Seperate plumbing/pump for solar heater?

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hayabusa3

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Jul 10, 2011
124
Walnut Creek CA
Guy's, I've decided that my 3 week old AGP (18) is too cold :cry: , even here in northern Cali. Days are averaging mid 80's with very low humidity and 55/65 at night. I use a cover but the water temp shows only 80/82 on the surface and pretty friggin cold about 1 foot down and further! Not really pleasurable - blue lips and green boogers appear pretty quickly on the kids.... :lol: I'm sure I look worse Lol! SO I've ordered a sungrabber heater :party: ( One 4 X 20 ) and it should be here any day. A little reading talks about how flow from the pump is reduced - makes sence, do any of you run a seperate pump and or plumbing? Is it needed? how did you run your extra plumbing? Cut new liner holes or plumb up and over? D'yall think one 4 x 20 is big enough? I'm running a 1hp pump through a 17 sand filer (think thats the size). Really hate being cold, can't fathom you guys in hotter places with a 'water too hot' problem! :wave:
 
No, you don't need a separate pump. I have 6 panels on the roof and I run mine off my 1HP main pump. You may want to plumb a bypass so you don't send all of your water through the panel though.

On an unrelated note, a 1HP pump is way oversized for most 17" sand filters. 1HP is near the limit for most 24" filters.
 
I've been getting that impression ... seroius flow out of the return, but we bought a pool package from costco and the quality on everything has been great -very happy. I may look into a smaller pump if my PG&E goes too high.
You say you have 6 panels .. I'm feeling that my 1 will be insufficient...
Anyone else have a comment?
 
The pump should be fine as long as you are planning to put the panels on the ground. Also you don't need to send all of the water through the panels only what is needed (~0.1 GPM/sq-ft of panels). A bypass helps keep head loss low so the flow rate should not suffer much.
 
How big is the pool (gallons)?

Any amount of panels helps, it is just a matter of how much. A large panel area is nice when you want to heat the pool quickly in the spring and fall when there are a few hot days in a row but it isn't necessary either.

I have 480 sq-ft of panels for a 20k gallon pool. I can get a 10 degree temperature rise in one hot summer day and usually 6 degrees on just warm days. But since I use a solar cover most of the time now, I only need to run the panels about an 1 hour per day in the summer to maintain 88 degrees. During the hottest days when we swim a lot, I leave the cover off and the panels run about 2-3 hours per day to maintain 88 degrees.
 
I am quoting the controller temperature sensor which is right after the filter so it is water from the skimmers and main drain after several hours of mixing. But also, the temperature rise includes the rise that the pool would normally experience during the day without solar. My pool will normally rise 3-4 degrees per day. So the panels alone are adding 3-6 degrees depending on the wind and air temps.

Also, scaled by your pool volume, you will have about have the sq-ft/gallon as I do so you should expect about half the temperature rise. I think it should be enough but a solar cover would definitely help.
 
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So, I've hooked up my single solar pannel ( 2 strips connected ) and with the pump running all day, cover on and no one swimming and I got a 1 deg difference from yesterday. Very disappointing. I've hooked it up as directed with a single bypass valve in the closed position. The strips are lying on the ground in direct overhead sun most of the day, a few feet away from the pool. I keep thinking something is hooked up wrong but I've done it the exact same as the diagram. Unhappy camper. As well as that I had the hardest time finding a way to hook up to the sand filter - the hose coming out of the filter isn't quite 1" or 1.25" either. Even taking the end off the filter and bringing it down to home depot couldn't find a match -I ended up SHOVING a hose over the tight and clamping the sucker down really tight on the other.
 
Yes - the bypass is opened.. I had just added bleach to the pool and the sun had gone down, figured no point in using the heater as a cooler. I'll get the pump #. I do feel like its a very strong/fast output pump as there's quite a bit of force coming out at the return - I wonder if the water is being pushed through the heater too fast?
 
hayabusa3 said:
I do feel like its a very strong/fast output pump as there's quite a bit of force coming out at the return - I wonder if the water is being pushed through the heater too fast?
Click to expand...

For heating purposes, you can't run the water through too fast. Warming a lot of water a little bit is far more efficient at getting heat into the pool than warming a little water a lot. You do need to limit the flow to protect the panels from excess pressure though.

One sure way to know how the panels are doing is to feel the surface of the panels while the sun has been shining on them. They should feel cool. If they are warm, they don't have enough flow.
 
Just a thought, do the panels by chance have a divertor disk in the middle of the manifolds. My original sungrabbers did (my last buy did not), and I had to remove it to get the individual panels to flow in one direction. You might be able to tell by using the method JohnT suggested, but feel the panel at two places on one end. If you place you hand on one side (top side closet to the inlet) of the panel is cool and the other side (still on top of the panel but near the cap side of that panel) is hot, then you probably have the disks. Check both panels, since the disks could be at either end (though mine had blue writing on the manifold with the disks).
 

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