http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...paign=yssp_art

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? Have you got a solar collector ? Please share.
Thanks.

wrote the following:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...paign=yssp_art

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? Have you got a solar collector ? Please share.
Thanks.

I have about 100' of black plastic tubing which I use to help warm the
inground pool water in the late spring-early summer.
The pool water is about 55-57º F when I open it. Within a week it is in
the 70's.
The tubing is coiled with 4 wooden spacers of my own making to keep it
coiled without overlapping. It is about 8' feet in diameter.
One end has an adapter to screw it into one of the dischargers, the
other un modified end just spills into the pool.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

wrote:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...paign=yssp_art

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? Have you got a solar collector ? Please share.
Thanks.

I have a collector that you can HAVE, the cost of replacing the indirect
tank is prohibitive for me. I'll even help you take it down.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On Jan 3, 1:00*pm, " wrote:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...html?ref=fuel&....

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls *which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. * I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. *Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . *A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? *Have you got a solar collector ? * Please share.
Thanks.

About 45 years ago (mid 60's) my dad & I built a "solar pool heater"
out of 20' sticks of 1/2" (nomimal; 5/8" OD) copper tubing.
We used U-fittings ....lots of soldering. And we placed the tubing
assembly, two or three layers to minimizing "self shade", in "box"
with glass cover.

It worked ok but the box foggedd up with condensation & we abandoned
the concept......

A number of year later (after a re-roof) I convinced him to forget the
box and just place old tubing in a single layer on the shake roof.

In the early 70's when solar collection became quite the rage....an
engineering prof asked me to collect data on the system
input water temp
output water temp
sort description of "weather"

My dad was working the swing shift at that time and was more than
happy to take data for us a couple times per day.

The house (& pool) were ideally suited to solar collection....back
yard, pool & main roof (single story ranch) all ran east & west. The
roof angle was just about optimum for summer time heating. House
location was Orange County, CA.

For summer only heating, use latitude minus 10-15. For winter only heating, use latitude plus 10-15. For year around heating, install the collectors at latitude. Variations from these ideals can be compensated for by adding additional collector area.

from http://www.swimmingpool.info/solar-pool-heater.html

On sunny days between 10AM & 2PM we used to get a pretty decent
temperature rise....like "burn your hand hot" , but the flow rate was
kinda wimpy.

The real "take away" info here is, based on the temperature rise and
the flow rate (pretty much fixed), that the "heater" collected 10 BTU/
hr per foot of copper tube on days with decent sun.

We figured that our home made heater (about 500 ft) added a few weeks
to the swimming season on each end.....occasionally in summer we had
to disable the heater......pool got too hot (+80F) to be
refreshing.


Oh......... the pool as a bit on the large size....20' x 40' (not an
oval, not a rectangle, more like a rectangle with asymmetric full
radii on each end) and held about 40,0000 gallons

The pool itself was a decent collector itself becuase of exposure and
when my dad finally got a cover for the pool ("bubble wrap" type) the
pool was usable for a much longer season.....but since it was a
"retrofit" cover and no place for a cover real, it was a PITA to
remove & replace.

Copper is a bit spendy but will last forever if oyu keep your water
chem under control. Plastic is a lot cheaper, shorter life and
probably has reduced collection performance. If oyu have tons of
space...I'd go with plastic. If oyu design either system to be
modular you can add units as time & $'s permit.


HTH

cheers
Bob

Nate Nagel wrote:
wrote:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...paign=yssp_art


Copper rolls come in 60' rolls which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? Have you got a solar collector ? Please share.
Thanks.

I have a collector that you can HAVE, the cost of replacing the indirect
tank is prohibitive for me. I'll even help you take it down.

Where are you?

Tony wrote:
Nate Nagel wrote:
wrote:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...paign=yssp_art


Copper rolls come in 60' rolls which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? Have you got a solar collector ? Please share.
Thanks.

