Solar Covers...Do they really work?

[geekgranny]

I saw some nice metal and stainless steel reels on several sites last night. They look much better, aesthetics, to me than the "plastic" ones. But all said, "no warranty if you use 12-16 mil cover". Prices started at $199. Anyone use one of those with the heavy mil covers?

Also, FPM, I found a bunch of black/blue covers but all are 12 or 16 mil. Do you remember where you found your 8 mil blue/black?

Also, the wheels on one end, on the metal reels look like they roll perpendicular to the roll. I would want to roll it straight back several feet from the narrow edge of pool. Am I missing something?

I have been planning on taking out the wood park fence on the shallow end but leaving the post at a certain height to continue to hang the low voltage lights from the shortened post as they are now hanging. When the tree comes out I'll be expanding that area as more sitting area. At the moments there is only about 3' of decking from pool edge to fence. I would like to put the reel, if I get one, on that end and push it back all the way to fence, for daytime, right now so that there is ample room to walk/play on that end of pool.

Wheel info please?

Thanks, gg=alice

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Also, FPM, I found a bunch of black/blue covers but all are 12 or 16 mil. Do you remember where you found your 8 mil blue/black?

Not sure if they'll have one that fits your pool? But this is where I purchased it.

http://www.americansale.com/Product...Ground-Swimming-Pool-Solar-Cover__637459.aspx

 

[JCJR]

Like the tittle says, do solar covers really heat up you water? How much of a ride in degrees can I expect?

I am looking at getting one until we put in a solar heating system in a few years. I need to wait a while as we hit our budget with the pool and all the re landscaping.

Thanks

My 2 cents. Yes. It won't heat up your water but it will increase your water temp. Ex

You have two cups of hot coffee, one covered and the other not. After .5 hour the covered one will be a few degrees warmer, now heat them both up again for 2 minutes The covered coffee is now much warmer than the other, let it sit another .5 hour The covered coffee will be more than a few degrees warmer and so on.

I bought a 12 mil clear cover and my pool got 6deg warmer just with a cover. I added Solar and with the cover I am now 12 deg warmer and had water temps in the 80-82 deg in Dec-Jan 2 years ago we were swimming 11-11.5 months out of the year.

Because of the size of the my cover it held a lot of water and broke my reel due to the weight of the cover after 10 months. I did not have a cover this past year and did not swim since Thanksgiving through April 1st.

With my experience, I would think your pool will benefit from a cover more than mine due to less surface area and less water to heat. It all depends on how many solar panels you are getting.

The problem with covers is that they must be on to work and every pool owner I have spoken with do not want to bother with putting and taking the cover off. If you buy a solar system you must have a cover or the system will only work 2 weeks before and two weeks after the season.

In Miami, most pool owners buy a Heater and use until they get a $200-$300 increase in their electric bill and then stop using it.

The best analogy I have read is " heating your pool with out a cover is like running your A/C with out a roof".

Also, because your pool is 11 ft wide the cover will be easier to manage than mine that is 20 ft across and using a reel will be a snap. I added casters from Freight Harbor for $28 and can roll the cover out of the way.

The down side (may be an upside for others) to my cover is that my wife got accustomed to 92 deg water and will not get in the pool unless it is 88deg +.

Hope this helps.

 

[mas985]

The problem with covers is that they must be on to work and every pool owner I have spoken with do not want to bother with putting and taking the cover off. If you buy a solar system you must have a cover or the system will only work 2 weeks before and two weeks after the season.

I agree with the first part. I have a cover and hardly ever use it. More trouble than what it is worth.

However, I don't totaly agree with the second part being that solar will only extend the season by 2 weeks without a cover. Probably depends on where you live but I can get several more months of swim time with solar and without a cover . First, before solar, the water hardly ever got above 78 degrees and maybe I got a month of above 82 degree water. This is hardly swimmable for me. With solar, I can get 86-90 degree water from June through September and sporadically April through October but it depends on the weather. The key is to have large enough panels such that when you do get a string of warm days, the water doesn't take long to heat up so you can take advantage of it. And even if I lose 6+ degrees overnight without a cover, I can gain it back during the day plus some. Yes a cover would help even more and extend it further but it isn't that bad even without it. Just larger swings and lots of evaporation. The family only likes to swim when the air is warm anyway so if the air is warm, the water tends to be warm as well so it works out ok. Of course if I had to pay for the heat, it would be a different story.

 

[Brentr]

What all does everyone do to take these covers on and off? I've seen the reel systems but don't really want something bolted to the conrete under the diving board. It's a pain to pull on and off until it finally warms enough to store it.

.

