You can certainly make a DIY solar water heater for your pool for $200 - give or take. It will be simple (and ugly) but you can do it. They will tell you to put together some pipes in a zigzag pattern and put them in a black box with a glass front. Like hot air, hot water rises, so if you put one end of the piping lower than the other, water will circulate and will be heated. They probably will recommend getting a solar powered pump to speed things along. The box will get hot and it will heat water, but you won't have much control over the process. I would not try to make a DIY cheapo heater for your potable water though. If you need a diagram, you probably don't have the plumbing skills you need to be messing with your house. Even if you did, modern solar water heaters aren't just the simple tube designs. They have sensors and pumps and heat exchangers etc that keep the system operating properly.

"We went with solar, and have regretted it. For one thing, the connections will spring a leak, which requires someone climbing on the roof to tighten it. We have a 2 story house with a steeply pitched roof. Secondly, when it's not leaking, it doesn't heat the pool enough. The first 15 minutes are quite warm, but then the temp is close to the cold pool. We think we needed more panels, but we couldn't fit more on the roof. Our pool is 800+ surface area, and we have 11 solar panels." I may be able to provide you with some advice for getting your solar to work properly, but I need some information first. In what part of the country are you located? What is the size of your panels? Length/Width Who is the manufacturer of the panels? What is the HP of the pump you are using? I have been installing Heliocol systems for years, and I have yet to have a customer that is not satisfied with their solar system. Sometimes within a few days of installing the panels we will have a small leak or two as the rubber "O" rings didn't seat properly when the system was pressurized. We usually catch the leaks immediately as we don't leave a new installation for at least an hour after pressurizing the system. If we find leaks, we just disconnect the leaking joint and replace the "O" ring. That always works. On occasion, but very rarely, we will have a small leak show up after a week or two. Again, we just replace the "O" ring and that takes care of the leak. Based on the information that you provided, it sounds as though you had a bad installation. Have you attempted to contact the installer to remedy the situation? If so, have they responded? I get occasional calls from people who purchased their solar system from someone else and they are not happy with the performance of the system. When I get to the job site, I find that the system was poorly engineered and installed. Anyone can call themselves a "solar company". Most of the fly-by-night outfits sell a few systems; take the money and run, never to be heard from again. When shopping for a solar company, always ask how long they have been in business, and request references. If they hesitate, look elsewhere. There is a lot more to installing a solar system than just slapping some panels on the roof and every job is different. I always spend at least one hour at a potential job site to do the engineering even before I prepare a quote. Things that need to be taken into account are: Size of the pool. Is the pool in full sun or partial shade? How long will the feed and return lines for the solar system be and how much rise is involved? If you have your panels on a two-story roof, you may not have sufficient HP from your pump to adequately feed the panels. Panels require at least 5 gallon-per-minute of flow to work efficiently due to the high head pressure. Also, any system that is larger than 8 panels needs to be separated into more than one bank; otherwise, the water wont flow through all of the tubes. To install more than one bank of panels requires some knowledge of hydraulics and plumbing. How much HP is the existing filtration pump? Is there sufficient roof area for the proper amount of panels, and will they face to the south? What water temperature does the customer want/expect? These are the major points that are required to engineer the solar system so that it will function properly. To do the engineering requires experience and an understanding of hydraulics. This is why I strongly discourage people from doing the installation themselves. Most people donÂt realize the complexities that are involved in getting the most out of a solar system. Before selecting a contractor to install a solar system for your pool, do your homework. Hopefully you can avoid disappointment.

We use solar exclusively to heat our 25.000 gallon pool, but then we live in the Southern California desert where temps are consistently in the 90s to 100s from May through September. We've had the pool up to 102 degrees using only the solar and a solar cover for six hours a day! Gotta keep a close eye on pool chemistry and watch out for algae! Our solar consists of eleven (11) 4X12 Heliocol panels. That's 528 sq ft. Our pool is 512 sq ft, so we are over 100% solar coverage. It also allows for about a 10 minute warm up for the spa when using the 400K BTU heater. During an hour in the spa, the heater cycles maybe twice for about 5 minutes which is nice. Total cost was $6,100 installed on a 2-story home. I already had it plumbed to the eaves, so all they had to do was install the panels, 3-way valve, actuator and hook it up to the pre-existing Intellitouch before leak testing. This is our third season. We turned the solar on two weeks ago with the water at 50 degrees and we are now at 80 degrees. HTH Matt

I bought four top of the line 4' x 10' panels from a wholesaler; my friend has a contractor's license, so I received a contractor's discount. I did a little research on the internet on how to install, and brought my neighbor over, who has done his share of plumbing in his lifetime. I made a list of all the PVC, valves and adapters that I needed, ran over to home depot and bought it all. Mind you, I am not much of a do-it-yourselfer, all thumbs. But in a weekend, I was able to install the entire system for a little over $500. Basically, my DIY project puts out the same amount of BTU's that the pros wanted almost $4000.00 to do. Google "How to install solar pool panels." I think you will be amazed just how simple this process is. If you have a neighbor who has some plumbing or contracting background, buy him or her a case of beer and invite them over. I was amazed at just how simple it is to install a solar heating system. --John