"nobody" wrote in message
news:dbyCe.12121$Eo.10262@fed1read04...
SteveB wrote:
I have a solar heater on the pool. We live in Las Vegas. It is hot here
now, between 115 and 120 the last week.

My pool water is 94, an uncomfortable temperature.

I know that if I run my system at night, it will circulate the water
through the collectors, and though night time temps are 90 right now, it
should bring the temp down. Plus, not running it during the day will
keep the circulation from going through the panels and picking up more
heat.

My questions:

Does not having the water on and running through the panels in the day
when it is hot damage them? It seems like they would get awful hot.
When I cut down the flow to the panels, the water in there reaches 160
degrees. That can't be good.

Should I just run it night and day? To keep the panels from getting too
hot during the day, and at night to help dissipate some heat?

We like the temp around 85, and that seems to be about 15-20 below
ambient. But right now, ambient is so high that it comes out at 94.
Normal temps for right now is 104.

Any suggestions or information by solar gurus would be appreciated.

Steve
The solar systems I see all have a thermostat to set the pool temperature.
When the pool reaches the set point, the panels are bypassed. AFAIK, the
temp in the panel then rises but does no harm. We have the system sold by
United Solar and the pool temp is set by our Aqualink controller inside
the house. For people without the Aqualink integrated system, United
Solar provides a separate box that controls pool temps.

I was told that the United Solar panels are just fine without circulating
water when being bypassed.

Nobody

--

We are really considering a thermostat, but now they have to come and cut
all the pipes to install one retro.

I am just looking for something to regulate it a bit before we have it
changed out. And I didn't want to hurt the system in the meantime by
running it dry.

Any idea how much a thermostat and installation cost?

Steve