I have a collector that you can HAVE, the cost of replacing the
indirect tank is prohibitive for me. I'll even help you take it down.

Where are you?

Just outside of DC

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On Jan 3, 4:02*pm, DD_BobK wrote:
On Jan 3, 1:00*pm, " wrote:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...html?ref=fuel&....

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls *which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. * I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. *Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . *A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? *Have you got a solar collector ? * Please share.
Thanks.

About 45 years ago (mid 60's) *my dad & I built a "solar pool heater"
out of 20' sticks of 1/2" (nomimal; 5/8" OD) copper tubing.
We used U-fittings ....lots of soldering. *And we placed the tubing
assembly, *two or three layers to minimizing "self shade", in "box"
with glass cover.

It worked ok but the box foggedd up with condensation & we abandoned
the concept......

A number of year later (after a re-roof) I convinced him to forget the
box and just place old tubing in a single layer on the shake roof.

In the early 70's when solar collection became quite the rage....an
engineering prof asked me to collect data on the system
input water temp
output water temp
sort description of "weather"

My dad was working the swing shift at that time and was more than
happy to take data for us a couple times per day.

The house (& pool) were ideally suited to solar collection....back
yard, pool & main roof (single story ranch) *all ran east & west. The
roof angle was just about optimum for summer time heating. * *House
location was Orange County, CA.

For summer only heating, use latitude minus 10-15. For winter only heating, use latitude plus 10-15. For year around heating, install the collectors at latitude. Variations from these ideals can be compensated for by adding additional collector area.

fromhttp://www.swimmingpool.info/solar-pool-heater.html

On sunny days between 10AM & 2PM *we used to get a pretty decent
temperature rise....like "burn your hand hot" , but the flow rate was
kinda wimpy.

The real "take away" info here is, based on the temperature rise and
the flow rate (pretty much fixed), that the "heater" collected 10 BTU/
hr per foot of copper tube on days with decent sun.

We figured *that our home made heater (about 500 ft) added a few weeks
to the swimming season on each end.....occasionally in summer we had
to disable the heater......pool got too hot (+80F) to be
refreshing.

Oh......... the pool as a bit on the large size....20' x 40' (not an
oval, not a rectangle, more like a rectangle with asymmetric full
radii on each end) and held about 40,0000 gallons

The pool itself was a decent collector itself becuase of exposure and
when my dad finally got a cover for the pool ("bubble wrap" type) the
pool was usable for a much longer season.....but since it was a
"retrofit" cover and no place for a cover real, it was a PITA to
remove & replace.

Copper is a bit spendy but will last forever if oyu keep your water
chem under control. *Plastic is a lot cheaper, shorter life and
probably has reduced collection performance. *If oyu have tons of
space...I'd go with plastic. * If oyu design either system to be
modular you can add units as time & $'s permit.

HTH

cheers
Bob

Thanks everyone for responding. Bob....what do u figure the required
GPM is thru a copper roll collector ? Is it better to really have the
water moving thru it, or, slow it down for greater heat pickup ? Ill
be using the copper roll collector in conjunction with a regular 40
gallon electric water heater for Mobile Homes which have the
accessory top hot/cold ports plugged and ready for piping from a solar
collector. Im pretty excited about building the collector and
installing everything....as I think it will satisfy 100 percent of my
domestic hot water needs since i live alone. I dont know if to use
1/2" od copper roll or 3/4" od (???)

On Jan 3, 3:24*pm, willshak wrote:
wrote the following:http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...html?ref=fuel&...

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls *which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. * I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. *Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . *A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? *Have you got a solar collector ? * Please share.
Thanks.

I have about 100' of black plastic tubing which I use to help warm the
inground pool water in the late spring-early summer.
The pool water is about 55-57º F when I open it. Within a week it is in
the 70's.
The tubing is coiled with 4 wooden spacers of my own making to keep it
coiled without overlapping. It is about 8' feet in diameter.
One end has an adapter to screw it into one of the dischargers, the
other un modified end just spills into the pool.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

On Jan 3, 3:24*pm, willshak wrote:
wrote the following:http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...html?ref=fuel&...

