I live in Sacramento, CA and it's very hot in the summer and never snows here and I'm considering getting a solar heater to keep my pool water warmer during swimming months. I wonder if anyone has any advice for me - such as, does the water flowing through the pvc on the roof make noise inside the house? Any other drawbacks? I know I'll be using a cover or rings to keep the heat in so it doesn't lose all the heat at night. If it's professionally installed should the warranty only cover the hardware or the labor too? Does the hardware damage the roof on the house? What happens if you need a new roof after the solar panels are installed?
Considering solar heater - any drawbacks? Noisy?
- Thread starter BB_Sacramento
- Start date
Kinda depends on why type of system. Some have panels that can be removed if the roof needs repair, though I’ve read that moving them tends to make any rubber seals that are close to failing, fail faster. My parents pool in CA had one for a long time that they just abandoned recently as repairing it was too expensive. Part of the expense may have been the tile roof they had installed as doing anything up there tends to break a tile. They just switched to a bubble cover and it keeps the water way warmer than the solar ever did without using a cover. Maybe solar systems are better these days though.
I don’t remember any noise from the system back when I was a kid. But my parents would say I wasn’t always a good listener.
You may hear some noise when the system shuts down and the panels drain. Other than that, they are silent, unless you have a large suction leak. It is air mixed with the water that causes noise.
You will want a bubble cover. Solar heating is an expensive install. You want get the best out of it. In Sacramento a properly sized system can add 5 - 7 degrees to the pool each day on average. An uncovered pool will lose 3 - 5 degrees at night. Cooler day and night, zero gain. Doesn't cost anything but you don't get any real benefit.
A covered pool will lose virtually 0 degrees on a warm night and, maybe, 1 on a cooler night.
When I was actively installing solar, I learned the hard way that if a customer wouldn't also purchase a cover, I wouldn't do the job. I would install them for free as they always have to be cut to fit the pool. Never had an unhappy solar customer after that.
A new roof will require they be removed and re-installed. At about 10 years, they are more likely to leak after removal, and that is the usual limit of any warranty on the panels.
Some panels, like Heliocol and the similarly designed Fafco (individual tubes), don't need as many penetrations in the roof (no straps), but all require some.
How long should it take to drain the water out of the roof panels after the system is turned off? Is the automatic valve on the roof adjustable to drain faster or ? Because after my solar heater was installed they tested it and it worked, then they turned it off because it's winter, but it took days for the water to drain out of it and it made gurgling sounds almost constantly for several days/nights in the room under the solar panels. Is that normal? The sounds got quieter and now they have stopped - and actually the noises are ok as long as I know it's working and draining properly. But if there is an adjustment on the automatic valve to speed up the draining and also speed up the sounds that would be great.
My solar does not rely on an automatic valve to drain. It has two hose bibbs, one high and one low. Opening them both allows air in and water out. It only takes a couple hours to fully drain. I attach a hose to the lower bibb and drain that water back into the pool.
Not sure why you would have water in the panels this time of year. The solar valve and isolation valves should have been closed, the system turned off, and the panels drained a couple of months ago. We've had some nights near or below freezing and your panels can be damaged by the water freezing. There is no warranty against freeze damage.
I am also in the Sacramento area and just got a quote from Solaron today. We have a 2-story house, with our south-side completely available, and completely unobstructed by anything (trees, etc). Due to the optimal location of where our pool equipment is, and the south-facing panels, they recommended 75% surface area worth of panels (surface area of pool * 0.75), for 300 sqft total. Fairly close to pulling the trigger since my wife won't get in the pool unless it's 85' or higher. Plus, my kids are in it all the time.