Solar Heater Addition in Baton Rouge, LA (DIY)

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Because the valve was installed and the pump running, but the plumbing to the roof had not been competed. And now all winter I leave my drain valve on the roof open.

I may have been leaking, but not enough to reach the roof.
 
It’s been a while, but mainly I’ve been just waiting for the panels to come in. Well they finally did today…sort of. They arrived in New Orleans on Monday, but the shipping company kept dragging their feet on getting them the last hour to my house. They said they wouldn’t be able to deliver until this coming Monday. My dad arranged to be able to help me start the installation this weekend, so, I took matters into my own hands and drove an hour to New Orleans to pick them up myself. I kept it under 50 mph on the way back, but managed to get them home safely. My neighbor helped me get them unloaded and laid out in the sun to help flatten them out.

I’m hoping the rain will hold out for most of the day tomorrow so we can get a lot done, but if not, Sunday looks pretty good. I’ve watched several installation videos, and I have the instructions, so it should be pretty straight forward I think.

I was able to paint all the pipes over the past few weekends while I waited for the panels. I’ll just touch them up after installing. Interestingly, the sticks were straight before painting, but bowed after painting. I plan to put clamps every 4 feet or so, which I’m hoping will help keep them straight, but we shall see.










 
So the weather held out perfectly over the weekend. It only rained Saturday night and cool temps on Sunday. My dad and I were able to get a lot done and installing the actual panels presented very few challenges (surprisingly). I think it helped that we didn't rush through anything and tried to think through several steps ahead before just trying to piece everything together quickly. We strayed from the instructions a little bit. We decided to position all 14 panels (including sloping) and interconnecting piping before installing any clamps because I wanted to be sure we had enough clearance around and in between all the panels before I punched any holes in my roof. Securing some of the pipe runs was a little challenging due to the pipe bowing after painting, but turning the curve down allowed the easiest installation because we just had to push down instead of pulling left or right. I think one more solid day should be enough to finish the piping between the panels and the equipment plumbing.

Here are a few pictures of our progress over the weekend:







 
We finished routing all the piping this past Saturday and spent half of Sunday repairing a few leaks mainly around the flexible pipe joints, which I believe was due to me using regular PVC glue instead of the glue provided with the flex pipe…lesson learned! Ultimately, this caused us to have to add 3 couplings in the return flexible pipe. Also, many of the hose clamps around the rubber boots (used to connect one panel to the next) needed to be tightened. The last and smallest leak is still yet to be fixed though. It’s located at the top right of the panels where the tee connects to the panel adapter fitting. Of all places to have bad glue coverage on a fitting, this is where it happened. We spent a lot of time trying to “make it work”, but it didn’t work. So, I’ve ordered a new panel adapter piece, which will hopefully be in before the weekend so we can make the repair on Saturday, get the temperature sensor ran and hook up the valve actuator. With any luck I’ll be up and running before next week. Then, all I should have left to do after that is touch up paint work. Here are some pictures from the weekend.













 
Well I was able to get the adapter fitting in last Friday so we had a chance to repair the leak at the tee fitting on Saturday. It took about 3 hours of work, but thank goodness it held. We were also able to get the thermocouple ran, which involved soldering an extension wire to the main wire on the roof. Finally, we connected the valve actuator to the controller and verified it turned the right way.

After getting all the programming set up that night, after the sun was up for a few hours the next day, sure enough, the solar magically kicked on to the exact pump speed I had programmed in for "Solar". I know the sun was heating the pool water directly, but the water temperature rose from 77° @ 11:00am to 87° at 1:00pm. Not too bad I think, considering that two days before (with the same 3° ambient temperature rise), the water temperature only rose from 79° @ 11:00am to 82° at 1:00pm.

I have to say the water first coming out of the returns was REALLY hot!! My daughter said it “burned” her foot (she's 7, so I took it with a grain of salt, but it really was very hot)! The only downside though was having to get out!

Here are some pics of the progress. Only thing left now is to touch up paint, then done!

$27 Adapter Fitting (w/ Shipping)!


































 
Are the solar panels draining down when the solar valve closes? The water shouldn't be too hot even at start up if the panels are empty. I recently was running my heat pump and solar panels and I run the pump at 1500 rpm for the heat pump and 1100 rpm for solar standby. I noticed very hot water from solar the other day and figured out that my panels won't drain down when the pump is at 1500 rpm and they will drain down when the pump is at 1100 rpm (and also 1200 rpm). But, the flapper valve won't open when the pump is running at 1500 rpm.
 