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls *which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. * I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. *Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . *A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? *Have you got a solar collector ? * Please share.
Thanks.

I have about 100' of black plastic tubing which I use to help warm the
inground pool water in the late spring-early summer.
The pool water is about 55-57º F when I open it. Within a week it is in
the 70's.
The tubing is coiled with 4 wooden spacers of my own making to keep it
coiled without overlapping. It is about 8' feet in diameter.
One end has an adapter to screw it into one of the dischargers, the
other un modified end just spills into the pool.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

Wow...thats pretty impressive considering your pool was probably a
couple thousand gallons volume . I want to go with copper as i want
it to last a very long time without leaks.

On Jan 3, 3:18*pm, " wrote:
On Jan 3, 4:02*pm, DD_BobK wrote:



On Jan 3, 1:00*pm, " wrote:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...html?ref=fuel&...

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls *which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. * I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. *Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . *A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? *Have you got a solar collector ? * Please share.
Thanks.

About 45 years ago (mid 60's) *my dad & I built a "solar pool heater"
out of 20' sticks of 1/2" (nomimal; 5/8" OD) copper tubing.
We used U-fittings ....lots of soldering. *And we placed the tubing
assembly, *two or three layers to minimizing "self shade", in "box"
with glass cover.

It worked ok but the box foggedd up with condensation & we abandoned
the concept......

A number of year later (after a re-roof) I convinced him to forget the
box and just place old tubing in a single layer on the shake roof.

In the early 70's when solar collection became quite the rage....an
engineering prof asked me to collect data on the system
input water temp
output water temp
sort description of "weather"

My dad was working the swing shift at that time and was more than
happy to take data for us a couple times per day.

The house (& pool) were ideally suited to solar collection....back
yard, pool & main roof (single story ranch) *all ran east & west. The
roof angle was just about optimum for summer time heating. * *House
location was Orange County, CA.

For summer only heating, use latitude minus 10-15. For winter only heating, use latitude plus 10-15. For year around heating, install the collectors at latitude. Variations from these ideals can be compensated for by adding additional collector area.

fromhttp://www.swimmingpool.info/solar-pool-heater.html

On sunny days between 10AM & 2PM *we used to get a pretty decent
temperature rise....like "burn your hand hot" , but the flow rate was
kinda wimpy.

The real "take away" info here is, based on the temperature rise and
the flow rate (pretty much fixed), that the "heater" collected 10 BTU/
hr per foot of copper tube on days with decent sun.

We figured *that our home made heater (about 500 ft) added a few weeks
to the swimming season on each end.....occasionally in summer we had
to disable the heater......pool got too hot (+80F) to be
refreshing.

Oh......... the pool as a bit on the large size....20' x 40' (not an
oval, not a rectangle, more like a rectangle with asymmetric full
radii on each end) and held about 40,0000 gallons

The pool itself was a decent collector itself becuase of exposure and
when my dad finally got a cover for the pool ("bubble wrap" type) the
pool was usable for a much longer season.....but since it was a
"retrofit" cover and no place for a cover real, it was a PITA to
remove & replace.

Copper is a bit spendy but will last forever if oyu keep your water
chem under control. *Plastic is a lot cheaper, shorter life and
probably has reduced collection performance. *If oyu have tons of
space...I'd go with plastic. * If oyu design either system to be
modular you can add units as time & $'s permit.

