Running Solar Heaters with a cover on

[speaste]

I ran my solar system several years without a cover. It can be done with large enough panels but there are some negatives.

First, you will have quite a bit more water loss because solar will heat the water and the evaporation increases with water temperature. If you have hard fill water like me, this can mean having to replace the water more often as well.

Second, is temperature swings. When I ran solar without a cover, the temperature would drop to about 8 degrees overnight and take all day to come back up to temperature.

Third, because of the loss in temperature overnight, pump run time and energy use was close to 3x without the cover vs with the cover. With the cover, I only need to run the pump on full speed a couple of hours to bring the pool back up to temperature. Without a cover, it was over 6 hours on full speed.

So here's my question. If I run my pump on high for the solar water heater while the solar cover is on, it is going to ball the cover up in the middle of the pool. Some folks have said they point their returns down to avoid this which it may, but doesn't that then defeat one of the purposes of the returns - mainly to push surface debris to the skimmer (when the cover is not on) ?

I clearly see the advantage of leaving the solar cover on. There is no question in my mind on this and maybe I just need to give up on the surface debris being "pushed" to the skimmer as my PB had intended and just point them down? Not sure what to do.

 

[mas985]

If the cover is on, the skimmers aren't doing much anyway.

I usually point my returns slightly down but the surface currents are still enough to move the debris when the cover is off.

 

[pooldv]

Interesting. Mine doesnt move at all, ever. I think you should be able to find a middle ground on eyeball positioning that creates a clockwise or counterclockwise flow when the cover is off and doesn't disrupt the solar cover. You can use some ping-pong balls or other floating items to test the flow. It will definitely be worth the effort to figure out how to run solar with the cover on.

 

[gwegan]

My cover never moves.

 

[borjis]

mine doesn't either...just be darn careful about pulling the cover off, if the pump is running.
I've had a time when doing that, the cover got into the skimmer enough that the pump
was gasping with air.

Not good for the panels I would imagine and definitely not a good idea to have that happen
if a heater is running.

 

[speaste]

mine doesn't either...just be darn careful about pulling the cover off, if the pump is running.
I've had a time when doing that, the cover got into the skimmer enough that the pump
was gasping with air.

Not good for the panels I would imagine and definitely not a good idea to have that happen
if a heater is running.

Thanks guys. Sounds like I need to as one of you said, try to find middle ground. When my pool pump is on high (two speed) I get a lot of surface movement (as mentioned the PB said by design). Its great without the pool cover as surface debris goes right in skimmer. With the addition of this new solar heater though I want to run pump at high and leave cover on. I'll see if I can find that middle ground you guys mention with no cover movement but still a little "current" to ease things towards the skimmer.

One other question - how much back pressure did your solar setup add to your system. Right now with my cartridges freshly acid washed, I run at about 18 psi.