern countries, that would be feasible for a
DIY solar panel, but in my experiments, the sun's strength in Ireland was
insufficient. The cooler air probably also helps to keep the pipe temperature
low. A reduction in solar intensity striking the solar panel pipes inside the
DIY solar panel is considerably outweighed by the greenhouse effect inside the
solar panel, which can reach temperatures of 70 to 80°C.
Costs
Although I will admit that I also grabbed a few little
items from the shed, I spent about €85 on this. Items we purchased:
Plasterer's Bath (to be the bath tub / paddling pool):
€20
5w Solar-powered pond fountain: €25
8 x 4 ft plywood sheet: €20
Giant roll of bubblewrap (enough for about 4 solar
panels): €20
Lifespan
My homemade solar panel for the kiddie pool has lasted
for three years so far. But it appears to be nearing the end. The Irish winters
haven't been kind to it because it spends the entire year outside. Three
seasons is not much to complain about, though.
The amount of use it has received is fantastic. It
started out as a simple science and environmental project for kids. However, once
they became accustomed to a warm outdoor bath, they flat-out refused to return
to paddling pools heated to hosepipe temperatures! It is used fairly
frequently, and for us parents, it simply lengthens paddling pool sessions.
If you liked this article: take a look our ways to reduce
carbon footprint at home
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Created on Aug 24th 2022 00:28. Viewed 154 times.