HTH

cheers
Bob

Thanks everyone for responding. *Bob....what do u figure the required
GPM is thru a copper roll collector ? *Is it better to really have the
water moving thru it, or, slow it down for greater heat pickup ? * Ill
be using the copper roll collector in conjunction with a regular 40
gallon electric water heater for Mobile Homes *which have the
accessory top hot/cold ports plugged and ready for piping from a solar
collector. *Im pretty excited about building the collector and
installing everything....as I think it will satisfy 100 percent of my
domestic hot water needs since i live alone. *I dont know if to use
1/2" od *copper roll or 3/4" od (???)

IBB-

This is really straining my memory ......

but the only "gotta remember" numbers

are BTU/hr/ ft of copper tube (10 BTU/hr/ft of tube) and the total
length of the collector (like 480 ft, more or less)

The flow thru our collector was only ~1/2 gpm......we kinda "got what
we got", we had branched off the pool return line and routed a buried
3/4" PVC pipe through the flower bed around the pool (about 40' or
so)

We could have reduced the flow by throttling it back or increased the
flow by re-piping the 480ft total to be in a series of parallel
circuits.

The temperature rise across the unit was about 5 to 20F degrees
depending on sun.

Just off the top of my head ..... I would recommend balancing the flow
rate with collector "flow length" / temperature rise. For heating a
pool, you just keep recirculating the water.

Domestic water heaters are a different story..... I don't really have
any experience with domestic water heaters

cheers
Bob

On Jan 3, 9:35*pm, DD_BobK wrote:
On Jan 3, 3:18*pm, " wrote:





On Jan 3, 4:02*pm, DD_BobK wrote:

On Jan 3, 1:00*pm, " wrote:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...html?ref=fuel&...

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls *which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. * I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. *Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . *A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

What do u think ? *Have you got a solar collector ? * Please share.
Thanks.

About 45 years ago (mid 60's) *my dad & I built a "solar pool heater"
out of 20' sticks of 1/2" (nomimal; 5/8" OD) copper tubing.
We used U-fittings ....lots of soldering. *And we placed the tubing
assembly, *two or three layers to minimizing "self shade", in "box"
with glass cover.

It worked ok but the box foggedd up with condensation & we abandoned
the concept......

A number of year later (after a re-roof) I convinced him to forget the
box and just place old tubing in a single layer on the shake roof.

In the early 70's when solar collection became quite the rage....an
engineering prof asked me to collect data on the system
input water temp
output water temp
sort description of "weather"

My dad was working the swing shift at that time and was more than
happy to take data for us a couple times per day.

The house (& pool) were ideally suited to solar collection....back
yard, pool & main roof (single story ranch) *all ran east & west. The
roof angle was just about optimum for summer time heating. * *House
location was Orange County, CA.

For summer only heating, use latitude minus 10-15. For winter only heating, use latitude plus 10-15. For year around heating, install the collectors at latitude. Variations from these ideals can be compensated for by adding additional collector area.

fromhttp://www.swimmingpool.info/solar-pool-heater.html

On sunny days between 10AM & 2PM *we used to get a pretty decent
temperature rise....like "burn your hand hot" , but the flow rate was
kinda wimpy.

The real "take away" info here is, based on the temperature rise and
the flow rate (pretty much fixed), that the "heater" collected 10 BTU/
hr per foot of copper tube on days with decent sun.

We figured *that our home made heater (about 500 ft) added a few weeks
to the swimming season on each end.....occasionally in summer we had
to disable the heater......pool got too hot (+80F) to be
refreshing.

Oh......... the pool as a bit on the large size....20' x 40' (not an
oval, not a rectangle, more like a rectangle with asymmetric full
radii on each end) and held about 40,0000 gallons

The pool itself was a decent collector itself becuase of exposure and
when my dad finally got a cover for the pool ("bubble wrap" type) the
pool was usable for a much longer season.....but since it was a
"retrofit" cover and no place for a cover real, it was a PITA to
remove & replace.

Copper is a bit spendy but will last forever if oyu keep your water
chem under control. *Plastic is a lot cheaper, shorter life and
probably has reduced collection performance. *If oyu have tons of
space...I'd go with plastic. * If oyu design either system to be
modular you can add units as time & $'s permit.

