Electric heater or non-optimal solar heating?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
C

Cali-Brad

New member
Feb 23, 2023
2
Sacramento
Greetings!

We put a salt water pool in November of 2021. We elected not to add a heater at that time as we felt the amount of sun exposure our backyard received would be enough to keep the pool "warm". After a summer of pool temps ranging from 78-83, depending on heat waves or time of use, we found we really like 85, which we hit just once during an extended heat wave. Plus, we wanted to extend the pool season on both ends of summer. So now we are looking at options.

We would prefer solar heated for initial cost, but our existing solar panels take up all the best spots on the roof. We could add the solar on a portion that faces away from the sun until mid-afternoon. However, I don't know if that would be effective at warming the pool. We do generate way more power from our solar panels than our house uses during the day so after the initial purchase, the electric heater should be fairly cost effective. Running a gas line is no longer a possibility.

My questions are:

Other than the away side of the roof, we could attach the solar to one of our fences. I don't even know if this is possible but there is no room for a free standing set up. Thoughts? If we end up going electric, any recommendations on a manufacturer and model? Would you recommend I purchase the heater separately and pay someone just to install, or pay them to handle everything?

Possibly important info:
Location: Sacramento area
Pool size: a little under 15,000 gallons, salt water
Current eqt: Pentair Intellichem
Pic attached for review. For reference, the sun rises directly opposite of the driveway.

Thank you in advance!
 

Attachments

  • pool.png
    pool.png
    159.7 KB · Views: 15
Is the wire size/breaker feeding the pool equipment sufficient to support an electric heat pump? If not, that may pose a similar challange to the lack of a gas line. It looks like pentairs ultratemp units require a dedicated 50 amp breaker.
Upfront cost wise, based on what I spent to diy our ground mount solar pool heat, i think you will find both similiar.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Cali-Brad
  • Like
Reactions: Cali-Brad
ajw22 said:
@Dirk is in your general area and I think will have a lot to say about setting up solar pool heat.

Solar Pool Heaters - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

@1poolman1 is in your area and may have advice on what brand HPs are best supported around there.
Click to expand...
According to the major local pool wholesaler, Pentair, Hayward, and to a lesser extent Aqua Comfort, are all on the rise as the price of natural gas here has just about doubled in the last year or so. They are now stocking them on a regular basis.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cali-Brad
You don't want a gas heater. You wouldn't have wanted to pay that monthly bill last year, this year it's out of the question.

I like 85° too. My solar heater provides me that, consistently. It didn't extend the season as much as I had hoped, but it does allow me to get in a few weeks sooner and a few weeks later. My pool is always warmer than my neighbor's (he doesn't have solar). It won't get you a month of 85° temps on each end of the season. It will boost the temp about 5°. You'll likely get about +10° in mid summer. It's not cozy in May and October, but it's swimmable, and if I do a little gardening to warm up, I'll jump right in and it feels great.

I used Heliocol. Arguably the best there is. But the difference between the best and worst, in terms of heating your pool, is minimal if any. It's running water through black tubes. There are no technological breakthroughs that magically make one brand warm your pool any better than another brand. Heliocol has a superior mounting system, and a superior connection system (connecting panels together) that might make their premium cost worth it to you. I can't yet speak to how long they'll last, or how much longer they'll last compared to other brands, but so far so good, no leaks. Their build quality was worth it to me, but I got an incredible deal on them. Back when they were regularly seen for about $1K per panel, I got mine for $300 per panel.

I installed the system myself, and shaved about $7K off the estimate of having them installed. I know I did a better job than the installers would have (more on that if you're interested). So I got mine on the roof for about $3K (not counting my labor). A heat pump solution would have been at least twice that, maybe three times, plus the cost of running it. I already have a gas heater, but have never turned it on, and likely never will. I am very handy, but installation didn't require much skill. It's pretty straight forward. I'll help you with the how-to if you want to give it a go.

I saved the best news for last. My panels are on my north-facing roof! The "prime real estate" is used by my PV panels. I was told in no uncertain terms by the local pro that sold me the panels (who are pro installers, as well), that putting them on the north side would pose no problem. That seems to be true, though I have nothing to compare it to. They told me that pool heating solar panels don't require the kind of critical sun exposure angles that PV panels do. Plus, where I live (somewhat south of you) the sun is directly overhead in the summer. Who cares what side the panels are on in the winter, when the sun is lower, because they aren't being used. That only matters for PV. In fact, what I observe, because of how the sun sort of arcs around my roof in the summer months, I get more sun hours on the north side. Certainly not any less. So (IMO), you're good to go on the roof you've got.

I've got eight 4'x12.5' panels. So that's about 48'W x 13'H. Mine take up a little more than that because of the way I installed them and the supply pipes, so maybe 49'W x 15'H. Do you have that much room up there? I've seen installations on fences, so that's possible, but you won't get as much heat that way. You could always split the array: put as many panels up on the roof as possible, then the rest elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Cali-Brad and Ahultin
Thank you all for replying and asking questions!

My roof has two potential spots. Over the garage is only 32x12 per Google Earth. This doesn't seem large enough per Dirk's post. The other spot has more room but would require at least 95' of pipe from the panels to the pool eqt. That seems like too much, but I don't know the limitations of the system. Just seems like I would over work something moving the water that far and up and down two stories.

To answer Ahultin's question, a dedicated 60 amp breaker was installed. I'm leaning towards electric heater for the space reasons above, plus I'm not wild about self installation on a two story roof. I'm getting too old to be transitioning from ladder to roof haha.

I'm going to continue reading, but if anyone has electric heater recommendations, I would love to hear them.
Thank you again!
 
Cali-Brad said:
Thank you all for replying and asking questions!

My roof has two potential spots. Over the garage is only 32x12 per Google Earth. This doesn't seem large enough per Dirk's post. The other spot has more room but would require at least 95' of pipe from the panels to the pool eqt. That seems like too much, but I don't know the limitations of the system. Just seems like I would over work something moving the water that far and up and down two stories.

To answer Ahultin's question, a dedicated 60 amp breaker was installed. I'm leaning towards electric heater for the space reasons above, plus I'm not wild about self installation on a two story roof. I'm getting too old to be transitioning from ladder to roof haha.

I'm going to continue reading, but if anyone has electric heater recommendations, I would love to hear them.
Thank you again!
Click to expand...
Dedicated 60 for all of the pool equipment or dedicated 60 amp for pool heater In the pool panel?
You could use 7 4x10 foot panels and use the 32x12 area.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jsteggy
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply