Solar heating in winter in Socal?

[tphaggerty]

Well, I lived in San Diego for years and my brother stills lives there, with a pool with solar. They swim year round, using the heater only to heat the spa, which spills into the pool. I would guess that you could easily swim into late november with 100% solar alone (assuming good S, SW placement) and probably longer if you had more. If you covered every night, I am pretty sure you could maintain your pool in the 70's year round with 100% coverage.

I currently live in NY, and we were able to heat our pool into the 80's into late October last year (until we had 2 straight weeks of rain, then we packed it in). And we opened in early April and had it to 85 within weeks. That is with about 55% coverage.

So, I would say you could swim 9 months or so a year comfortably in San Diego with 100% coverage. LA too. Further north, not sure.

[pj1016]

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=3099

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=3103

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=3140

Stay tuned...I'll let you know.

pj

[noworries]

Can you run a heat pump off 110? My problem is running 220 or gas to where my pool equipment is would be very expensive.