Northern Solar Questions

[pooly1]

What is the weight of a standard 4x20 solar panel filled with water? I live in Michigan and I believe I could fit 4 panels on a section of my roof. What average sort of Temp increase would I see on say a 80 degree day?

 

[Isaac-1]

I don't know the numbers for a 4x20, but a 4x12 is 64 pounds for the TechnoSolis panels I have, other brands seem to be in the 55-68 pound range. Of course some of that water is in the headers so I would guess a 4x20 would be in the 100 pound range.

Ike

 

[jblizzle]

I think 100 lbs is a good estimate ... really not very significant as far as weight goes.

Impossible to guess how much temp increase you will get in a day ... too many variables.

That would be 320 sqft of panels. How much surface area do you have on the pool? Do you use a cover? What direction is the roof facing? How windy is it? Also the air temp is not quite as important as the amount of sun. And on and on ...

Just get what you can fit and live with the results ... a cover will make a significant difference to how much heat is retained.

 

[pooly1]

Pool is 512 sqft

I have a 12 mil cover

Roof has a slight angle east

not very windy

I would figure maybe a 40 degree increase on a cloudy day..................

 

[JohnT]

I would figure maybe a 40 degree increase on a cloudy day..................

I doubt you'd see a 40 degree increase on the hottest, sunniest day of the year.

 

[jblizzle]

I would guess you would see about 3-4 degrees on a good sunny day.

I have no cover, but have 500 sqft on S and W almost flat slope and I have seen about 5 degrees ... then lose most of it at night due to lack of cover ... just depends on how cold it gets and how windy.

 

[pooly1]

Oh wow I was figuring I would be in
the range of 5 to 10 degrees

 

[davelinde]

Oh wow I was figuring I would be in
the range of 5 to 10 degrees

A solar cover makes a big difference. It took us about a week to tack on 15 degrees to our pool when the solar was installed, with the cover on and with night temps getting pretty low. Now that the night temps are more moderate we took off the cover and over night will lose 5 degrees or more then during the day get it all back. Today is cloudy and I hear it going on and off - we have only picked up 2 or 3 degrees so far.

 

[haybird]

We are getting 1 degree per full hour of sun. Around 8 per day lose 2at night.
Just went over 70 degrees today. Should be swimming on Saturday with the sunny forecast.

 

[mas985]

The most I have ever seen is 10 degree gain in one day. But the pool started at 78 and it was one of the hottest days (100+) of the year. I have about 80% area coverage.