Solar Heating Project Evaluation

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Mike0893

Mike0893

Bronze Supporter
Oct 7, 2019
44
San Martin, CA
Pool Size
27000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool RJ-60
Hello TFP members. I am in the planning stages of a diy solar heating project for my pool and would like your opinions on it. My pool is 27000 gallons with 800sf of surface area. It is in the shade more than 75% of the time. The plan would be to place 14 4x12 FAFCO solar panels on a ground rack with the pump connected to the panels with 2 inch pipe. The pipe run would be 200LF each direction and have a 12 foot rise with 5 90 degree elbows in each run. The pipes would be laid on the ground and 80% of the run would be in the shade. The panel rack would be facing 145 degrees south (to be in line the the fence and to look nicer) and at the 37 degree angle. I would like the pool temp to be 85 - 87 degrees. So the questions i keep asking myself are, is the 2hp pool big enough to provide enough flow for the system and is the system big enough to keep the pool at the desired temp. Any thoughts you have or improvements I can make would be appreciated.
 

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Are you looking more for summer, winter, or year round heating? Angle = latitude gives highest average yearly output, but you want the angle > lattitude for higher winter output at expense of summer output and angle < lattitude for higher summer output at expense of winter output.

To give you an idea of this, here's a chart from a convo I had with a co-worker who's considering PV panels for his house. Y-axis is average kWh/m^2/day for our location. Note the graph will likely not show the winter advantage of angle > lattitude to the extent you would have in California, given the amount of average cloud cover we have in the midwest in the winter which is figured into this graph.

image-1.png

Note that this data comes from PV Watts and won't entirely match what unglazed water heating panels will output. Still, the concept is applicable and it should get you an idea of what I'm talking about. Note our lattitude is roughly 45°

PVWatts

Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations
pvwatts.nrel.gov pvwatts.nrel.gov
 
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Pump is probably too big for almost anything. As for the panels, you can estimate heat gain and loss with the spreadsheet in my signature.

But my first impression is that the panel area is more than sufficient for summer time plus several weeks on either end assuming you are using a cover.
 
Thanks for the replies jseyfert3 and mas985. I appreciate the input. Also, mas985, those spreadsheets are really something. It's going to take me awhile to wrap my head around all the info. Thanks again.
 
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