Mr. Solar Swimming Pool Heaters

    By Art Nadler

    So it's a typical hot Las Vegas summer day, and you're looking forward to taking a refreshing dip in the backyard swimming pool. You don a pair of trunks, approach the pool with a smile of ecstasy etched across your face and slowly place one foot in the aqua-blue water.

    Suddenly, a frigid rush of icy daggers shoots up your leg and into your brain. Frustrated, you leap back and throw your towel on the ground and stomp back into the house mumbling some barely audible expletive under your breath.

    Of the estimated 60,000 swimming pools in the Las Vegas Valley, only about 20 percent are heated, says John Fleming of Mr. Solar, a Las Vegas-based company that installs solar swimming pool heaters. And most of these, he adds, never get over 80 degrees.

    That's why Gene Cattaneo decided to open a solar-energy business 20 years ago. He invented a header device, which is manufactured in Las Vegas, to fit into rubberized tubes for placement on a homeowner's roof. A special valve attached to the existing swimming pool filter pumps water from the pool into the tubes on the roof, which are exposed to the sun, and then pumps it back into the pool. The solar heater raises the temperature of a swimming pool, Cattaneo says, an average of 16 degrees.

    People feel most comfortable swimming in pools that are between 88 and 90 degrees, Cattaneo says. Unfortunately, he points out, most pools in Southern Nevada are well below these temperatures and as a result, homeowners don't swim most of the year.

    "We have installed over 10,000 systems out there in the 20 years that we have been in business," Cattaneo says. "People call us because they see their neighbors swimming. We sold 500 systems last year and did over $1 million last year."

    Fleming says a solar heater usually extends the swimming season about two months. The company states in its literature that an unheated pool from Sept. 16-Oct. 15 will be between 60 and 70 degrees. A solar heater will raise the temperature to as much as 80 degrees.

    Cattaneo says a solar heating system costs from $2,000 to $3,000, which includes installation. The rubber tubes, formed in a mat and glued to the roof, have a life expectancy of 30 years. Mr. Solar guarantees them for 15 years.

    For homeowners worried that their homeowners associations won't allow the installation of solar heating devices on their roofs, Cattaneo says that can't happen. He was instrumental in getting Senate Bill 504 passed in 1995, which allows by law the use of solar energy devices.

    For more information, contact: Mr. Solar, 1934 Western Ave, Las Vegas, NV. 89102. Phone: (702) 739-9880. Fax: (702) 386-6981.

    Website: www.888mrsolar.com