Estimating the minimum area of the solar collector needed to heat your pool isn’t as difficult as you may think. Because almost all of the heat that’s lost from pool water is lost from the surface of the pool, the optimal area for the solar collectors is proportional to the surface area of the pool.
A solar collector that has the same area as the pool will almost always be adequate. However, if there’s an issue with the area of the north-facing roof you have available, a collector with an area of as little as 60% of the pool area can work in the northern states (Brisbane, Gold Coast, Northern New South Wales), and in the southern states (e.g., Melbourne), you can generally make do with a collector that occupies 80% of the pool area. If you’re planning to order your collectors in a colour other than black to match the colour of your roof, then add 20% to the minimum area.
Now, you have the minimum size for your solar collector. However, if you have a lot of roof space available, then take advantage of it! The larger the solar collector, the faster the pool will heat and the more time you’ll have in your comfortably heated pool.
Performance Plus – Rapid Heat Gain Solar Pool Heating:
If you have the available roof space, you can employ our Performance Plus package. By increasing the size of solar pool heating to 150% or more of your pool area, you give your pool the chance to recover quickly after a cold day. A correctly sized Performance Plus solar pool heating system can heat the pool from 20 degrees to 30 degrees in just a few hours. This means after a cold night or rainy day, you can start the pool heating at 8 am and have it at a comfortable 30 degrees by 3 pm. This is 3x faster than a heat pump and without the heating cost of a heat pump.
Solar pool heating efficiency and available roof space:
If you have a limited roof space, or like to maximise the heat absorption for the same footprint on your roof, the choice of product becomes important. Our Heatseeker Plus has the most compact design and highest exposure to the sun thanks to its patented design. This means you can fit more of the Heatseeker Plus system on your roof compared to any other systems available in Australia.
DualSun PVT solar pool heating:
Photovoltaic-thermal panels have the water heater behind the PV panels. This cools the PV panel to improve its efficiency and heats the pool for free at the same time. As the pool heater is not exposed to the sun directly in these panels, they require more area to provide same heating as a dedicated solar pool heater. As a general rule of thumb, DualSun panels provide 80% pool heating of an equal area solar pool heater. For example if your pool area is 35 square meters, you need 44 square meters of DualSun solar pool heating (35/0.8=43.75) to be equivalent of 100% coverage.
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