We roll it up and store it behind the chairs Seems to work for us. It takes the wife and I about 13sec to roll it up, okay maybe 20sec if we have had a cocktail
See the pic

 

[baudilus]

I plan to use a cover for the first time this year. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I tend to think that more surface area allows for more evaporation and heat loss at night, so the larger the surface area of your pool, the more heat you lose at night, regardless of pool depth.

For three years now I've watched my pool "smoke" at night as if it were boiling. Cool to look at but not at all nice when swimming in cold water. FYI, I have approximately 1200 sq ft of surface area. In the summer the water rarely goes above 75-80 degrees because of the nightly heat loss. I don't mind it really, but my wife, her sister, and her mother all complain about the cold water.

I only turn the heater on a day or two before a party. I refused to leave my heater on all summer because my entire house consumes about 260,000 BTU when everything is on full blast, which is never. My gas bill during the winter here is around $350-400.

I found a government website that stated some average numbers for different regions, and for my area I recall the heating cost without a solar cover was ~$1400 for the season and ~$300 with a cover, it was a no-brainer for me. Given that I am well above average in the cost arena, the cost savings for one year alone would pay for the cover, which I hope to get three good years from, and I figure that I can keep the pool significantly more comfortable for the entire season, while spending less on gas than I normally do after one of our parties.

I'm sure I'll post results in about a month or so after the pool is balanced and the cover is on for a few days.

For what it's worth, I think the effectiveness of a solar cover is greatly increased if you have a secondary source of heat for your water, such as solar panel, a heat pump, or heater.

 

[geekgranny]

No cover yet. Yesterday the air temps got up to 80, and sunny. Last week night time temps got down into mid 40's a couple times and around 50 for several days. My water hovered around 68 all day yesterday. Last nights air temp got down to 57. It's overcast now. Just checked pool temp and it is 66. So I had a loss of only 2 degrees over night. I expected more loss. Only light wind the whole time. Pump was running for two turnovers a day during all that time with Aquabot running 2200 to 0930 this a.m. It seems that over past few days, sunny but mostly high winds, the max temp drop has been 4 degrees. Hopefully this could indicate I won't need the cover for much more than a month on each end of the swimming season.?.?

If May is normal (???) we should have mostly 80-90 days with temps in 70s at night. I'm hoping the cover will help enough that I can put off solar till Fall, if at all. If cover is successful during April and May I might not even need solar, I'm hoping major.

DH let the dogs out before I pulled the Aquabot out of pool. (Out of all the cleaners that's the only one they get tangled in.)

We'll have to have a "Solar Cover School" and put a big sign on back door when we get the cover.

I'm going to watch temps closely and keep a daily chart.

gg=alice

 

[geekgranny]

Also, FPM, I found a bunch of black/blue covers but all are 12 or 16 mil. Do you remember where you found your 8 mil blue/black?

Not sure if they'll have one that fits your pool? But this is where I purchased it.

http://www.americansale.com/Product...Ground-Swimming-Pool-Solar-Cover__637459.aspx

Much thanks FPM. I think the largest oval one, trimmed down, might work. My pool is not a true oval and widens at the shallow end. The steps come off the shallow wider end at the side so I will either leave that uncovered or make a piece attached with poly grommets and folded over before rolling it up. I have some extra clear solar cover leftover from the big green house.

gg=alice

 

[chem geek]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I tend to think that more surface area allows for more evaporation and heat loss at night, so the larger the surface area of your pool, the more heat you lose at night, regardless of pool depth.

This is not exactly true. At the same average pool depth, there is no difference in the rate of change in temperature due to evaporation as a function of surface area. The reason is that any increase in surface area also results in a proportional increase in water volume since volume = surface area x depth. So though there is more absolute amount of water evaporating in a pool with more surface area, the water volume in that pool is larger so takes more heat loss to lower the temperature and these two effects cancel each other out.

There is a difference in the rate of temperature drop as a function of average pool depth. Shallow pools will drop in temperature more quickly through evaporation than deep pools, all else equal.

 

[geekgranny]

There is a difference in the rate of temperature drop as a function of average pool depth. Shallow pools will drop in temperature more quickly through evaporation than deep pools, all else equal.

Maybe that's why my temp isn't dropping as quickly at night as I thought it would. (This is the first year I've paid much attention to the water temp this early in year.) Not a huge amount of surface area but mostly deep, 10', quick drop down to deep, and only < 1/3 is shallow but the decline starts about 6' from shallow end. It is definately a "diving pool".

EDIT.... Maybe that is one reason it takes longer for my pool to heat up too. Many people around these parts are reporting 70's and above without solar or covers. Mine was 66 this a.m. but I only lost 2 degrees last night with air temps less than 60 F.

gg=alice