My pool moter is a 1.5 hp, and pool is an 18 foot above ground.
I am interested in Tim's solar system and sent him an email. Also had to sign up here to post a message :-)
I'm interested in hearing from anyone that also has tried a solar system with the large black pipe.
I have 3 solar systems running to heat my pool, - all inexensive, - using the black utility hose that is 1/2" thick, that is used for drainage, and used in supermarkets to move water around in the building. I bought it in the hardware section, and cost me $9.99 for 100 feet..... ( That's Canadian $) so I guess it would be about $7 U.S. funds or less for that kind of tubing.
you can see images of my system here: www.powershotgraphics.com/pool
I get 6.3 U.S. gallons per minute of flow from the 3 solar tubes total,
so that's 378 gallons per hour total.
Water on a good day comes out of the tubes at 88-89 degrees, once the thing thing has been running for a good 15 minutes, - once it has cleared out the water and is grabbing fresh water from the pool..... when I first start up the system and if water has been sitting in the solar tubes for even 10 minutes, - and if it is sunny, the water coming out is about 127 degrees F ! - so hot it burns the hands, but that doesn't last long.... about 3 minutes, and then it starts to cool off.
I'm really interested in the big tubes though and would love to know how it compares to the small tubes I'm using.
Professional solar panels use very very small straw like tubes, with fins, and this is much more effecient than my system using 1/2 pipe.... so I have to wonder if the large tubes like this are as effecient .....
If you think about it, the larger the pipe, the longer length one would need to get them hot enough, - I'm assuming the tubes are 100% full, and are pushing out many gallons per minute though. Anyway it looks like a great system and well put together, and I would like to try my hand at it, but to get the heat out of it, would I need to do a good 600 feet of this large tube to really get water hot out of it ... hmm..... I'm just not an expert.
anyway nice chatting.
Mark,
Ontario, Canada.
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