Solar Panel

[richhie6]

Has anyone used the Solar PV Heater? I wanna try this out, but wanna see if anyone has any feedback first.
http://solarpowerpanels.ws/solar-power/ ... ool-heater

 

[PAGirl]

The description.states it raises water temp 5 degrees in 10 days. That doesn't seem like very much.....

 

[dmanb2b]

...Unlike other solar hot water heaters, the solar pool heater will not warm water to high temperatures. In fact, it simply helps reduce the chill of water used for above ground pools. The pool heating system can increase the temperature of a 6,000 gallon pool by 5 degrees F in 10 days. If you want faster, more dramatic results, up to 4 solar pool heaters can be used at a time to boost water temps by 20 degrees or more.....

They basically admit it is far less effective in heating pool water vs a traditional solar panel. 20ft of black pipe is not going to make much of a noticable difference IMO.

 

[jcp]

I was looking at those yesterday, and researched them a bit. It seems like from everything I read the key is surface area, and those style units are lacking it therefore not providing substantial gains in temperature.

They are tempting from the size and cost standpoint, but from the info I've seen so far probably not a good investment. I'm glad you posted this, hopefully there may be some feedback available here from actual users.

 

[Christian]

I don't have any experience with that brand but it looks identical to the GAME solar pro system which I do have quite a bit of experience with. In my experience if you get about double the recommended number of units it is worthwhile but if you get the recommended number it doesn't make much of a difference.

 

[cramar]

Too small, you need larger panels.

 

[richhie6]

What would be a decent solar panel to heat my 18' 8000 gallon pool if the above is to small?

 

[jblizzle]

It is all a function of how much heat you want to add to the pool ... are you trying to extend the season or just take some chill off in the summer? What will the orientation of the panels be to the sun? Is your pool in the sun as well? Are you using a cover (this is actually very important to hold the heat in the pool at night)?

These are all the questions that go into decided how much solar panel area you need.

Your pool is 250 sqft of surface area. Many recommendations I have seen suggest between 50-100% of the surface area in solar panel area.

Many people I see here use the Sungrabbers either 2'x20' or 4'x20' panels placed on the ground. You could always start with 80 sqft and see what it does for you ... easy enough to add more panels for more heating.

 

[cramar]

I have a 20' pool with 2x4'X20' Fafco Sunsavers (not the 2' panels) and they do a great job adding heat to our pool, we had a hot summer this year and were well on the way to 90 degrees several times before turning them off - to hot for my liking. Last year was a struggle to reach 80 degrees.

 

[Christian]

Another cool thing you can do with a solar heating set-up. When it is really hot out for weeks at a time and your pool is uncomfortably warm just run it after dark and it will cool your pool down for the next day! Kind of a tangent but I thought I'd mention it.