Solar for heat AND pump - any advice?

[dayhiker]

I've been considering solar for a while for heat. I have lots of shade and have a roof over a patio so I can put maybe 15x15 worth of solar up there and no one would see it. The heat would be for April, May, Sept, and Oct. Is it practical/possible to make the solar run my pump in June, July, and August, and do heat the other months listed? I imagine it can be done but that doesn't mean it's practical. Any thoughts on where to research something like this?

Thanks.

 

[JasonLion]

It is fairly difficult to run a pool pump from solar panels. Pool pumps tend to require lots of power, more than you can typically get from reasonably sized solar panels.

Another complication is that you really want completely different kinds of panels for heating water vs powering the pump. Pool heating solar panels produce hot water, not electricity. While it is possible to produce hot water with solar electric power it is inefficient. Likewise, producing electricity from hot water is inefficient.

 

[dayhiker]

Oh, that's right, the water runs through piping in the panels. I forgot about that. Heck, it was worth the what-if. Thanks for redirection.

 

[mas985]

Another option, albeit an expensive one is a solar pool pump. Here is an example of one. They are DC so don't suffer from some of the conversion loss of solar electric panels and the panels are sized just for the pump so are a bit smaller. So in theory at least, you could have both types of panels. A small one for just the pump and then use the standard solar pool panels as well to heat the pool.

This is an option that I am seriously considering because since I have my panels on the second story of the house, I cannot use low speed of a two speed pump nor can I use the Intelliflo at a RPM of below about 2400. So the Intelliflo would save me some money but a solar pool pump might save me a lot more. The downside of course is that you cannot run it at night but then again, I could just the leave the pump I have connected for that.

 

[dayhiker]

Dang, that's pricy. My power bill goes up about 150-200 during the summer, so say 4.5 months * 200 = $900/year. It'd take 5-6 years to recoup without counting time value of money. Ouch.

 

[mas985]

Dang, that's pricy. My power bill goes up about 150-200 during the summer, so say 4.5 months * 200 = $900/year. It'd take 5-6 years to recoup without counting time value of money. Ouch.

One of the reasons I haven't jumped on that. Hopefully, they come down in price in the not too distant future as solar becomes more popular.