How To Install Heat Pump For Pool

Second in our serial on sizing a heater to your pool, we now look at my favorite heating option: solar pool heating.

In sizing a solar pool heater to a pool, we consider pool size, in area and gallons, your desired temperature gain, and other environmental factors such as wind and sun exposure.

Solar puddle heaters work well in all parts of North America, and in fact, many solar pool heater manufacturers are based in Canada, where solar pool heating is pop.

Simply not all houses or yards lend themselves to solar heaters, because you need a good amount of space unobstructed sunday for four-6 hours per day.

Solar panels can exist placed on a sunny roof of the business firm, garage or shed. A rack or shade structure can be built facing the sun. For smaller aboveground pools, they can only be put on the ground adjacent to the puddle.

Here are the factors to look at when sizing a solar puddle heater:

Pool Size

You should have half of the pool surface area in solar panels. The surface surface area of your pool is constitute when you multiply length past width of your pool. For example, a 16 foot by 32 foot puddle would have sixteen×32=512 square feet of surface surface area. Round pools use the formula of pi times radius squared. For a 24-foot round pool, information technology's 3.fourteen x144=452 square feet.

Panels are modular in that you connect them together. You tin use panels that are iv'x10′ in size (twoscore sq. ft.) or the longer 4'x20′ panels (80 sq. ft.). The more panels you connect together, the more heat you can generate.

Here's a solar console sizing chart that you can use, based on installing roughly enough solar panels to equal one-half the pool surface areas.

For homes without optimum sunday exposure or roof space for solar panels, consider these options:

Build a pergola style structure on the sunny side of the pool.
Build a solar rack with lumber into a sunny hillside.
Build a solar rack in any sunny area within 100 feet of the pump.

Solar Pool Heater Sizing: Other Factors

Inground or aboveground?Aboveground oval pools, without a deep stop, have equally much expanse as an every bit sized in-ground puddle, simply without a deep end, there is much less h2o to estrus. However, aboveground pools have more heat loss through the sides or walls of the pool, which is reduced on in-footing pools. So, it may equal out.

Windy or calm?Equally with all of our pool heater types, nosotros ask how much your puddle receives. Pools in coastal or mountain areas, or other windy areas, may call up nigh adding an extra solar panel to compensate for the wind's oestrus theft. Using a cover or installing windblocks like fences or hedges tin can help reduce the problem.

Transmission or automatic? Solar puddle heaters tin be operated with a solar controller, which increases functioning and efficiency. Information technology does this by bypassing the solar panels when weather are not optimum for heating — during cloudy or rainy periods. Sensors monitor the temperature of the water and of the panels, and an automated valve sends water to the solar panels when the sun is shining. A thermostat allows you lot to set a desired temperature for your puddle.

Most aboveground pools don't install a solar controller, although they could. I always recommend the solar controller to anyone with a larger solar arrangement, because it really maximizes heat output and makes it automated! Without a controller, many heat gains are offset past heat losses during cloudy, rainy and windy periods of the 24-hour interval.

Those without a controller may want to add additional panels to start the heat losses or plan to monitor information technology closely.

Covered or uncovered?A covered pool retains seventy percent or more of the heat put into it, much of which can be lost in cool overnight hours. If you programme to cover the pool consistently, you could install fewer solar panels than is recommended in the chart above.

Solar blankets, Liquid Solar Blankets or automatic pool covers will reduce the demand on the solar heater and let yous to install fewer solar panels or heat the puddle in less than optimum sun exposure weather condition.

Sunny or obstructed?The best atmospheric condition for solar are panels facing a southerly direction and receiving five-seven hours of unobstructed sun per day. That'southward non ever possible, so if you accept less, you could install more panels to recoup.

Y'all can as well place panels in dissimilar areas; they don't all have to be all installed one assortment. They can be on unlike roof areas, or some panels can be rack mounted and others roof mounted. And they don't need to exist right adjacent to the equipment either. You can run piping underground to and from your solar panels.

The great thing most solar pool heating is that you lot can always add more panels. Another smashing thing is the free heat and no maintenance that these systems give. In just about any place in America where the sun shines, you lot can add 10-xx degrees to your puddle with a solar pool heater.

Marking Garcia