Help on pump and filter size and Solar heating

[tpg]

My wife and I will (hopefully) be ordering our pool on Monday or Tuesday. It is the 16’X24’X54” Artesian Echo Canyon II AGP. However we are having an issue on the Pump and filter size. The retailer wants to sell a Pentair’s 22in Sand Filter and a 2HP single speed pump with the pool. While I do not mind the 22in sand filter, I do not want a 2hp pump. As such, I may be forgoing their pump and filter package and buying the items separate. I am asking for advice on what maybe the best size filter and pump to purchase and installation. Here are my thoughts on it so please add where needed.

The pool is 16’X24’X54” and will hold according to the manufacture 9,968 gal of water. Armed with this knowledge and wanting to turn the water over at least one time a day and have solar heating, here is what I am thinking of getting from the information I have been able to find.

Pump:
Pentair Dynamo 1hp 2 speed pump attached either to a 19 Sand Dollar filter or their 19 in Meteor filter, any Advice or suggestions? The reasons for these setups is simple, they come prepackaged this way.

Piping:
I plan to use either 1 ½ PVC or 2in PVC piping with long sweeps for my turns. I am leaning more towards the 2in PVC. Is their any advantage to this or disadvantage?

Heating:

I have been exploring the Sungrabber 2’X20’ panels. I am thing 3-5 of these mounted on my roof via 1 ½ In PVC piping. Any Suggestions? Has anyone used the automatic valves and what are your opinions of them versus a manual valve?

Well that about covers it for now, I am sure that I will have others before the night is out.

Thanks,
TPG

 

[duraleigh]

A good rule of thumb for "turnover" in a pool is to have a flow that will turn your water 2-3 times in a 24 hour period.....in your case that would be generally 1000g/p/hour or less than 20 gpm. a 3/4 hp pump will do that easily.

Next, I would "match" a filter that has a gpm rating at least 25% or so greater than the pump gpm. So if your pump is rated to produce about 45gpm (considering a TDH of somewhere around 40,) your filter should be rated around 60gpm.

1.5" pipe is easily adequate for a system close to the above specs.

2hp is way overkill for your pool and most likely produces w-a-a-y too much volume for the filter they want to use.

I have little experience with solar calculations.....others will chime in soon.

 

[mas985]

Besides Dave's suggestions, I would go with the larger pipe as this will reduce head loss and increase flow rates. Both of which help reduce energy costs.

Also, I would second the 3/4 HP two speed. Just make sure the max head is at least twice the height of your house to make sure it has enough head to prime the solar panels. Most pumps today will do this easily.

I have the automatic valves and they nice if you are going to run the pump longer than the sun is out and with a two speed you may need to. You don't want the water to cool down after the sun goes down.

 

[tpg]

Hmm, I must be misunderstanding the curve chart on the pump!! It is the max head that I have been worried about and why I was thinking the 1HP 2 Speed pump.

When looking at the sand filters, I noticed that the Sand Dollar filter SD40would turn the pool over 3 times in just over 12 hours. But it would give me a Max 40GPM. When looking at the dynamo pump curves, 40GM would give me a Max head of 35 ft but in order to double my need I need a max head of 38 ft. The 1 HP 2 speed pump would give me about 42ft Max head at 40GPM.

According to the curve chart (as I understand it), the higher the flow (GPM), then the less max head it will get. If I am misinterpreting the chart, please let me know.

Anyways, this is what I do know. In order to get the water up to my roof, it has to travel roughly 33 ft horizontal and 17 feet vertical. My roof is a 5/12 pitch, faces south and has no shade from about 7:30 am to 7:00pm during the months of Jun, July and Aug. The rest of the year (April –Oct) it gets about 8.5-9 hours of direct sun.

What I was trying to do was create a system that has the least resistance with the biggest filter area with the smallest pump that would power the solar panels. So am I going about this the wrong way?

Thanks,
TPG