Need a little HELP!!!

[cjva]

OK - Let me see if I can start from the beginning. My wife and I purchased (from Wal-mart) last summer one of those Summer Escape 18' round 42" depth pools for our 2 boys 9 and 7. Well it was the hit on my street, on a daily basis we would have 3 - 6 kids in the pool everyday. The pool wasn't even open until mid July. We were very fortunate that a friend of my wife gave us a Columbia pump and sand filter. It worked perfectly!!! My wife maintained the pool so perfectly. I did purchase the adaptor off of amazon to remove the pump from the bottom of the skimmer. The pump and filter system I have is a 1/2 hp pump and 14.5" tank that holds 50lbs of sand.

SO - this is where I need help!!! This year I'm changing over to SWG (intellichlor IC15 by Pentair) and a solar heater. The solar heater is where I need the help!! Where the pool is located I cannot put the solar panels on the ground or beside the pool. I built my own solar panels (1000 ft 1/2" tubing - 4 different panels) I would like to put the panels on my roof because it faces the south and on sunny days, it has sun all day long (sunrise til sunset). I don't think my pump will be strong enough to push the water all the way to my roof (about 35 - 40ft). I had thought about using the little pump that came with the pool to help push it. I have changed the skimmer to a 1 1/2 pipe and plan on hard pvc pipe for the plumbing. I will be using 1 1/2 pvc from skimmer to pump to fiter through SWG to return.

Should I replace my pump and filter to a bigger pump or should I purchase a separate pump just for the solar heater???? Or do you think my current pump will work? The little pump that came with the pool I converted it over to pvc pipe (1 1/2). Is there a way to use it to help push the water?

My thoughts - put in a as close to the bottom but on the side a drain (kinda of like a main drain would work). Drain and skimmer to 1/2 hp pump to filter to a tee (half water through and half to little pump then tee back together) to solar panel (using 1" pvc to the panels and 1" return) to SWG to return. all pipes are 1 1/2 pvc except to solar

Also do I need check valves anywhere?

I know this is a lot!!!

 

[Isaac-1]

The problem with most home built solar panels is not usually the ability of the pool pump to lift up to the panel, instead it is back pressure from the one long continuous section of tubing, commercial solar panels are built with a large header pipe and lots of parallel tubes that each only heat part of the water which minimizes back pressure, (think drinking through a fist full of soda straws at once), where by comparison the typical home built solar collector is one long coil that all the water passes through (think drinking through one of those twisty loop novelty straws). All this added resistance tends to minimize flow and consume more power while often minimizing heat transfer. With pool solar heating it is MUCH BETTER to get a lot of slightly warm water going into the pool than a little very hot water which is what you typically get on this continuous coils.

Ike

p.s. as to the capacity of your pump to lift to the height of the panels, if you have the model number of your pump, you can probably find out its head curve from the manufacturer, at least you can from the major brands

 

[cjva]

Thanks for responding!! I do understand the the solar heater tubing vs a purchased one that is the reason I did 4 individual panels. I did find the head curve, I think I understand it!? If I do understand it my pump would not be able to move the water that I need. I was able to purchase a used Hayward s210 filter for $50 on Craigslist now I'm looking for a pump. I'm thinking the Hayward power-flo lx 1 1/2 hp (sp1580x15). If I stay with the solar panels I have do you think the Hayward pump will work. I will upload the two head curves.

 

[Isaac-1]

With your relatively high roof and likely high flow resistance I would suggest looking at a medium or high head pump, see chart below for reference (this was just the first one I found, not an endorsement of the seller, although I have bought from them and in the past we good results, their prices may not be the best, but they have lots of good extra information available like this). Keep in mind when pump shopping that you can use an inground pool pump on an above ground pool, but not the other way around. High head pumps will tend to perform better in high head situations, but may have less flow than low head pumps in low head situations. On a side note the S210 filter should do good for you, maybe a bit of overkill, but bigger is better on filters, assuming it has a top mount multiport you probably want to install a new gasket set before use, and inspect the laterals inside for cracks, assuming it is empty of sane.



http://www.poolplaza.com/pump-head.shtml