Heating effectiveness of solar rings

[newCApoolowner]

Hi all - We moved a few years ago into a house with a pool, and have learned quite a bit since then! We live in a warm part of California, and our pool sees 10-12 hours of direct sunlight every day. We've used a solar blanket for the last season and a half, and can consistently keep our in ground pool (18x36') between 88-90 degrees.

Our current blanket is breaking down and needs to be replaced, and we'd like to switch to solar rings to make it easier to get the cover on and off with one person. The added safety of disks vs a blanket should an accidental fall occur is a nice benefit as well. A roller for our current cover isn't an option given the layout of our yard + diving board. That said, I can't find a definitive answer online as to wether the rings are effective at heating up the pool. Some sources say direct sunlight into the pool is more effective, which seems like rings would have a slight advantage over a solar blanket since light can shine into the water through the gaps. On the flip side, those gaps will allow for more evaporation at night. Has anyone done a before/after comparison on heat gain/retention since moving from a solar cover to solar rings?

For what it's worth, I'll be creating the rings myself using a high quality solar blanket and some form of tubing, so I won't need to worry about a lot of the inflation issues I've read about online with the solar rings available in the market today.

 

[Homebrewale]

To get full coverage of the pool surface, you could cut your solar blanket into sections. Each section would be cut to a size you could handle easily and could fold and store.

 

[Newdude]

Solar rings will reduce your heat retention by the % of added exposed surface area.

No solar covers 'make' any heat no matter what the manufacturers say. They stop evaporation overnight and on windy days and are seen as a 'gain' tomorrow. To work most efficiently, you need the whole pool covered.

 

[Donldson]

Honestly I hated the solar rings. They were a pain to deal with putting on and off and were more susceptible to wind. We ended up just going with an undersized solar cover, which segues in to...

You don't need to cover every inch of the water to get a benefit from a solar cover. Any amount of water covered in less surface area experiencing evaporation. We have a 28 foot pool and use a 15 foot cover and it's made a measurable difference. Not that I'd recommend going that route necessarily with a rectangular in-ground pool, but any surface of the water covered will provide a benefit.

 

[Newdude]

but any surface of the water covered will provide a benefit

There is that. 75% (or insert any maths) is far better than 0%

 

[newCApoolowner]

There is that. 75% (or insert any maths) is far better than 0%

Thanks all for the quick response. I suppose that's partly where I'm at - if I can cover 80% of the pools surface, I'm confident it's still going to be better than no cover.

I suppose the question I should have asked is, how warm has anyone been able to maintain their pool when only using solar rings (no rooftop solar, heater, etc.)? I didn't ask this initially as the answer always depends on a lot of variables. Where we are it's consistently a high temp of low 90s and a low temp of high 50s. Pool is in full, unobstructed sun 10-12 hours a day.

 

[Newdude]

Your typical solar cover will retain 5-7 degrees over what it would have lost on its own. Reduce that # by a estimated % of exposed surface area and voila. You should still see 4-6 (?) degree retention.