Carl,

If it makes you feel any better, from mid-April to mid-May and from mid-October to mid-November we heat with lots of gas assist and it's EXPENSIVE, a few hundred dollars for each month. So we really only have FIVE months of true solar-only heating time and we still have a few days here and there where we use gas assistance since we keep the pool at 88F if we can (or at least 86F). I think we only use NO gas for a month in July. All other (swim-season) months have at least one day that needs gas due to the sometimes cloudy day or long foggy morning. If I really wanted to make you jealous, I'd be living in southern CA or AZ or southern FL.

Richard