At AG Construction, we understand that the purchase of a pool can be a challenging decision when taking into consideration:
- Design, including size and shape
- Budget
- Installation, including style and landscape
How Solar Pool Heating Works
This diagram provides a simplistic explanation of how solar pool heating works.
What is Solar Energy? What is the Sun?
The sun is a star, not much different from the billions of others in the universe. The main difference to us is that the sun is our star. Because we are much closer to the sun, its energy is more intense than that of the other stars and we can make use of its energy to meet our needs.
Our sun and the other stars are nuclear reactors that fuse hydrogen atoms together to form helium atoms. A great deal of energy is released in the process. The reaction is similar to what goes on in the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. The sun’s power comes from the equivalent of many thousands of hydrogen bombs all going off at the same time.
We are fortunate that the sun is 93,000,000 miles away and that by the time the energy gets to us, it is gentler and more widely dispersed than it is at the surface.
Solar energy comes to us in the form of electromagnetic radiation.
Will the system crack the deck finish?
No, the wire mesh and tubing components of the system act as a reinforcement and actually makes the deck stronger. As cool water is pumped through the tubing during installation of concrete, and hours thereafter, it slows down the curing rate achieving a stronger, nearly crack-free, concrete decking wherever an Aqua Sunshine Solar Deck Heating System is installed.
Storing Solar Energy
If solar energy is going to be very useful to us, we will have to figure a way to store it. After all, the sun doesn’t shine every day, and it never shines at night.
- Thermal mass (or heat storage capacity) – This is the ability of matter to store heat.
- Conductivity – This is the ability of matter to transfer heat from one material to another by being in contact with it.
- Insulation ability – This is the ability of matter to resist the flow of energy from one material to another
As we investigate good ways to store our solar energy, we will need to understand certain properties of matter.