Plumbing Suggestions for Solar Bypass?

[shep377]

Excellent... so some experimentation with the valve and the pressure readings at the filter will give me some indication.

My filter is currently running about 12PSI (sorry I am quite new to this). If I gate back the main line a bit, forcing more water through the solar loop in the concrete, then it will go up. If I gate it back more, forcing more water through, it will go up more. What are safe limits to this? How high can (should?) this pressure go? I know I don't want to force all the water from a 1.5" line through a .5" line - it will put a HUGE amount of work on the pump I would expect.

I am also told I should backwash when the PSI climbs about 5PSI higher then normal... is this also correct?

Cheers
Josh

[mas985]

Pumps actually work less with higher pressures. Flow rates go down, energy use goes down, but slower, so efficiency (gallons/watt-hr) goes down as well. A pump has a maximum head/pressure that it can produce but if the flow rate is not high enough in the plumbing, it cannot produce the pressure. So even if you redirected all of the flow through the tube, there would still be some flow rate through the tube (~ 5 GPM) and the pressure will be limited to less than 26 PSI. But the turnover rate for the pool would increase to 70 hours!