Solar Pool Heating and a Pool Cover…Do i need both?

So many Solar Pool Heating Companies these days advise their customers to also fit a swimming pool cover, but is that really necessary and are there advantages to be had by doing so?

The answer is you most certainly should be fitting a pool cover, there are great advantages and performance improvements to be gained by supporting the efforts of your solar pool heating system with the use of a swimming pool cover.

As most will know, a solar pool heating system channels water from the swimming pool, over the roof of your house or another adjacent building. While the water travels over the roof of the building in the collectors, it is heated by the sun. The solar pool heating system then returns this heated water back to the swimming pool, via the filtration system return valve. While the solar pool heating system is running, this process is continuous and so the swimming pool water slowly gains temperature. However, once a pool’s filtration system is turned off or the sun is obscured, or goes down, the heating process is limited and/or stopped altogether. It is during this time that the pool water will lose some of the temperature it had gained.

At this point it must be said that a Solar Pool Heating System operating in isolation will generate between 2 and 8 Degrees in temperature to your pool water. The majority of this heat added to the pool will be lost out through the surface area of the water. Therefore, the water temperature will be somewhat dynamic, rising during the day and then falling during the evening. A Swimming Pool Cover via the bubbles in the material, creates a layer of warm that insulates/ prevents/ slows down the heat loss. By adding the pool cover to the surface area of the water you therefore reduce this dynamic process of water temperature fluctuations.

On top of this a swimming pool cover will generate in isolation (without the use of Solar Pool Heating) between 2 and 8 degrees in temperature.  As the sun’s UV Rays pass through the flat surface of the bubble, and down into the pool water,  it bounces off the bottom of the pool and head’s towards the open air. As the bubbles on the under side are concaved the UV is then refracted back down into the pool. As more and more UV is collected and then trapped in the water, the pool water temperature increases.

So it becomes quite clear that if you combine a pool cover with a solar pool heating system, your pool water will have two independent sources to increase the water temperature. As well as a method of reducing the heat loss normally associated with owning a swimming pool. By reducing the amount of heat loss your pool water remains much closer to the desired temperature, thus meaning your solar pool heating system wont be required to be working as much. The more you can use the fucntions of the pool cover (free) without the use of the Solar Pool Heating System, means a monetary saving to the owner, aswell as an extension to the swimming season.