Adding Solar Panels to PVC plumbing

[tphaggerty]

Purple isn't required here for pool piping, good thing as it is ugly (IMHO). In our area of NY, there was no piping inspection, just structural and electrical.

When you use the purple though, that is 3 steps, right? (Clean, prime, glue). My PB just cleaned and glued and that is what I have done since. No problems so far, even with flex.

[Poconos]

It would be an interesting post mortem....how somebody died from using the wrong solvent on pool piping. We don't even need a fence around pools up here let alone all those safety gadgets to prevent entry etc. I have one for decoration and to keep the deer, black bears and wild turkeys from falling in.
Al

[cleancloths]

Never thought of that! But I'll bet you're right!

Up where Al lives, they send a black bear and a wild turkey in lieu of a building inspector! But where I live they send a pit bull! (at least the electrical inspector acts like one--bless him!)

YUP, the electrical inspectors are ass#$%*&holes where I live too. When my pool was built we had a couple of electrical boxes and timers on the mounting board. The electrician decided to drop the conduit from one box below grade and then come up to the next box to make the runs look nice and vertical rather than looping them in mid-air below the boxes. The inspector failed him saying anything that is under ground must be 18" deep. The idiot inspector did not grasp that it was more sound to go slightly in the ground with the loop than having it just dangle below the mounting board.

[CarlD]

Actually, I LIKE such inspectors. The contractors HATE him--I realized that's A GOOD THING! When we did our kitchen he found all kinds of cheats the contractor's required electrician did. And he didn't even find them all--I found one a year later.

For example, the elec used mechanical grounds (the metal conduit), and the inspector made him use proper electrical grounds.

I figure if an inspector insn't crooked and the contractors hate him, he's on MY side--and the funny thing was, with that attitude he was far more willing to work with me.

Reminds me: If a real estate agent recommends a home inspector, avoid him like the plague. If they spit and curse and tell you a guy's a bum and a *****, then HIRE HIM!

[LindaGL]

Thanks guys -

I have to laugh, though, at the comments about inspectors.

I live in an unincorporated part of Harris County, TX and around here, the chance of an inspector arriving to look at ANYTHING for ANY REASON is close to zero. I could tell you horror stories about the construction of my house...

I've studied the plumbing layout, and think I know where I am going with it. I checked out the apporpriate fittings at Lowes, but I'd like to find a local source for the flexible pipe (to run a short distance above ground - MUCH easier to go around a curved area, I suspect!)

Anybody know anyone in the Houston area that carries the flex stuff?

Linda
near NW Houston

[CarlD]

Any pool store should carry it--it's called TigerFlex but there are probably other brands. You are more likely to find it there than in Lowes--plus there are 45 deg and 90 deg fittings.

[tphaggerty]

Flex can also be bought fairly cheap on line. Check out flexpvc.com. I was able to find a lot of fittings out of season on that site and some odd ones as well (long connectors for example).

[LindaGL]

OK gang - I found a local source for flexible PVC, at $3 a foot. That is a LOT more than the online sources I have found, but none of them will automatically give me the shipping costs so I can't determine the final cost. The stuf isn't so much heavy (at least in the small quantities I am looking at - I don't need 100'!) as it is bulky. Will the price double once shipping is added in? If so, I'll stick with local. Otherwise, I think I will buy online.

As for the actual plumbing - it has been recommended that I add in some bypass valves, etc. So I am thinking that while it would be the easiest way, it ISN'T a good idea to just run a line from the filter to the panel, and from the panel to the inlet. Instead, I want a valve on the line that runs from the filter to the panel, and a valve on a line that runs from the panel back to the pool. And that means I also need to have a line that will run from the filter direct to the pool, so that if I use the bypass valves I can still get water running. Is that right?

I can't draw a picture (is there a trick to getting the typed characters to line up correctly?), but it would involve two "T" joints on the line that runs from the filter to the inlet, and off of each "T" would be a line, with a valve, that runs to the panel. To bypass the panel, I would close the two valves.

Does that sound reasonable?

Thanks!
Linda (feeling better about this process)

[cleancloths]

Why not just hard pipe it? It will be cheaper and more durable.

[LindaGL]

Most of it *will* be hard-piped, but I have to go around a couple of corners, and instead of using multiple elbows, etc, I was going to use the flex.

Linda