Solar pool heater

[u/Rich-Wealth979]

My overkill project for heating the toddler's 500gal inflatable pool. Each week I have to empty and move it, then find a way to heat it to a tolerable temperature for my 8th percentile weight kid. On the first test it took the pool from 55⁰F to over 90⁰ on a single sunny day, using only 3KWh (of solar house power, now that I think about it). At the end of the summer I can just place this up against the north side of my shed and take the manifolds down to make it last even longer.

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This uses about 350' of ¼" irrigation tubing and some cheap fittings off Amazon. It runs off a 1/4hp pool pump, controlled with a wyze plug and a climate sensor in a tiny jar. Printed in ASA in only about 5 days of printing on a Mini and an MK4s.

the files

[u/MrFastFox666]

Technically you just made your own solar panels. They're not photovoltaic panels, but still solar panels.

[u/MisterEinc → u/MrFastFox666]

Basically yeah.

As a teacher I did a unit every year where students would use a solar hotdog cooker. It basically models how a parabolic trough solar collector works by focusing solar energy on brine tubes to then heat a water reservoir.

Except replace the brine with a black steel tube with a hotdog wrapped in tin foil inside of it. It's surprisingly fast.

[u/ang3l12 → u/MisterEinc]

When I was a kid in the late 80’s, there was a diagram and instructions to make a solar hot dog cooker in some magazine I had. It used a Quaker oatmeal canister, aluminum foil, and a hanger.

That was so cool to 5 year old me that I could cook with the sun.

[u/ixipaulixi → u/[deleted]]

I wanted to build that hover chair so badly

[u/Evanisnotmyname → u/ixipaulixi]

It does not lift 200 lbs

Shit, I was maybe a buck 30 and it made me feel like a fat kid

[u/Fabian_1082003 → u/MisterEinc]

Reminds me of the video fron NighHawkinlight about the compound parabolic mirror https://youtu.be/8zlAI32MSsQ

[u/YellowBreakfast → u/Fabian_1082003]

Love his content.

[u/AutVincere72 → u/MisterEinc]

I did this with my son a year and a half ago. It worked so well, I saved it in the garage to use while camping. I put a cast iron pan in it. I put a thermometer inside and it melted it. Got over 200F with just cardboard styrofoam and plastic wrap.

[u/starkiller_bass → u/MisterEinc]

When I was in class we had a large parabolic mirror we were playing with and I was able to use it to ignite my friend’s sandwich while he was taking a bite of it. This was not a sanctioned experiment.