I am installaing solar panels. I have a pool and a spa that overflows into the pool. I would like to have the heated water return to the system throgh the spa. I think that this will minimize the use of my gas heater when we use the spa. Is there some reason that I should not plumb it in this way? Thank you for your comments.
Returning Solar heated water through spa?
- Thread starter floridadon
- Start date
You can certainly plumb the solar system output directly to the spa. But it won't help significantly with spa heating as compared to plumbing the solar output back into the return prior to the valve that splits the return flow between the pool and the spa. In order for the spa to get warmer than the pool, you need to be drawing water only from the sap and returning water only to the spa. That can be done in either plumbing approach by turning the system to spa only mode. Otherwise, you are heating pool water and returning that to the spa, which will only be a couple of degrees warmer than the pool water.
Unless you have a very large array of panels, the water exiting the panels will only be a few degrees warmer than the pool water except the first few seconds after the water starts flowing through the panels. My thinking is that there wouldn't be much benefit.