[Hancle704]

I have noted that many homeowners install solar panels on roofs when they have their swimming pools built. Just wonder why the developer never included them when neighborhood and regional rec center swimming pools were built. I believe that all of these pools are heated in cooler months to 82 degrees and since they don't use solar, what has been the impact on our amenity fees. The group of environmentally concerned residents in TV have been campaigning hard for recycling, but I hear no mention about increased community use of solar energy.

Just wondering. ???

[Villages Kahuna]

My guess is that you'd have to have a"panel farm" next to each pool to have the capacity to warm the community and rec center pools in cold weather. I say that because it takes six 4x12 foot panels to do a reasonable job on my 14 by 28-foot pool.

By the way, the solar system can be used to cool a pool in the hot summer months. You set the thermostat to a lower, more comfortable temperature and then run your pump at night. The pool water circulates thru the panels which cool the pool water with the 70-degree night time air temperature.

[Russ_Boston]

Thanks Kahuna, That answered a question about how to cool a pool.

14 X 28 ? NICE! Need any new friends?

[samhass]

I'm not sure the solar panels will keep the pool warm enough late Jan-Feb. Those winds can get pretty chilly.
I kept my pool at 98 for the winter with a gas heater. We turned off the waterfalls and kept a solar blanket on at all times when it wasn't in use. The first gas bill was tough but after the pool got up to temp the bills dropped considerably. I never turned the heat off. In the summer I keep it at 86. In the winter I think using that solar blanket is critical.

[Villages Kahuna]

The contractor that I spoke with provided a "guarantee" that his system would keep the pool at 85 degrees or warmer with no supplemental heat for about nine months of the year (excluding from mid-December until about the first of March, as I recall). His point was that even in the coldest months your gas or electric bill would be substantially lower if you opted to heat the pool because the supplemental heater would only be used for about a 10 degree "rise" in temperature as opposed to maybe a 25 degree rise without solar panels.

After experiencing a couple shockingly high gas bills during the months that the grandkids visited, I put pencil to paper and determined that the cost of solar would pay for itself in less than 3 years.