solar pool

[nothernewbie]

On 1/23/2019 at 10:11 AM, kimanjome said:

@Northernnewbie, please refer to MaineCoon's post.  This past year it was difficult to heat a pool, even a small and shallow one like ours,  which had full sun all day. That is because there was a lot of rain, and that volume of cold water reduces the warm water in the pool.  I did enjoy the pool late April, May, and June, and most? of July.  

I am not trying to dissuade you from heating your pool.  I think it's a great idea. I only posted  my disappointment so you, or others who may be interested, understand that no how great a solar system you have, it's not always easy to counteract forces of Mother Nature.

Our Key West home has the flat black solar panels to the pool, which was a shallow, inground fiberglass one about 4' deep and 10k gallons.  Our Sarasota home, about the same dimensions, only needed a November through March boost, so we used a quick adjunct  natural gas heater, which was fabulous. 

Ii would assume that a large number of solar vacuum tubes as in the photo would have an increasingly large volume of heated water to flow into the pool to dilute the cooler rain water. The issue is the time it takes to get all that warm water into the pool. Maybe if the pipes had a larger circumference, or there were double the number of pipes forcing heated water into the pool?  I don't know, I'm not an engineer.

Thanks for your feedback. We only want to use the pool when it is hot out. Once the weather moderates we find we have other interests. We are getting the panels that GoSolar posted above. Hopefully, the will do the trick. It has taken a long time and a lot of research to get to this point. Fingers crossed!

On 1/23/2019 at 10:11 AM, kimanjome said:

 

 

[Kiko]

For maximum efficiency it is a good idea to have a gpm flow indicator installed on the return line from the solar panels to the pool.  This will provide you with an accurate gallons per minute flow rate for your system. Then you will know how to throttle the pump outlet to the solar panels to achieve the correct flow rate thru the panels.   Every system is different pending piping ID, piping length run, and head to highest point of solar panel installation.  Too much pump/flow rate is just as bad as too little pump/flow rate.  Without a flow indicator you  may end up with some trial and error adjustments.  Another person's advice  may not apply to your system.