HTH

cheers
Bob

Thanks everyone for responding. *Bob....what do u figure the required
GPM is thru a copper roll collector ? *Is it better to really have the
water moving thru it, or, slow it down for greater heat pickup ? * Ill
be using the copper roll collector in conjunction with a regular 40
gallon electric water heater for Mobile Homes *which have the
accessory top hot/cold ports plugged and ready for piping from a solar
collector. *Im pretty excited about building the collector and
installing everything....as I think it will satisfy 100 percent of my
domestic hot water needs since i live alone. *I dont know if to use
1/2" od *copper roll or 3/4" od (???)

IBB-

This is really straining my memory ...... *

but the only "gotta remember" numbers

are BTU/hr/ ft of copper tube (10 BTU/hr/ft of tube) *and the total
length of the collector (like 480 ft, more or less)

The flow thru our collector was only ~1/2 gpm......we kinda "got what
we got", we had branched off the pool return line and routed a buried
3/4" PVC pipe through the flower bed around the pool (about 40' or
so)

We could have reduced the flow by throttling it back or increased the
flow by re-piping the 480ft total to be in a series of parallel
circuits.

The temperature rise across the unit was about 5 to 20F degrees
depending on sun.

Just off the top of my head ..... I would recommend balancing the flow
rate with collector "flow length" / temperature rise. * For heating a
pool, you just keep recirculating the water.

Domestic water heaters are a different story..... I don't really *have
any experience with domestic water heaters

cheers
Bob- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well thank you in any case for sharing what you do know. Its an
intriguing concept especially when you live in FLorida where the sun
shines alot and the suns rays are intense...even when its 55 f.
outside.

wrote:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...paign=yssp_art

Copper rolls come in 60' rolls which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,

Many people have their solar collectors removed when they get their
roofs reshingled, so you should be able to get them cheaply or for
free from roofing companies. That's how I got the four panels at no
cost, and they were good ones made of extruded aluminum, tempered
glass, and copper tubing on aluminum extrusions. I think people toss
their solar heaters when they need a repair and are told a new pump or
tank will cost $500-$1,000, installed.

Commercial 3' x 6' collectors will have 5-6 rows of 1/2" copper
tubing. Ours have the tubing pressed into aluminum extrusions made
for solar, but others may have the tubing soldered to 6"-8" wide
strips of copper flashing (can be very thin) or a piece of galvanized
steel (not as thermally efficient but good enough). It's easier if
the tubing goes on the back because it makes painting the surfaces
easier. Black barbeque or exhaust pipe paint works fine but has to be
fully cured with heat lamps or else the glass will fog up inside.
Also you don't want the tubing or the collector plate metal to touch
the metal box at all or heat will be short-circuited to the outside.
Isolate the tubing with pieces of fiberglass cloth or insulation, and
use rubber grommets where the tubing has to pass through holes in the
box. A lot of collectors are insulated with foil-backed rigid foam
isocyanurate or urethane (styrofoam melts too easily) made into a box
(glue with silicone rubber sealer), foil facing inward.

In a mild climate like Florida, don't rule out simple recirculation
for freeze protection because it can save a lot of money by not
requiring a heat exchanger (open loop water, no closed loop
antifreeze) and allowing a much smaller, weaker pump to be used (1/100
HP, only 4-5' of head -- must open an indoor hot water faucet to get
the system primed). But have at least two freeze sensors, one for
the outlet, another for the inlet), each calibrated for 37°F, not
32°F. The pump needs a spring-loaded check valve on its outlet or
thermosiphoning will cool off the water in the tank at night. Also
this type of system can use a regular water heater. It can be used as-
is and without power connections in a 2-tank system (probably best for
gas), but for a 1-tank system the tank can be modified by
disconnecting the bottom heater and shortening the dip tube so it
extends only about 6" below the top heating element. The drain valve
now serves as both the cold inlet from the water supply and also the
outlet to the pump.

