Solar Heating for the pool

[rnaval]

Anyone using solar heating for the pool? Would love to hear about solar heating options and advice. I have a Jandy Lite2 Gas heater which recently went bad (all messages blinking at the LED panel) and I'm thinking of installing Solar heating instead of repairing it. Any suggestions would be of great help.

Thanks...

[Watermom]

Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum! I have solar panels for my pool and they work great! It allows us to swim from mid-May through September. But, you also need to have a solar cover for your pool. That will keep you from losing the heat you gain from the solar panels through the day. Otherwise, you don't gain any ground heat-wise.

[CarlD]

Hi, and welcome!
I, too, have solar panels, but mine are part of my deck, so it keeps the deck from burning feet! We love them!
Carl

[Cords]

I built my own solar heater from an old pool pump, 100' of black garden hose attached to plywood painted black, encased under 2 old storm windows I bought for $3 each. Jury is out on whether it is helping or not.

QUESTION- would the solar cover (somewhat translucent blue bubble wrap) work better if I removed it during the day, and just used it overnight like a blanket? It seems to shade the water and I think the water would warm up better with the sun shining through to the bottom. I think solar cover is a mis-nomer, it is more of an insulated blanket.

The average high in WI is 75 degrees now and the lows are in the 50s. I'm trying to eek a couple more weeks out of the pool. So far it isn't working, pool is ranging between 66-72. I need 78 to get the kids in it!

Why can't we post pics? It would be a lot more fun.
-Shawn

[chem geek]

QUESTION- would the solar cover (somewhat translucent blue bubble wrap) work better if I removed it during the day, and just used it overnight like a blanket? It seems to shade the water and I think the water would warm up better with the sun shining through to the bottom. I think solar cover is a mis-nomer, it is more of an insulated blanket.

Generally taking the cover off during the day and putting it on at night gives you the most heating, but this really depends on the amount of evaporation you get during the day. If your air is very dry or you have a lot of wind (and it's not humid), then your pool may cool off more from evaporation than it would get heated by the sun. As I describe in this thread, around 60% of the energy in sunlight gets absorbed in a typical white plaster pool raising the temperature around 0.7ºF per hour during peak noontime sun if there were no evaporation. However, as I describe in a later post in that thread, 1/4" of evaporation lowers the pool temperature by around 4.9ºF. So which one wins out depends on the evaporation rate. If you are in a humid climate such as Florida, then uncovering the pool during the day is best. If you are in a dry hot climate such as Arizona, then covering the pool would keep it warmer but then again in that desert climate the water is usually too hot and people intentionally keep their pools uncovered to have evaporation help cool them off. If you are in an area with moderate humidity (40-60%) or dry, but you have wind or consistent breezes during the day, then it is probably better to keep the pool covered.

Note that you can get the best of both worlds by using a clear solar cover since that will let at least some of the light into the pool to heat it. The downside is that you will get the associated chlorine loss since such covers usually let UV through as well.

[Cords]

I would consider it moderate here, and pretty open to breezes. Another downfall of the evaporation is the replacement water is really cold.

It looks like today & Monday are my last shot, the high on Thursday will be 58. THANK YOU EVERYONE for the successful summer of swimming! The pool was so much easier to take care of, and it looked great.

[BigDave]

We have sloar panels on the roof that are valved into the filtration system. The solar contractor who installed them complained a bit that they were too small (all the roof we had available) but I had 1/4" foam installed on the walls and under the floor and we have the solar cover on whenever we're not in the pool. We are very happy so far, we've had pretty bad weather (hurricanes and rainstorms that dumped as much as hurricanes) since the system went in but it's given us several swim days that we wouldn't have had otherwise.