Heating Pools With Solar Energy Saves Money

Nine of El Paso’s public swimming pools are open year-round, and one reason why that’s possible is thanks to the Borderland’s abundant sunshine.

Before solar energy, natural gas was the way to heat swimming pools, but solar panels save more energy and money.

Stuart Ed from the City of El Paso says that switching the pools to solar heating is “saving us about 40% in our energy bills from what we were experiencing previously before we took advantage of the solar panels”.

The Marcos Armijo Pool near Downtown El Paso uses 205 solar panels on its roof to heat the water. In contrast, a regular home swimming pool would have anywhere from six to eight panels.

Gad Ronat is the owner of Solar Solutions, the company that installed the panels at the city’s swimming pools.

He explains that the water is sent from the pool to the solar panels on the roof and then heated to the desired temperature. Afterwards, the system sends the heated water back to the pool.

Not only is the system easy to maintain, Ronat says, but the water temperature can be adjusted, too.

This keeps the swimmers happy and the city’s wallets fuller.