wrote:
On Jan 3, 4:02 pm, DD_BobK wrote:
On Jan 3, 1:00 pm, " wrote:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4669902_sola...html?ref=fuel&...
Copper rolls come in 60' rolls which makes it easy and compact to
build a Solar Collector around. I reckon one roll would provide
enough hot water for a 40 gallon water heater in FLorida...but another
roll could always be implemented easy enough. Price on a roll of 3/4"
copper runs about $140 with maybe another $50 in misc. collector box
materials, making it awefully inexpensive . A suitable heavy duty
water pump runs about $140 ,
What do u think ? Have you got a solar collector ? Please share.
Thanks.
About 45 years ago (mid 60's) my dad & I built a "solar pool heater"
out of 20' sticks of 1/2" (nomimal; 5/8" OD) copper tubing.
We used U-fittings ....lots of soldering. And we placed the tubing
assembly, two or three layers to minimizing "self shade", in "box"
with glass cover.

It worked ok but the box foggedd up with condensation & we abandoned
the concept......

A number of year later (after a re-roof) I convinced him to forget the
box and just place old tubing in a single layer on the shake roof.

In the early 70's when solar collection became quite the rage....an
engineering prof asked me to collect data on the system
input water temp
output water temp
sort description of "weather"

My dad was working the swing shift at that time and was more than
happy to take data for us a couple times per day.

The house (& pool) were ideally suited to solar collection....back
yard, pool & main roof (single story ranch) all ran east & west. The
roof angle was just about optimum for summer time heating. House
location was Orange County, CA.

For summer only heating, use latitude minus 10-15. For winter only heating, use latitude plus 10-15. For year around heating, install the collectors at latitude. Variations from these ideals can be compensated for by adding additional collector area.
fromhttp://www.swimmingpool.info/solar-pool-heater.html

On sunny days between 10AM & 2PM we used to get a pretty decent
temperature rise....like "burn your hand hot" , but the flow rate was
kinda wimpy.

The real "take away" info here is, based on the temperature rise and
the flow rate (pretty much fixed), that the "heater" collected 10 BTU/
hr per foot of copper tube on days with decent sun.

We figured that our home made heater (about 500 ft) added a few weeks
to the swimming season on each end.....occasionally in summer we had
to disable the heater......pool got too hot (+80F) to be
refreshing.

Oh......... the pool as a bit on the large size....20' x 40' (not an
oval, not a rectangle, more like a rectangle with asymmetric full
radii on each end) and held about 40,0000 gallons

The pool itself was a decent collector itself becuase of exposure and
when my dad finally got a cover for the pool ("bubble wrap" type) the
pool was usable for a much longer season.....but since it was a
"retrofit" cover and no place for a cover real, it was a PITA to
remove & replace.

Copper is a bit spendy but will last forever if oyu keep your water
chem under control. Plastic is a lot cheaper, shorter life and
probably has reduced collection performance. If oyu have tons of
space...I'd go with plastic. If oyu design either system to be
modular you can add units as time & $'s permit.

HTH

cheers
Bob

Thanks everyone for responding. Bob....what do u figure the required
GPM is thru a copper roll collector ? Is it better to really have the
water moving thru it, or, slow it down for greater heat pickup ?

You get more energy transfer from the highest temperature differential.
All other things equal, more flow, lower temperature rise, results
in more captured energy. Also reduces loss in the piping to/from the
collector.

Ill
be using the copper roll collector in conjunction with a regular 40
gallon electric water heater for Mobile Homes which have the
accessory top hot/cold ports plugged and ready for piping from a solar
collector. Im pretty excited about building the collector and
installing everything....as I think it will satisfy 100 percent of my
domestic hot water needs since i live alone. I dont know if to use
1/2" od copper roll or 3/4" od (???)