Fall solar blanket use

Marley#3

Member
Aug 11, 2024
7
Southbury , Ct
As we approach fall , I am looking for an answer I have never see. I know when the sun is out you should uncover the pool . In fall , with cool mornings , is it always a good idea . Is there some kind of formula ie pool water temp difference between air temp that is workable. It seems to me that if the difference between air and water temp is large , keeping the pool uncovered during a cold sunny day could have a negative affect on pool temperature.
 
Indeed, but any reduction of solar heating during daylight hours is only applicable if the air temperature is at least as warm as the water temperature and would be so minor as to be noise in the data.

Unless one has an auto-cover and literally just presses a button, the effort to remove the cover in the morning and replace it in the evening is not worth the possible fraction of a degree temperature difference.
 
Any slight breeze when uncovered takes the ------------ pool and adds lots more surface area to evaporate with ^^^^^^^^^^^. It'll likely wash any debatable gains from being uncovered.

I'll also say that with my sample size of *1*, the top few inches of water was VERY warm when I'd open the cover during the day (to the point of steaming) and about a foot down felt cold by comparison. It wouldn't have without the cover on.
 
I am in Toronto, so a bit cooler than Connecticut but I generally keep my cover on. I like to heat my pool to be about 84F for swimming and I tend to keep my cover on from Mon-Fri when the temperature goes down to the low-mid 70s at night. My pool will then stay above 80 and not need much gas heating to get back to 84. But it is a pain in the butt to have to put the cover on or off so it reduces the likelihood of having a spontaneous swim on a weekday night. And there is no way that I am going to uncover the pool every morning and cover it up every night since that is too much work.
 
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