Pool heaters, solar & gas. Need input.
 

Two items, please.

1. Can anyone give me v. ballpark idea of winter-months cost to GAS heat a
22' x 7' pool to 80 degrees F? TECO cannot help.

2. My solar panels are 10 yrs. Old. They work barely OK. I wonder if the technology has improved to the point that they should be replaced.

I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

Seems odd that your solar panels (I am assuming these are solar hot water) are not working. Did you verify that there is sufficient flow, aka the pump, valves, etc? Can you verify the smaller tubes are not plugged in some manner? I am not familiar with the specifics of these systems, but it may be possible there is some type of build up inside the system over the years.

Each panel needs 2-3 gallons a minute, you can only know that with a flow meter.

Too fast or too slow just will not work.

Panels last 20-30 years, sounds like a bad install

There are pool heat calculators on the net that can give you the answers for gas heat alone. You would need to get in touch with a pool contractor to see the costs and tradeoffs for the various heating methods.
Solar, heat pump, gas and electric are all used in TV.
My pool with no cover and solar only was 86 yesterday.
When I had a cover on the pool it was over 80 on some days in January.
I found the cover too hard to remove and not worth the effort.
If I were building a pool from scratch I would only have a rectangular pool with an automated cover.

Since the pools here use chlorine, it should be clean inside.

Oh and if you say it's saltwater not chlorine, read the label it is in fact chlorine just another variety.

Or possibly a bad circulator pump...Come on Bob,not necessarily a bad install.

I read it to mean they never worked right