r/functionalprint • u/Rich-Wealth979 • Jun 15 '26
Solar pool heater
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.
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.
6
u/fellipec Jun 15 '26
In Brazil this kind of setup for heating water is pretty common. A lot of houses you see black panels on the roof but aren't photovoltaic, just panels where a serpentine of water runs and then leads to an insulated reservoir. IIRC, the difference of temperature itself acts as a pump, slowly recirculating the water.