Pool Solar Blankets – More Than Just a Marketing Phrase

December 18, 2008 by admin 

Solar blanket. Doesn’t that have a nice, comfy sound to it? Well, it’s far more than just a marketing phrase. These tools really work.

Solar blankets for pools, or solar pool covers, are a thin sheet of special plastic that can be used to cover your above ground or in-ground swimming pool. They do much more than an ordinary tarp. They use the greenhouse effect to keep your pool water warm. Sunlight is composed of a series of wavelengths. Solar blankets, like the glass in a greenhouse, let the heating rays in but prevent the heat from escaping back out.

That effect has a number of benefits.

Keeping the top layers of your pool water at high temperature can reduce bacteria and other nasty bugs. A quality solar blanket can heat your water temperature overall by as much as 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit and the surface layers even more.

That helps reduce the amount of chlorine you need to keep your pool healthy for you and your family. At the same time, because the blanket is preventing evaporation, the sunlight that enters doesn’t ‘bake off’ the chlorine from the top layers. That reduces the need to use pool shock or replenish your chlorine even more, lowering your maintenance costs.

Solar blankets also reduce your heating bill, sometimes by as much as 75%. Solar heating makes it unnecessary to run the heater at night to combat cool overnight temperatures. It also helps insulate, to keep the heat from escaping off the surface. That means you can use your pool earlier in the day and lower your electric bill at the same time.

Last, but far from least, a solar blanket provides a physical barrier to things that would otherwise go into the pool. Dirt doesn’t get blown into the water. Wind-borne algae, bugs, and other nasty critters don’t gain access either. Leaves blow across or onto the blanket where they’re easy to remove.

Pool solar blankets can do all that because of the special material and method of manufacture. Tiny plastic bubbles are formed across the entire surface. Those act as miniature greenhouses to produce the desired effect.

How efficiently it works is dependent on a number of factors, but not least is the design of those bubbles. Hexagon-shaped bubbles can fit very close together on the surface, relative to a circular bubble design. At the same time, layers of special polymers help filter and trap the desired components of sunlight.

Laminating increases the efficiency. Look for models with extrusion characteristics that resist delaminating. When the layers come apart, the greenhouse effects are drastically reduced and the value of the solar blanket is much less.

Good pool solar blankets will also be easy to deploy and store. That makes it simple to open and close your swimming pool, daily or across the seasons. The right material and quality reels will make it a breeze to use. That’s important because if it’s a hassle to deploy, you’ll tend to leave it open all the time, defeating its purpose.

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