Lay My Hat

What is the temperature of the water from the panels at the moment, are you getting a decent solar gain? Would increasing the number of panels bring the temp up?

Guests will want to swim even if it's cloudy, kids will swim when they feel like it

teapot wrote:How much space do you have for solar collectors vs the very small amount required for a heat pump?

We have a roof that is South facing and would be fine to have sufficient panels fitted on it.

teapot wrote:What is the temperature of the water from the panels at the moment, are you getting a decent solar gain? Would increasing the number of panels bring the temp up?

The automatic control system opens the valve for water to flow through the panels when the water in the panels is 1,5 deg C higher than the pool. This then continues until the "set temperature" is reached - in my case 28 degC.
More panels would increase the amount of absorbed heat from whatever sun was available but panel surface area of 50%-60% of pool surface area is what I have got and although more would give you more I dont have the space. This is the recommended ideal ratio. Flow and head loss are also considerations when larger areas of panels are considered, or of course parallel systems, but cost soon comes into play with most clients I have found

Entirelyidentifiable wrote:

teapot wrote:How much space do you have for solar collectors vs the very small amount required for a heat pump?

We have a roof that is South facing and would be fine to have sufficient panels fitted on it.

Considerations as to how high is this roof? Will be ok to take the extra weight of water filled panels otherwise lighter weight evacuated tubes and a heat exchanger.

bornintheuk wrote:

teapot wrote:What is the temperature of the water from the panels at the moment, are you getting a decent solar gain? Would increasing the number of panels bring the temp up?

The automatic control system opens the valve for water to flow through the panels when the water in the panels is 1,5 deg C higher than the pool. This then continues until the "set temperature" is reached - in my case 28 degC.

With that in mind is the system operating for most of the day at current temperatures?

teapot wrote:

bornintheuk wrote:

teapot wrote:What is the temperature of the water from the panels at the moment, are you getting a decent solar gain? Would increasing the number of panels bring the temp up?

The automatic control system opens the valve for water to flow through the panels when the water in the panels is 1,5 deg C higher than the pool. This then continues until the "set temperature" is reached - in my case 28 degC.

With that in mind is the system operating for most of the day at current temperatures?

Teapot, I do have more exiting things to do than watch my solar pool heating valve to see how long the pump circulates water through the panels. Sunshine hours will have a more noticeable effect than ambient temperature and we are not having many of those at the moment.

Yes understood, I haven't made up my own mind on heating source yet, I like the idea of solar but it is precisely these current temperatures and weather condition that I want to be able to heat the pool for and to a warmer temperature than 24 deg so I will inquire from a customer who has evacuated solar tubes as to what temperature they are getting otherwise it's going to be a heat pump.

As you are in the Loire probably a heat pump is the preferred solution - your added electric usage will be balanced by your low consumption circulation pump, or will you need additional "push" to circulate through the heatpump ?

Obviously heat pumps vary but I have short listed some good ones where the additional pressure drop is only about 1.5-2 psi so ideally suited to my low energy setup, There is plenty in reserve in that pump, should the need arise.

As I said a friend in the US has to increase his pump by an additional 1275watts to fully utilise the solar setup he has. If the same electricity was used via a heat pump he would be getting 6 kilowatts of heat. That's around 6 panels at full capacity.

If I go down the heat pump route I want to use it for underfloor heating and pre heating the water tank to so the project grows some more.