Solar Pool Heating Systems
Heating your pool with solar energy is one of the fastest ways of enjoying the impact of energy savings on heating bills. The swimming season corresponds with the hottest part of the year when solar energy is abundant. A solar pool heating system can extend the swimming season by a few weeks or more. Now is the time to install a solar pool heating system and start realizing the benefits.
Estimating the number of solar pool collectors
The easy way:
Estimate the square-foot(SF) surface area of your pool, and then divide by 100SF, and round up. The number equals the number of 4x12 pool panels usually recommended for your pool size.
The more specific way:
First, estimate the number of square feet of solar pool collectors your system will need. Estimate the square-foot(SF) surface area of your pool, and then divide by 2. The surface area of pool collectors should be (1/2) half to 3/4 the amount of pool surface area. Then divide the area by the surface area of each pool collector. The remaining number equals the number of pool panels usually recommended for your pool size.
Example: If you have a pool that is 20 feet by 10 feet, then the pool surface area is 20 x 10 or 200SF. To estimate the surface area needed for the solar pool collectors, divide 200 by 2, which is 100SF. So you would need 100 square feet of solar collectors. The standard pool collector size is 4FT by 12FT. 4 feet by 12 feet is 48SF area. 100SF of solar collectors would require installing two 48SF solar collectors (96SF). Three 4 ft by 10 ft collectors would give you a little more surface area (40SF each, or 120SF combined). You could also go with three 4 ft by 8 ft collectors. 4x8 collectors have 32SF each; Three 4x8 collectors results in 96SF. Usually the more surface area of the solar panels, the greater the solar heating system performance. If you like your pool warmer than average, or want to extend the swimming seasons, you can increase the number of collectors to equal 75 percent or more of the surface area of your pool.
There are other installation considerations for determining which size of collectors you end up using.
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