Solar plumbing question

[turnerj42]

Question. in my case for solar it looks like I have to use my garage and second story roof. My question and problem I think is that the water from the pump will be going up to the second story and then across the roof and to the front of the house and then down a story to the panels on the garage roof and then from there the return would leave the panels and go back up a story to the second story across the roof and back down. I am pretty sure its not wanted to have the solar at a low point but I don't have many options. I would also like to put some panels on the second story as well.. So my questions are how is this best achieved. Basically for the image my pump is at the rear left of the house while the garage is at the front right so complete opposite side. Would I also need a booster pump? I have a 1hp super II hayward. I have an 18x36 and the pump is about 12ft from the pool so I am not sure what head it has currently but I would presume fairly low. The house is about 40ft across.

Thanks for any thoughts.. I had it all planned out but ran into issues with a ton of vents on my roof which is why I have had to use the garage roof.

Thanks

 

[stever]

Question. in my case for solar it looks like I have to use my garage and second story roof. My question and problem I think is that the water from the pump will be going up to the second story and then across the roof and to the front of the house and then down a story to the panels on the garage roof and then from there the return would leave the panels and go back up a story to the second story across the roof and back down. I am pretty sure its not wanted to have the solar at a low point but I don't have many options. I would also like to put some panels on the second story as well.. So my questions are how is this best achieved. Basically for the image my pump is at the rear left of the house while the garage is at the front right so complete opposite side. Would I also need a booster pump? I have a 1hp super II hayward. I have an 18x36 and the pump is about 12ft from the pool so I am not sure what head it has currently but I would presume fairly low. The house is about 40ft across.

Thanks for any thoughts.. I had it all planned out but ran into issues with a ton of vents on my roof which is why I have had to use the garage roof.

Thanks

Sounds like you described the water going through one bank and then down to the lower roof and through another. Even if it means more piping, get them in parallel, not series. I have what you decribe now and it takes a lot of pump to do not a whole lot. I am having it re-plumbed in parallel and expect to take 25% or so off of the wattage of the pump.

Also, the panels I have (don't remember the brand) can be (and are) split mid-panel to fit over the pipe vents. Not a vent with a sheetmetal 'hat' like for the stove fan, but the typical plumbing vents (1" pipe?). They just took a knife and put a 6" ot so plit between the tubes and fit it over the pipe.

Steve

 

[turnerj42]

Thanks for the input. I was planning to do it in parallel. I was thinking i would just do it in 2 phases. First the garage roof and later this year or next I would do the others on the higher roof and would plump in parallel. I have read in places that the extra head needed to pump up roofs is cancelled out more or less by the return flow going back downhilll but it does have to have enough power to get it up in the first place.

On the panels in my case they are sun heater 2x20's and my main roof has large exhaust vents and attic vents that affect it to much. Believe me I wish I could get around them!

Guess I am just not wanting to bother doing all the work if it wont work or is really bad to have panels sitting at a low point or not? I would still be able to drain them properly for freezing manually just not sure of when the system us off if it matters if it can't drain down.

 

[JasonLion]

You can have panels at different levels, but you need to be careful how you do the plumbing. You can't have pipes that go up, then down, then up again. All of the paths the water might travel need to go up and then come down again, without any spots where air or water could get trapped.