Solar cover worth it in Socal?

[noworries]

Just recently bought a house with a pool. Have already replaced the pump, added a SWG, and bought a barracuda g4 pool cleaner.

The pool is pretty big (35'x15') and has no heater.

I'm in socal, and the pool gets direct sunlight pretty much all day so far.

Is it worth getting a solar cover? Seems like a big PITA to have to cover & uncover the pool to use it. I drained the pool in April when I moved in, and filled it with 70F tap water. It's been in the mid to high 80's all summer. I'm worried that after this winter when the pool gets really cold it will take a lot longer to heat up via the sun. Would having a solar cover make much difference here? or would i be better off putting the money towards a pool heater.

[Amelia]

I'm in Michigan but can tell you that when the weather gets warm, it's more a matter of days rather than weeks for my pool to warm up. When the air is warm in the 80's during the day, 60's at night, and the water circulating and filtering, the water temp can go from like 50 to 80 degrees in a few days. My pool is about 18x38 and gets full-sun on a hilltop.

I use my solar cover when the nights cool down to the 50's, wind or low humidity. When the water is only 80, I can really tell the difference when it drops 2 degrees overnight. The cover definitely gives me that back and extends my season a few weeks. It's not that much of an inconvenience if you have a reel. I have a homemade one that is kinda hard to turn, but it only takes me 5-10 minutes to roll it up in the morning. At night, it's easier because I get in the pool and pull it out almost all the way (no bending over).

If I could afford a heater, I would surely want to use a cover to decrease the heat loss at night, that is the main benefit because it doesn't do much when the sun is shining other that keep the pool a little cleaner. I have looked into solar panels and different types of heaters to and with such a big expense I think a cover would pay for itself in saving the cost of replacing that couple degrees. I have had my cover for ten years and it came with the house and pool, so I really think if I take care of it, it will last even longer.

Have fun with your pool!
Amelia (really dreading putting my pool away for the winter)

[BillF99]

I don't have a pool cover, although I wonder every year if I should get one. In S. Cal you can get a swim season from late March to mid or late October with no cover or heater. I doubt if the cover will extend that more than a couple of days unless you use a heater. The cost of heating (gas) the water will be prohibitive. Last time I checked (2000) it would have cost me about $300 per month to keep the pool warm enough to swim from October through March. I would guess that is closer to $500 per month now. You might rather spend the money on solar heating equipment.

With no cover, heater or solar, the pool will warm up from cold (58) to usable (73+) in a matter of 4 or 5 days when the sun is shining and the outdoor temperature stays warm (usually late March, although this year it was May as I remember). Unless you really like the water warm (85+), you'll probably not want to use a solar cover during the swim season.

[Socal_biker]

I'm in SOCAL (Inland Empire) and I use a solar cover. It will lose less heat at night, as the night temps drop significantly (I'm closer to the high desert) compared to the costal towns/cities.

I also use it, to prevent pine needles and other debris from falling into the pool.

I have a pool heater that I never used. I just bypassed the heater during my latest pool equipment upgrades and I will be disposing it. I'm almost certain that I will go with solar panels before the next swim season.

[chem geek]

I'm in NoCal (near San Francisco) and have an automated opaque pool cover so it's not as good for warming during the day (but we have solar panels for that) and only keeps the heat in overnight about half as well, but it does allow us to have our pool at 88F almost the entire pool season with gas supplementing only in mid-April to mid-May and mid-October to mid-November. Most heat loss is due to evaporation of water (both day and night) and not from direct heat transfer.

The other savings from using any type of cover (solar or otherwise) is in having a much smaller loss of chlorine from the breakdown from sunlight (UV). An opaque cover probably does better for this, but even a solar cover blocks much of the UV rays (which is partly why the solar covers degrade over time -- the UV breaks down the plastic).

You will also have less make-up water due to the lower evaporation. This is most helpful in areas that have restrictions on water usage.

And as alredy mentioned by others, you'll have less junk fall into your pool water which helps reduce maintenance on cleaning traps and keeping more stuff out of your filter.

Finally, you should also find that with a cover you have less of a tendency for a rise in pH over time, though this is also dependent on your TA and pH levels. The cover helps keep the dissolved carbon dioxide (carbonate) in your pool and slows down its outgassing which would normally cause a rise in pH.

So yes, a cover can be a PITA, but it has a lot of benefits. We got an automated cover to remove the PITA aspect with some loss of benefit (thermal efficiency), but found it to be well worth it.

Richard

[noworries]

Thanks for the info. Any issues with running the pool cleaner while the pool's covered?

[chem geek]

I found no problems running the sweep (we call it "devo") while the cover is on, but our cover isn't "loose" like a solar cover would be. My guess, however, is that there wouldn't be a problem even with a solar cover since the sweeper generally stays on the bottom or on the sides. The only issue I could see is if the floating water feed pipe to the sweep moved a loose solar cover around. Perhaps someone with a true solar cover could give you better info.

Richard