Passive Heat Using Homemade Solar Disks

[stuckpipe]

These are really neat. How much heat gain or temperature increase do you think or believe you get?

[alisonquilts]

These are really neat. How much heat gain or temperature increase do you think or believe you get?

I am really not sure, partly because for one of the two full summers we have had the pool open we were also using the HeatSavr filled fish, which would confound any results. On late spring nights which are clear and still the night time air temp is often 30 edgrees F lower than the day time high. Without the lily pads we drop 6-8 degrees, with them we drop maybe 2 degrees. We keep our pump off at night, which allows the pads to remain in a single layer (for mazimum coverage) but we still only have about 60% coverage so...

Also, we have a very shallow shallow end (9-10") and a shallow end (22"), as well as the more conventional depths. My guess is that we lose heat from these areas very quickly, especially when the pump is on!

In the morning, before the pump has been turned back on, if I swim under a lily pad that has had the sun on it already (with still water underneath) the water feels significantly warmer (how's that for precision?!) for eight inches or so under the pad.

We stop using them for July and most of August because the water is too warm by then.

Alison