What are Solar Pool Covers? Solar pool covers are a sheet of material which overs the exposed surface of a pool’s water, to prevent evaporation and to keep leaves and debris out of the water as well. A solar version of this concept harnesses the light of the sun to heat the water, and can be done through a few different approaches.
The most common and ubiquitous concept is for the sheet of pool cover material to contain blisters which magnify the sun’s rays in a similar way to a magnifying glass, beaming solar energy into the water and gradually heating it. It usually has a unidirectional thermal composition which lets heat in, but doesn’t like to let heat out.
There do also exist photovoltaic versions of this with flexible panels and a low-wattage flexible element which converts sunlight into electricity, and then into waste heat. These are very rare, not commonly on the market, and actually a lot less efficient.
Solar pool covers are ideal for places with very sunny summers, but may not work as well in rainy or overcast climates.