solar pool pannel
- Thread starter filix
- Start date
One ain't going to do much ... I will tell you that. Solar heating is all about square footage and sun exposure.
Are you going to DIY or pay someone? I got all mine used on craigslist and installed myself. Others have bought online and installed themselves.
What are you hoping to accomplish ... added heat in the summer or extending the swim season?
Are you currently using a cover at night?
Are you going to DIY or pay someone? I got all mine used on craigslist and installed myself. Others have bought online and installed themselves.
What are you hoping to accomplish ... added heat in the summer or extending the swim season?
Are you currently using a cover at night?
Like Jason said 1 will not do much, depending on location, sun exposure, etc. it is common to require panel sizing equal to something between 50-100% of the pool surface area to noticeably extend the swim season.
Ike
p.s. here is the thread on my semi-DIY solar upgrade project from last spring solar-panel-replacement-update-t56572.html
Ike
p.s. here is the thread on my semi-DIY solar upgrade project from last spring solar-panel-replacement-update-t56572.html
I have all day sun. I was hoping to add afew degrees and maybe extend a little? It would be DIY. I use a solar cover at night.
Where do you live?filix said:
Each pool and climate is different, but my experience was I needed at least 50% solar area/pool area to have a noticeable enough effect to make it worthwhile. Currently I have ~70% solar/pool area and I can get about a 5 deg bump over no panels with decent sun each day. However, extending the season here (MN) really only means a couple of weeks.
One thing to keep in mind is everyone has a different preference of pool water ideal temperature, many people will not get in a pool that is below about 84 or 85 degrees, some prefer pools to be around 90 or 95, yet others may want much cooler pools, as an example international swim competition rules require the pools to be at about 78 degrees. Personally I like mine around 83 to 84 degrees, and will swim down to about 78 or 79 degrees.
I live in southern maine. z 5. Right now the pool is staying around 83. And that's nice. The last heat wave we had about 3 weeks ago it was 93. A bit much for me but my wife loved it. Perfect temp for me would be around 88. I'm having a pool party in a couple of weeks. I was thinking of running a hose right off my water heater just for that one time. I wounder what that would do. What are some good solar panels? Thanks a lot. filix.
The water heater will not do anything noticable ... not worth the effort.
There are some reasonably priced panels on Ebay. I think Issac-1 can better suggest panels as they just did a lot of research. Or you could try searching some of their posts.
There are some reasonably priced panels on Ebay. I think Issac-1 can better suggest panels as they just did a lot of research. Or you could try searching some of their posts.
For perspective, I have been running my panels religiously everyday and am ecstatic I am up to 81F right now (again 70% panel/pool area). If I didn't have them I would likely be below 74F.
The other upside to solar panels is running them at night cools down the pool.
The other upside to solar panels is running them at night cools down the pool.
From a performance perspective you will find almost all solar panels roughly comparable (within 5% or so for similar surface area panels) , some may perform better in low wind areas, others slightly better in high wind. This is mostly a design trade off between maximum tube surface area available for solar exposure such as seen on Aquatherm brand panels, or a more rigid flat surface which looses less heat to convection /conduction such as the Techo Solis panels, and all points between. Bigger issues are likely to be the cost to service life ratio, warranty coverage, and if they are distributed exclusively through a dealer/installer network.
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