Right now I am sitting next to my pool while my kids are playing in the warm water.  Last year I installed a solar hot water heater for my pool.  In the pictures, you can see it in the back on the other side of the fence. 

 

The water in the pool is a balmy 86 degrees, which is great considering that the outside temperature fell into the 50′s the past few days, and has only gotten up into the low 80′s during the day.  Our neighbor was complaining that his pool was freezing, his kids would not jump into their 72 degree water!  The computer controller allows us to set the thermostat for whatever our desired preference is.  The kids like mid 80′s, I prefer high 80′s or even low 90′s.

 

 Last year, one of my other neighbors said he kept his propane pool heater set at 86 degrees, and spent over $3,000 heating it just during the months of June-August.  With the increase in fuel price, my guess is he spent even more this year. 

 

I purchased my heater from a company called Hot Sun Industries Inc, run by a very knowledgeable fellow named Ken Wright.  For just a little over a $1,000, I was able to buy everything I needed to setup our system.  In two weekends, I was able to build the frame, install the collectors, and plumb the whole system together. 

 

Not only do we have a warm pool, we are saving a huge amount of money each year, generating our own renewable source of heat, and allowing us to use the pool from the end of April all the way into October.  Leave me a comment if you have any questions, if you have a pool, I highly recommend looking into a solar heater.