DIYbanter - View Single Post

gonjah[_3_]

On 12/15/2012 10:34 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:36:30 -0800, sms
wrote:

On 12/13/2012 4:07 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:06:33 -0600, gonjah wrote:

The advantage of a DC is you can turn it down WAY low and let it run
constantly like during a freeze. We don't empty our pools here.

But you're right, it's usually a fine line between up front costs and
overall savings. With pumps running $1600 it's real hard to recoup the
difference.

That is basically what the solar collector system does for you. The
only real "controller" is that it shuts down at a certain low voltage
where you would just have the motor sitting there humming. There is
no inverter.

A pool pump needs to be able to circulate 2x the volume of the pool per day.

For example, my pool is 40,000 gallons, so I need to circulate 80,000
gallons per day.

The solar pool pump I saw online is rated at 11,000 gallons per day, and
I'm sure that's based on the maximum sun day in June.

It's an interesting idea, but there's no free lunch. If you want a solar
pool pump the best thing to do is to install solar panels on your house
that put power back onto the grid and that generate enough electricity,
on average, so that you're not buying any power from the utility.

One of the reasons I want a solar pump is to run the pool pump when
the power is out.
You can go a long way towards living without A/C if the pool is blue.

A solar pool pump setup is also a lot cheaper than setting up a grid
tied system. You still get the federal tax credit

Do you have a kit in mind or is it going to be a self assembled project?
The one's I've seen had inverters.

I've seen some of those floating solar filters but I don't know if the
filter working on the surface would be adequate, and at $700+, I don't
want to gamble to find out. It might work well enough to keep the pool
clean during the off season though.