Solar Panel Installation

[shazza]

Just researching solar panels. Don't know anything about them. Is it easy to install solar panels yourself or do you need a plumber, electrician etc? How do you attach pipes to current system? We would not mount panels on our roof. Can you mount them against a fence?

We live in central Penna and would like a longer swim season. Thank you.

 

[JohnT]

Solar is very easy to install if you can do simple PVC joints. You route the water that comes out of the filter through the panels, then back into the return line. Very little modification to the existing plumbing is required.

Mounting them vertically like on a fence is pretty inefficient. They will be least efficient during the middle of the day when the sun is hottest. IMO, the panels need to be close to horizontal in northern areas to be most useful. My experience last year was that my panels could keep the pool warm longer than the outside air temperature was suitable for swimming.

To extend the season much, you need enough panel area to be efficient at heating the pool during the shorter days with the sun at a lower angle. That's quite a bit more panel area than is needed to take the chill off the water during the normal swimming season.

 

[dayhiker]

I'm ready to order panels and have one last concern. My pump has about 40' of head and the elevation difference is maybe 22'. I'd previously mentioned this and folks here said go for it. I was afraid of the distance that the water has to travel. I measured yesterday, and the water will have to travel about 60' one way with maybe 9-10 elbows. Are the elbows a concern? Fluid mechanics class was a long time ago, but I sure do recall frictional losses and losses due to geometry changes chaning things. That was class and this is reality though. Any comments from anyone?

 

[chem geek]

You can see the equivalent length of pipe in terms of the friction loss in elbows here. 10 90º elbows with 2" diameter pipe is equivalent to a straight length of 57 feet. So, in your case with a 60' run, it roughly doubles your effective pipe length one-way. The head loss (pressure rise you would see) for 2" pipe is 3.8 feet per 100 feet at 50 GPM; 9.0 feet per 100 feet at 80 GPM.

Richard

 

[dayhiker]

You can see the equivalent length of pipe in terms of the friction loss in elbows here. 10 90º elbows with 2" diameter pipe is equivalent to a straight length of 57 feet. So, in your case with a 60' run, it roughly doubles your effective pipe length one-way. The head loss (pressure rise you would see) for 2" pipe is 3.8 feet per 100 feet at 50 GPM; 9.0 feet per 100 feet at 80 GPM.

Richard

Thanks a bunch. I should be good to go. I have the equiv of about 120 feet which is going to be about 4' of loss.

I placed the order. It won't be here by the weekend but I bet I can get most of the plumbing in. I'm out of town the following weekend but maybe I can get it finished in the evenings. I'm anxious to get it up and running.