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pooldv said:
Are the solar panels draining down when the solar valve closes? The water shouldn't be too hot even at start up if the panels are empty. I recently was running my heat pump and solar panels and I run the pump at 1500 rpm for the heat pump and 1100 rpm for solar standby. I noticed very hot water from solar the other day and figured out that my panels won't drain down when the pump is at 1500 rpm and they will drain down when the pump is at 1100 rpm (and also 1200 rpm). But, the flapper valve won't open when the pump is running at 1500 rpm.
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The panels are draining when the solar valve closes and the pump turns off...I know that. What I have not tested is whether or not they drain when the valve closes, but the pump is still running. It makes sense what you're saying about that little check valve inside the solar valve not opening if the back pressure from the pump is greater than the head pressure of the solar piping. I may run some tests like you did to find out the magic speed/pressure that allows the panels to drain and the pump to still run. Did you just listen for when the VRV popped to know when it was draining?

At the same time, I'm not too worried about it, since the water in the panels would only be sitting there for half a day at the most until the circulation cycle ends and the pump cuts off, at which point the water will certainly start to drain back out of the panels.
 
OP, thanks for detailing your install. I'm considering installing a solar system as well and currently looking at different vendors. I have a Techno-Solis vendor near me in Quebec and was wondering why you decided to choose this product specifically. Also, I wasn't able to fully understand all the discussions in this thread. Does this really matter? Where I live, pools are closed before winter/freezing until next summer, so I plan on draining once a year. Also, since I don't think my pool could get too warm and plan on running the pump only during the day automatically, would a manual valve system be sufficient in my case? I'm considering installing myself and don't want to make things more complicated than necessary. Thanks!
 
John Rock said:
OP, thanks for detailing your install. I'm considering installing a solar system as well and currently looking at different vendors. I have a Techno-Solis vendor near me in Quebec and was wondering why you decided to choose this product specifically. Also, I wasn't able to fully understand all the discussions in this thread. Does this really matter? Where I live, pools are closed before winter/freezing until next summer, so I plan on draining once a year. Also, since I don't think my pool could get too warm and plan on running the pump only during the day automatically, would a manual valve system be sufficient in my case? I'm considering installing myself and don't want to make things more complicated than necessary. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Depends on how dilligent you are with the manual valve. Are you going to run outside every time the clouds roll in or it starts raining? You can lose a LOT of heat by running through the panels when there is no heat available.
 
+1 to that. Rain, clouds, wind will all cool the pool just as fast as the sun can heat it. I went a year manually opening and closing the valve and some days I lost lots of heat. I got tired of it and added the Solartouch and it got a lot better.
 
John Rock said:
OP, thanks for detailing your install. I'm considering installing a solar system as well and currently looking at different vendors. I have a Techno-Solis vendor near me in Quebec and was wondering why you decided to choose this product specifically. Also, I wasn't able to fully understand all the discussions in this thread. Does this really matter? Where I live, pools are closed before winter/freezing until next summer, so I plan on draining once a year. Also, since I don't think my pool could get too warm and plan on running the pump only during the day automatically, would a manual valve system be sufficient in my case? I'm considering installing myself and don't want to make things more complicated than necessary. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I decided to go with Techno-Solis mainly due to the experience of people on TFP. They're not the top of the line, but definitely not cheap either.

jblizzle said:
Depends on how dilligent you are with the manual valve. Are you going to run outside every time the clouds roll in or it starts raining? You can lose a LOT of heat by running through the panels when there is no heat available.
Click to expand...

I agree. I would say NOT installing the automated valve would actually be more complicated.

pooldv said:
+1 to that. Rain, clouds, wind will all cool the pool just as fast as the sun can heat it. I went a year manually opening and closing the valve and some days I lost lots of heat. I got tired of it and added the Solartouch and it got a lot better.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you mentioned that. I asked this in another post, but do you know how to configure ScreenLogic for cooling? I remember reading a post recently where you mentioned you have run your panels at night before to help cool down the water during the summer. I’m seeing now you have a different controller than me, but I figured I’d ask anyway. I've tried the obvious things like bumping the set temperature down and selecting the "Has Cooling" box (see below), which actually automatically makes me check all 4 boxes in that section.

I also tried just creating a new Feature circuit called "Solar Valve" and setting the Circuit Function to "Valve". However, as long as the valve is "USED BY SOLAR", I can't assign it to a Feature circuit.

Any ideas on how to make this work automatically (preferred) or manually?

 
Ok, well I obviously wrongly assumed that running the solar daily with the pump would either have a positive or neutral effect on pool temp, since my pool is never warm! :) So I understand this is not any option.

Seems like a kit for my pool would cost a little over 3000$ CAD without the solar valve. I've seen other brands on Amazon at about half that price. Is this a "better pay more up front for quality" type product?

Finally, other than the solar /automatic valve, is the rest of the install just fitting pipes?
 
Finally finished putting on the finishing touches 2 weekends ago. All touch up painting is done. Here are the final pics. Thanks everyone for all the tips and advice!














Didn't bother painting this run, since it can't be seen from the ground and I was running low on paint.




 

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