Going Solar to heat our pool and power the pump!
We are very excited and are looking forward to lower electric bills. Also an extended swimming season.
The dogs and kids have officially proclaimed the swim season on. But the pool is WAY to cold for me. It's 70 degrees. Our system has already been shipped and should be here on Friday. Billy is once again digging up the grass.  (Hopefully this will be the last time). He has to run pipe for the system. By the time it arrives Friday all he'll have to do is hook it up.
The company that makes it claims to be able to make the pool temps rise at least 10 degrees. So it looks like I will finally be swimming before June. For those that don't know, Solar can be used the opposite way too. It can be used to cool off the pool. That will come in handy in August. |
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| Elissa
Please do not be too startled if you found me and my gang sneaked in and swimming in your pool in the middle of the night. We promise not to make too much noises...  |
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| I've looked at those, let me know how they work.....imagine our short season!! |
| Yeah, but ours would even be shorter!! |
| Hi Elissa,
That is so cool!!! I'm such a fan of home reno shows, that given the chance I'd have my entire house heated by solar panels! What a bonus that your electrical bill will decrease substantially...more money for a huge pool party and an invite to come on down! 
Take pics when you have them set up - promise? Marianne |
| That is so cool Elissa. Let me know how it turns out. I like my pool about 83F to swim in. lol (I'll sneak in with Gigi and her group lol) |
violet wrote: That is so cool Elissa. Let me know how it turns out. I like my pool about 83F to swim in. lol (I'll sneak in with Gigi and her group lol)
Wow only 83? My sister in southwest florida wants it near 90! |
| That's very cool, Elissa. |
kerry wrote: violet wrote: That is so cool Elissa. Let me know how it turns out. I like my pool about 83F to swim in. lol (I'll sneak in with Gigi and her group lol) Wow only 83? My sister in southwest florida wants it near 90! 83F is the starting point lol. Now I've only lived here for five years and this year I see the changes in me where I wear gloves when it hits around 60F....so the gaging of where I will begin to swim may now go up. lol I do love it when the pool is 90F though. |
90?? That's not a pool, that's a hot tub!  Actually I hear you......it is nice getting into 90 degree water if you are just stretching out and relaxing......I love to float on that hot layer.......and I easily float
Swimming though, I need it cooler!!! |
violet wrote: (I'll sneak in with Gigi and her group lol) Violet, I bring the floaties, you bring the drinks, k?  |
| That's great Elissa!
We just had our solar system started after it had not been used for 6 years. It was just a minor problem, now we have great hot water . Should be interesting to see if it yields any savings on electric. Love the idea of solar for the pool--thats |
Gigi wrote: violet wrote: (I'll sneak in with Gigi and her group lol) Violet, I bring the floaties, you bring the drinks, k? That's a deal! |
It's not done yet. 
We had MAJOR winds today, so hubby was only able to put up two of the panels. It looks like the wind is planning on sticking around at least until Monday.
It is all piped in and ready to go though.
Zahra, when you did have yours working did it work well? |
Pepsi's Mommy wrote: I
Zahra, when you did have yours working did it work well? We had it assessed a few weeks ago. The gentleman told us it would take a few hours to get the system up and running. A few hours later, the system was ready to go-but we were having cloudy/rainy weather. When the sun came out, it works beautifully--lots of hot water. I should add we had the system disconnected years ago after an expert told us two panels were not working and the system was not worth fixing. We are so happy we found the right person who knows the systems well. (He advises us all the panels are functionally with no problems.) Best wishes with your system , you'll love it! |
| Due to our high winds and Billy having to make special brackets for the tile roof our system is not 100% installed. But it is 50% installed and is up and running.
I had to go up there with him today to help. Luckily he only needed me for about 5 minutes.
With only 50% of the panels up we have already had a 5 degree increase in water temp. By tomorrow we should be fully operational and I may be swimming by tomorrow afternoon.  |
| Elissa STAY OFF THE ROOF!!!! As tiny as you are you will blow away. |
| SWEET! Thats awesome - you'll love it! |
| Billy put up the last two panels and they both had problems.
Luckily they are under factory warranty. All they required was pics of the defects and they shipped out two new panels. The replacement panels arrived yesterday and were installed this morning. We got an 8 degree rise in temp today.
Still too cold for me... but not for long. |
I forgot to update. 
We are loving the Solar!!! The pool is a fabulous 84 degrees and we have been swimming daily. |
Pepsi's Mommy wrote: I forgot to update.
We are loving the Solar!!! The pool is a fabulous 84 degrees and we have been swimming daily. Pool Party at Elissa's!!!! That is the perfect poopl temp for me....I'll grab my towel and be over soon. I am glad you are enjoying your solar power. |
| Way to go Billy and Elissa, hope you have a long wonderful summer |
Sounds great! Just opened our little "horse trough" yesterday after aborting an earlier start with it became obvious we needed a new filter. So yesterday while I was at the city pool doing my thing, DH got all set up. After two years closed need I say what the condition inside was? .....yucky. All the new water is still full of iron which reacts with the chorline to make chocolate colored water which takes time to filter out.  Let's not even talk about the temp........well water is COLD ......so I'll be thinking about your solar panels and the nice warm water as I wait for nature to heat our's.......where's that solar blanet??
s. |
| In your area, what temp will a pool get to naturally?
E, will you be using your pool year-round? If not, will you be using the solar to heat (or help heat) your domestic hot water in the winter? |
| With the solar blanket we've gotten to pool up into the mid 90s but it takes a month or more. That's too hot for us so we'll leave the blanket off at night and let the pool cool down into the low 80's. Of course if we get more than 2 big rains in August, the pools cools quickly. By end of Sept it's time to close up....so only 4 months here. A solar system would give us a couple of weeks on either side. |
| Ron,
Normally the pool temp is @ 72-78 this time of year. Our pool is 8 1/2 feet deep (in the deep end) and 16 X 32. So it takes a long time for it to heat up even with the hot temps. If it cools off at night, the pool cools off too, since we don't have a cover to keep the heat in. I'd say mid July is when we start hit 80 degrees.... and at that point the outside temp is @ 114, so 80 is quite shocking.
I doubt year round, but at least three more months of swimming. I am hoping we will be able to use it at least until November. So most likely from April to Nov. I was only swimming from the end of June (not happily since the water was quite chilly) to about October. The solar is not hooked up to our hot water heating. It would have to be a totally seperate system. They start at @ $1,500 and go up. Even if you could do it, you wouldn't want to due to the pool chemicals that are in the water. Susan, we had a Solar cover for a few years.... it was such a pain to take it on and off. We also only got a couple of degrees rise in temps. Not enough to really extened the swimming season.
But we should get another.... because it would help keep the pool temps regulated and we wouldn't need to keep the pump on so much. |
| Congrats! Glad you are liking your solar.
Did you ever look into having passive solar panels installed on the rest of your house? I would think in your area where there is not much rain that it would really offset your electric bills. Whatever you don't use, your local utility company has to buy back from you. You also become your own utility company and you get Solar Renewable Energy Certificates. Each time a solar electric system generates 1000kWh (1MWh) of electricity, an SREC is issued which can then be sold or traded in the open market. |
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