Sizing Your Swimming Pool For Solar Panels
You must first measure the surface area of your pool in order to determine the square footage of solar panels you will need to increase the temperature of the water to what you want it. The minimum recommendation is that you have at least 75% of the surface area of your pool, but it all really depends allot of factors that are unique to your situation and exactly how warm you want your pool to be.
A person living down in Florida will need less panels than the guy up in New York will to acheive the same results. This is due to the differences in climate.Other factors play in as well, such as the space available for the panels. How many Panels do you have room to accommodate? Will they be receiving direct sunlight all day, or will there be periods of shade? These are all things that must be taken into consideration deciding how many panels to buy. I personally recommend going the extra mile and wouldn’t advise installing anything under a 100% ratio of panels to surface area.
You can always regulate the heat with an automatic solar controler if you have enough panels to do the job of heating your pool. Better to have a little extra than to be frustrated that your pool isnt warm enough. Ive seen systems of up to 300% and it was amazing. You dont have to go that far, just make sure you get it right the first time though so your not left out in the cold. The next step is choosing the right solar panels. You guessed it, we have a section that will help you do just that. Check it out.