Recent content by Hypoxic

Thanks for the great info! I followed the most of the suggestions from here Solar Pool Heaters - Further Reading when I designed and built my heater. I have Aquatherm Ecosun panels that are advertised at 93% efficiency. I’m at 43 degrees north with my panels mounted at 30 degrees. I was able to...

I just opened my pool and started heating it up. I was curious about how much heat energy I was getting on a clear sunny day. I asked Chat GPT to calculate the btu’s required to heat the water from 12C(54F) to 18C(64F) at 50gpm. It came up with 270,000 btu per hour. I’ve got ten 4x12 panels.

I ended up putting in a mechanical dpdt switch. Nice to be able to see how my panels are performing. Looks like I'm getting about 150,000 btu/hr currently.

I currently have one 24vdc (relay) source available, but I hope to use it for landscape lighting in the future. I have two 24vac (JVA) sources available, labelled Pool/Spa Return and Intake. I don't think they are programmable. Would "piggybacking" off of my Solar (JVA) work? It seems like the...

Thanks!

This would be perfect since the air temp is only used for freeze protection. I think I could use the Solar Boost Pump relay (not currently used) to trigger the DPDT relay. Can you recommend a relay that would work?

I am trying to measure the temperature rise from my solar panels. I have an EasyTouch system and I am using all 3 temperature sensor inputs. I can probably use the air temp sensor input most of the season for this purpose, but I would like a more permanent solution. Is there some sort of switch...

I leave mine on the rack year round.

Nice! I went with 2" collectors to maybe reduce some flow restrictions. I see a 5-6psi rise at 50 gal/min when the solar is heating. Just circulating the water without solar it 0 psi at 30 gal/min.

That's what I'm after. The temperature probes look like they can be used as a standalone unit but the info says it needs a station to work.

I have 10 4x12 Aquatherm panels and they have been great. I installed them 5 years ago and haven't had any issues.

Thanks for those ideas. Not sure how I would plumb those into the solar return pipes tho.

Is there a good place to get the extra relay kits from?

I'm looking for a standalone unit that isn't connected to anything else. Like a meat thermometer type of thing. Just want to be able to observe the temp rise that my panels provide.

Did you happen to move your solar sensor when installing the new panels? When I first built my wooden solar ground rack, I didn't paint the wood that the sensor is mounted on. It would always read low. I painted the wood black where the sensor is and it now reads as it should.