diy solar

diy solar

spec help

blake77

New Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2020
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Hi all, Newbie here.

I need some help with the spec of what I need. So I want to heat my above ground pool, I have two heaters. One Air Source but cuts out below 12deg c - This is mains powered and as it cuts out below 12deg c don't see the point in changing it to solar. (unless in the summer)
The other is a hot tub heater, Bestway, it runs on a 13amp plug the manual says this is the usage;
Power Rate Massage Tube Power Heat Element Power Water Pump Power
220-240V AC, 2,050W at 20oC
800W (Massage) 2,000W ( Heat Element) at 20oC 50W (Water Pump)
So the hot tub heater is what I would like to run. Is this going to cost thousands? I live in a windy area so a combo of solar and wind would work well. I'm struggling to ascertain what I actually need in terms of how many panels, how many batteries. In an idea would this would run 24/7 but thats not realistic I think it needs to run 4hours + minimum.

The pool is insulated and I am currently encasing it under a pergola with polycarbonate.

Any help would be appreciated!
 
2000W for 4 hours is a pretty decent load at 8kWh of total energy usage. The average U.S. household daily usage is 30kWh, so you're almost 1/4 of that with this one load.

Let's assume you only want to run it if it can be powered by solar. In order to get 2000W of power for 4 hours, you'll likely need 3000W+ of panels. $1500+. That's also going to take up a lot of surface area - almost 200 sq-ft.

Between the inverter and enough batteries to maintain a small margin for clouds, etc. you're looking at anther $1K.

That's $2500 for a system that will ONLY run the heat from about 10am to 2pm on cloudless days assuming good panel orientation and tilt.

If you want to run off battery or at other times during the day, the cost will increase significantly.

It probably costs you less than $1/day to run it for 4 hours. Assuming only the minimal system, you're looking at a payback period of 7 years.

A direct solar heating option is likely a better solution. It will be 2-3X more efficient (about 50%) in converting sun to heat vs. converting sun to electricity (20% max) and then to heat (90%).
 
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