solar controlled ball valve

[brakes]

I have a solar heater, but I am forever chasing the sun.
Anyone know of a reliably manufactured solar activated ball valve?

 

[Titanium]

brakes,

I'm a little confused by your question. Do you mean that you are presently operating you solar system by manually turning it on and off? If you are asking about how to make the solar system automatic, here are some thoughts.

Most automatic solar systems use a 3-way valve that has a motor (valve actuator) attached to it, similar to the picture below.
valve actuator http://www.poolplaza.com/pool-school/pl ... tors.shtml
3-way Jandy valve http://www.poolplaza.com/pool-school/pl ... port.shtml

Then there is some kind of controller that either is based on time-of-day or based on the relative difference between the solar panel temperature and the pool temperature. The latter uses temperature sensors to measure the pool temperature and the solar panel temperature. If the solar panel temperature is x number of degrees hotter than the pool temperature, then the controller tells the Jandy 3-way valve to turn to "solar heating" mode.

Here is some additional information on solar heating: http://www.coseia.org/SolarPoolHeating.html

I hope this helps. Please ask more questions if anything was not clear or confusing.

Titanium

 

[brakes]

I'm a little confused by your question. Do you mean that you are presently operating you solar system by manually turning it on and off? If you are asking about how to make the solar system automatic, here are some thoughts.

Yes! me too, very confused after reading what i wrote... here is a picture of the valving, the idea i have is to find a valve that when the sun is out its open, when there is no sun, it isolates itself from the panels (off), i would probably need to repipe it so that the master valve is inline as the panel inlet...?

valve pic

 

[Titanium]

brakes,

the idea i have is to find a valve that when the sun is out its open, when there is no sun, it isolates itself from the panels (off)

Thanks for the picture of your installation. Pictures are always good. :-D

You will want to add the 3-way Jandy valve (mentioned in my previous post) in the pipe just below where the left-most valve is shown in your picture. You will install pipe in the third hole of the Jandy valve (this third hole should be pointing to the right) and run this pipe all the way until it hits the pipe just below the rightmost valve in your picture. You would then connect your new pipe to your old pipe via a T-connection coupling.

You would then attach a valve actuator to the Jandy 3-way valve. If you don't already have a pool automation system, then a simple way of controlling your new Jandy 3-way valve and valve actuator is by a solar controller.
http://www.bestbuypoolsupply.com/solarc ... zmap=NS950

The link above also shows the Jandy 3-way valve (usually $50-$80), valve actuator (usually $85-$110), and two temperature sensors, in addition to the solar controller.

Here is some great reading and some great animations of what I am trying to describe above. http://www.powermat.com/PG5ht.html

I do not know of a valve that "knows" when the sun is out or not by itself. This functionality usually takes the three separate pieces (3-way valve, valve actuator, solar controller) discussed above.

I know this was not the answer you were hoping for. Feel free to ask more questions.

Titanium

 

[bluenoise]

That is the solar controller I have and it's great. I just set it and forget it and my pool stays the right temperature. As Titanium described, there is a temperature sensor near the panels on the roof and one in the plumbing right after the main pump. If the water temperature is below the thermostat's setting and the roof is at least a few degrees warmer than the water, it opens the valve to the solar. As soon as either the heat is no longer needed or the roof is too cool, it bypasses the solar.