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Fafco Solar Bear Panel 4ftx24ft - Plumbing and Installation Recommendations

bhollehday

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May 25, 2021
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I’ve got a 28ft x 20ft east facing slope that id like to fill with solar. The house partially shades the pool in the evening and the slope get a bit of shade from some shrubs (that I could remove). Pool is about 600 sqft.

I want to extend my swim season and keep the pool warm in the summer time. I have shopped panels and talked to installers and decided if I do it, Id want to do it using the solar bear panels and do it myself.

Ive read a couple of forums that people talked about joining more than the 2X panels that the mfg says is the “max”. Does anyone have experience with this?

Ideally, I would plumb the pool equipment to the middle or bottom of the slope. The pool equipment is adjacent and in the middle of the slope. Can I plumb the panels horizontally as drawn in the diagram? It seems like this would work out of the box. I also read that there is a way to remove some sort of diversion plates from the headers in order to feed one end of the panel and output at the other end of the panel. This would allow me to run panels vertically and get some more sqft on the slope.

I also have a few questions:
I have 2” piping on the equipment is it ok to use 1.5” solar?
Do the panels need to be drained when not in use?
Will I get more life it I store in winter, or do I just need to drain for freeze?
 

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I have worked with Fafco solar panels but I’m not recognizing what is in your diagram. The Fafco panels that I have used are round tubings edge welded together in parallel rows and the ends of these parallel tubes are then welded into 2” diameter collector headers at the top end and bottom end of the panels. They are connected in parallel using flexible couplers......Is this what you have? You may well have a type that I have never seen as my panels are rows and headers, there is no option of feeding in and out of the same end of the panel.

If your panels fit the description of what I have said then this guidance will work:

These panels are properly mounted vertically with the input header on the bottom and the output header at the top of the panel. With a large panel area it is best to center feed the array or feed from one end and output from the other end.

If your pool pump is 2” and the Fafco panels and control valves then yes you do need 2” plastic piping. I’m pretty sure that ABS is used here (left coast) but you can’t get ABS pipe everywhere, in the east coast they use PVC instead of ABS pipe, no idea of why....

Freezing.....not to worry unless you are in a real hard freeze place. They will withstand freezing, I’ve done it many times with no damage but I’m on the left coast close enough to that big pond that I can smell it (Pacific Ocean) a vacuum release valve placed at the high point of the system will automatically drain down the system if the pump is not running at night.

Im mostly solar electric but I have Fafco panels but not used for swimming pool, maybe 20 years of tinkering with them. They are local to me so I am able to get free ones quite often here. They are very popular here in California
 
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