what to do when the collectors are far from the pool

[mikethestig]

I have a 14 ft round pool that's about 2800 gallons. it is located alongside the house so my solar heater lines travel maybe 45 feet to the panels. it does a good job and keeps the pool around 85. we want to move it to a more permanent location but that's another45 ft away. I want to run pipe underground but I'm not sure what to use. I don't want to lose too much heat to the ground and was wondering if there was a insulated pipe to do the job and not break the bank. or is even necessary if I have enough heat coming off the roof. also it will need to take a little load form time to time usually my pickup loaded to the gills with firewood

[Ward L]

I don't think there is much heat loss when the pipes are underground. When I buried mine, I kept the two pipes about 6" apart. I expect you would have more losses if the pipes were next to each other than if they were uninsulated. This is just my opinion as I don't have any data to back up my opinion.

[J.P.M.]

I have a 14 ft round pool that's about 2800 gallons. it is located alongside the house so my solar heater lines travel maybe 45 feet to the panels. it does a good job and keeps the pool around 85. we want to move it to a more permanent location but that's another45 ft away. I want to run pipe underground but I'm not sure what to use. I don't want to lose too much heat to the ground and was wondering if there was a insulated pipe to do the job and not break the bank. or is even necessary if I have enough heat coming off the roof. also it will need to take a little load form time to time usually my pickup loaded to the gills with firewood

Aside from considerations to avoid a trip hazard/injury and perhaps breaking a line in the process. The extra 60 ft^2 or so of surface area the piping adds will probably be close to amb. air temp. when operating. Even if 10 deg. F. warmer than the air temp., the additional heat loss, while it will happen, will probably and usually be relatively small, of the order of a couple % or so of the energy the pool heater adds to the pool. The increased pressure drop from the added length will lower the flow rate a bit, and while I'd check that, I'd guess it won't be substantial.

[mikethestig]

thanks for the thoughts I was worried that the heat loss to the ground might be more than I was making but I guess it may slow the process but not stop it
I am using 6 panels now but I have 20 so I should still have a lot of heat when they are all in service next year. even now it takes a day or so of sun to get it to 84 degrees after a couple rainy days. with more panels and water flow I hope to get a few degrees an hour when I need it