Washington State Solar Heater?

[Nate4429]

Is it worth it getting a solar heater installed here in western Washington? I’ve done some research and it sounds like it will extend your pool season a month on each side to include April and October. Does anyone in Washington have any first hand knowledge of this? Thanks! ?

 

[Nate4429]

Ok so no Washington State pools using a Solar Heater? How about anyone else in a northern climate?

 

[borjis]

I had a solar panel heating system at my last house/pool.
It worked VERY well.
If I recall, the panels returned the water to the pool about 8 degrees warmer on a full sunny day.
This is in Oregon, just south of you by a bit. It was able to maintain my 19,000 gallon pool around
84 degrees from early June until I moved out in late August. I'm sure it would have gone well into mid september.

I actually had to turn off the solar a couple times as it heated the water to 87 and felt like bath water to me.

Important that the panels mounted are south facing to get the highest / best direct sun exposure.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

I’ve done some research and it sounds like it will extend your pool season a month on each side to include April and October.

Maybe. I'm way south of you and won't even engage my solar until April 1 for fear of freezing. We've been having some wacky weather lately.

I have learned that my VS pump's Freeze mode would only be useful at a pretty high speed in order to keep the solar vacuum release valves closed. Running a typical low-speed Freeze mode would just cause the VR valves to leak, so I drain the solar shortly before the possibility of a freeze.

You should create a signature with your pool details to get better answers.

 

[Nate4429]

[QUOTE="You should create a signature with your pool details to get better answers."[/QUOTE]
I'm working on the pool details. We haven't moved in yet but hopefully in the next week or two I can go make a list of everything I can list what I know I guess...

 

[ruffryder]

We had a Fafco 4 by 20 water heater for a smaller (5.3' wide x 8.5' long x 2.13' deep, rectangular ) pool and it worked great, got it hot enough for jazuzzi time for parents in the evening after a hot day. We upgraded to a larger pool round pool (15 feet x 48" deep) and it still worked great, though we upgraded pools at the end of the season. Thinking about getting another water heater for the larger pool, as the parents like it warm.

So, definitely get a water heater, they make pools livable in the Washington area. Also, We used 2" foam pink board insulation under our pool and use a solar cover and a debris cover on the pool at night. I am looking to see if there is another way to keep more of the pool heat in at night. It gets cool at night in the summer, so there is a lot of heat loss out the top of the pool.

Good luck!