Water is a touchy subject these days and not far behind that is the cost of electricity. Pool owners have a double whammy on that score, but all is not lost. There are great ways to make swimming fun all year round and with winter just ahead, having a heated pool for the family that won’t add to your bills is a no-brainer. Here are our top three suggestions for heating your pool water at low cost.

1) Hula-Hoop Pool Water Heating

Your initial outlay here is to buy enough hula-hoops to cover the surface of your pool. Cut circular rings of polyethene black plastic and attach with water-resistant glue to the hoop on one side, which will be the side that lies on the surface of the water. You can get decorative by choosing various colour hoops and creating patterns as you fling them onto the pool surface. They’re easy to remove when you want to swim and its fun for everyone to fling them back again afterwards and make new patterns on the water. The hoops serve the double role of reducing pool water evaporation at the same time as warming the temperature.

2) Black PVC Pipe Pool Water Heating

Using 1 ½ black PVC rolled in a ‘tight snake’ formation (obviously to attract the most amount of heat), the idea is to direct the pumped water through the black piping and back into the pool. Hot tips are to use as many rolls as you can afford, paint the background of whatever you’re laying them into black also, to attract the sun’s heat. Some lay the hose on the roof – nice if the roof tiles are black, or on a garden shed, or in homemade wooden frames with a backing that you can also then paint black and mount neatly – as many as you fancy, to place where it will get direct sunlight.

3) Solar Cover Pool Water Heating

One of the most efficient ways of pool heating and evaporation reduction is a solar pool cover – killing ‘two birds with one stone’ for sure! The UV light passing through the cover material warms the water on the surface, which the filtration system circulates. The cover will serve as an insulator for the raised temperatures achieved by doubling up as an insulator against the cold night air.

All in all, swimming pools can be made into valuable recreation resources for families all year round simply with a once off effort to heat the water cost-effectively. Snazzy winter pool parties with brazier fire holders strategically placed, a cast-iron pot of stew cooking on the fire and plenty of cinnamon-laced Gluhwein and you’d be voted the trendiest folk in the neighbourhood.