Pool Hydraulics-Solar heating. I want to do the right way first.

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scottpanek

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Jul 31, 2015
21
Windsor, ON
First off, this is a great site. I have spent many hours reading various articles. Planning an 18' above ground and I hate a cold pool....

I want to maximize the pool temp using only the sun. I have space on my roof for a 11.5' diameter collector of some sort. Leaning towards poly pipe. Before I looked into pool hydraulics I planned on running the entire flow from the pump through the collector and back to the pool. It is roughly 60' each way from the pool to the collector. (That includes 15' up to the 1.5 story roof.) I was thinking do 4-1/2" lines to the collector coil those until I reach my maximum diameter (11.5') and then return 4-1/2" pipes back to the pool. There would be no connections anywhere in the lines except compression at each end to eliminate a bottle neck. After reading the excellent articles by MAS985 it appears I'd need 10-1/2" pipes each way to the collector(insert big eye emoji).... What are your thoughts? Any help or suggestions are appreciated!
 
You would do better and may save money by buying Fafco's simple system: Amazon.com: Fafco Solar Bear Economy Heating System for Above-Ground Pools: Patio, Lawn Garden .

Its larger than you want but you may be able to modify it. You get most efficiency by moving a lot of volume thru the system with max exposure to sun. With half inch pipe you will move volume but not much exposure-- you need smaller pipe.

I'm not sure how much the Fafco system costs in Canada. The simple fact is that most DIY from scratch solar set ups are not very efficient and move lots of water for not much heat gain.
 
As is mentioned above you are way better off with a commercial panel, not only will it be cheaper than the materials cost of making a DIY system, it will outperform just about any DIY system you can build.
 
We are in Canada as well and just ordered this one a couple weeks ago, looks very similar to the Fafco one linked to above.... only smaller to fit your needs... comes in many variations and was pretty easy to install.
2-2 Garden

I looked for quite a while for a cheap solution until we found this. They do have different sizes and variations... some systems come with 5 panels some with 10... look around to find what you need but they are very well priced and easy to install.
5 year warranty too and can be left up in the winter as long as they are properly drained.
 
only issue I see is that it uses your pool pump. can't place it up on roof or really much off ground level I would assume.

just priced a DIY from stuff at HomeDepot for less then 150. Guess it's just what you feel you can handle on your own. I like the warranty idea. So that might make a difference when I decide to do this for my pool.
 
We hooked ours up using a separate submersible pump only because our pool pump runs at night, cheaper on hydro to run off peak .
We have solar panels on our shed to run the smaller pump we use for the solar heater but they don't have enough juice to run the pool pump.
Eventually hubby wants to upgrade them and add a couple more batteries and then the pool pump can run of the solar energy and then run during the day but right now the solar heater is completely free :)
We already had the submersible pump too though......
 
First I want to say THANK YOU for all the great responses. My interest in prefab units over my own poly design is increasing. What I'm noticing is there is tons of different brands. Fafco, enersol, SunQuest, EcoSaver on and on. What are your experiences with any of these brands if any? Thanks in advance.
 

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The Amazon link for the FALCO posted above by gwegan does not get very good reviews on Amazon site. Any reviews here on this product?
The SunQuest does not have any reviews on Amazon, how is it working for you tmurpy? any reviews by someone that has had then for a few years?
Isaac-1, How are your Techno-Solis panels doing? How long have you had them? How many do you have and what size? What type of temperature change do you get especially early spring and late fall?
 
Sorry for the slow response, my Techno-Solis is doing fine, it was installed about 1.5 years ago, to replace an old solar heating system that came down with the old roof the year before. We have another member here who installed Techno-Solis panels 6 or 7 years ago, and just reported his first small pinhole leak last year, he was able to patch the leak using plastic welding.
 
Update, here is the plan.... 2" poly to and from the roof. 2 collectors each using 1500' of 1/2" poly (DIG brand from home depot). Each collector will have 3 lengths of 500' to minimize pressure drop. The surface area of each collector will be roughly 84sq'. Thoughts?
 
scottpanek said:
Each collector will have 3 lengths of 500' to minimize pressure drop. The surface area of each collector will be roughly 84sq'. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
How do you get 84 sq-ft?

It isn't the curved surface area of the pipe but the projected planer surface area (i.e. solar capture area) of the pipe which is 0.5/12 * 1500 = 62.5 sq-ft. And that is only when the sun is normal to the panels.
 
Insignificant. It is the direct solar incidence that matters and that is a plane wave so it is the planar capture area of the pipe that determines the solar gain.

Forgot to mention though that when it comes to heat loss, then the entire surface area matters. So you will lose heat as though it is 84 sq-ft but the solar gain is still 62.5 sq-ft. That's why smaller tubes are more desirable and used in commercial panels.
 

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