I would like to get some comments on something I tried last year and felt it helped but could have all been in my head. If my winter tarp is flipped from silver to the black side up, will this act like a solar heater to warm up my water 10 degrees or so? Assume my water level is near the bottom of the skimmer so basically the entire pool surface area is touching the tarp and I am keeping it relatively clean with most water pumped off. I close my pool completely during winter since we get several random nights below freezing so no circulation is happening during winter. In the South, we get many sunny days during winter and have random warm patterns getting up into the 60-70's all winter. I assume the black will technically absorb more heat than the silver, which will reflect the sun's rays, but would I actually see a difference?
Also, a slightly separate discussion to the same topic. I have several oak trees over my pool which vomit a bunch of stuff into the pool every April during bloom so this year I left the black cover on for several weeks after technically opening the pool with pump circulating water several hours per day. I have used my solar cover in previous years during April which helped warm the pool but all the Crud falling out of the oak trees got into the water causing tannin stains. Will be black cover still heat the pool water the same as having the solar cover on? Both would prevent evaporation and the black surface will be absorbing heat from the sun with circulating water under it.
Feel free to dismiss the black tarp vs. solar cover but I don't see why the black tarp all winter would hurt anything even if it didn't warm the water more than a degree. I also don't have a good area for a solar system how my roof is shaped and where my pool is situated in our yard with lots of tree cover.
Also, a slightly separate discussion to the same topic. I have several oak trees over my pool which vomit a bunch of stuff into the pool every April during bloom so this year I left the black cover on for several weeks after technically opening the pool with pump circulating water several hours per day. I have used my solar cover in previous years during April which helped warm the pool but all the Crud falling out of the oak trees got into the water causing tannin stains. Will be black cover still heat the pool water the same as having the solar cover on? Both would prevent evaporation and the black surface will be absorbing heat from the sun with circulating water under it.
Feel free to dismiss the black tarp vs. solar cover but I don't see why the black tarp all winter would hurt anything even if it didn't warm the water more than a degree. I also don't have a good area for a solar system how my roof is shaped and where my pool is situated in our yard with lots of tree cover.