Business Details
Solar swimming pool heating makes sense. A longer care free swimming season with no fossil fuels burned. Our unique flexible vinyl solution fits the available space with a proven long term history of durability, freeze tolerance, wind, and weather resistance ensuring your investment endures. We can interface properly and correctly with almost all roofing systems.
A ballasted framework securely supports our entire Powerstrip solar pool heating system using locally available materials. Fitted row by row capturing the full solar resource available while providing an agreeable esthetic. Fully repairable, durable vinyl based fin tubing is freeze proof and compatible with pool chemistry long term. Hot Sun's Powerstrip fin tubing can run horizontally because it is flexible meaning it can freeze solid full of water without being damaged by the expansion of water as it freezes.
A ballasted framework securely supports our entire Powerstrip solar pool heating system using locally available materials. Fitted row by row capturing the full solar resource available while providing an agreeable esthetic. Fully repairable, durable vinyl based fin tubing is freeze proof and compatible with pool chemistry long term. Hot Sun's Powerstrip fin tubing can run horizontally because it is flexible meaning it can freeze solid full of water without being damaged by the expansion of water as it freezes.
Services
About
Hot Sun's history dates back to Vancouver BC in 1980 when a unique flexible vinyl based grid style solar collector named Solarmat was introduced. Hot Sun founder, Ken Wright, took over the manufacturing operation in 1986, only 2 years out of mechanical engineering school. The technology was tweeked and tested in Vancouver where hundreds of systems were installed in the 80's and 90's.
Tile
Each Powerstrip manifold corresponds to three 6 tube wide strips of fin tubing. This nominal one foot wide section fits row by row never covering the ends of the tiles, the part you see from the ground. Fitted to the roof space row by row we can angle the manifolds to match roof lines and we can go around vents.
Shingle Roofs
If we run the flow sideways rather than up the roof, we can take advantage of roof hips and valley areas providing a solution that matches the roof lines and takes better advantage of the available solar resource. Shingle roofs must be penetrated in order to secure a solar pool heater. Our concept starts with properly securing a framework to meet wind loading requirements.
Diy
From 1996 to about 2014 our primary business model was manufacturing and supply direct to self installers all over the world. The skills required to do the installation are not extraordinary but there are design aspects of this that can be tricky. Hot Sun provides the expertise needed as part of our diy system offering.
How It Works
Residential solar swimming pool heaters are usually plumbed using the same size pvc pipe as the pool equipment, normally 2" or 1.5". Notice in the typical arrangement shown in this schematic that filtered water flows through solar and then through the gas heater if there is one. Sometimes we reverse this order to put solar in a more favorable pressure environment.
Advanced Solar Mechanical
How much pressure and how much flow should go to solar? This is seldom a concern except on large commercial projects because as it turns out the ideal flow rate to filter a typical residential pool is about the same as the ideal solar flow rate. But what is the ideal flow rate for solar? If we put the water through too fast will it not get a chance to be heated?
Plumbing a Solar Pool Heater
Water goes in the bottom of the solar pool heating collector bank. Air in water wants to rise so this way the air flushes naturally up to the highest point where water leaves the solar collector system. Water can then flush the air down the return pipe back to the pool. When plumbing a solar heater that is more than 2 storeys above pool level we pay attention to the way water flushes that air bubble down the return pipe.
Pump Power Requirements
In most cases the extra load on the pool pump is negligible. Here is why. The energy that your pool pump delivers is proportional to the pressure created times the flow rate. For discussion purposes let's assume the flow rate with solar on is the same as the flow rate with solar off so that pressure is the only factor.
Solar101
In the solar energy world solar swimming pool heating is most commonly done with what is called an unglazed collector. This refers to the fact that there is no glazing (glass) over the absorber surface. Its because at swimming pool temperatures this type of collector is the most efficient meaning it collects and delivers to the pool the highest percentage of the sun's energy.
Solar Hot Water
In the early days of solar, the 1970's, solar heating was done with a copper absorber inside an insulated box covered with glass (a glazing). Trapping the heat in with the glazing and insulating the box allows the collector to perform better in colder windier conditions along with higher water temperatures being heated.
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