Solar heating info needed

[mas985]

I tried running without a cover last year and the temperature swing of the water was quite large. With the panels, the best gain I have seen is about 8 degrees a day but I would lose 6 degrees overnight without a cover, 90 degrees during the day and 84 the next morning. So it will work without a cover but you may experience high temperature swings. With a cover and you will be swimming much earlier in the year. I hit 80 degrees near the end of March this year.

A typical panel will produce about 1000 BTU/sq-ft/day in optimal conditions. This will drop depending on time of year, wind, outside temp, etc. So best case, 600 sqft will produce about 600000 BTU/Day. So for 28k gallons, that will be about 2.5 degrees per day. However, you have to factor in the normal solar gain which could be as much as 4 degrees per day. So you should see a about a 6 degree temp rise but there are so many other factors that it is really difficult to predict exactly. Also, as the pool temp rises, the amount of heat you can add will reduce.