Fall is here and winter is fast approaching. Florida pools are starting to drop in temperature as nighttime temperatures dip into the 60’s and 70’s. Pools lose most of their heat at the surface to the ambient air, and this time of year the daytime sun is not enough to recover the heat lost to the night sky… unless you have solar panels!
Although solar heated pools also lose heat during the night and inclement weather, there is more than enough solar energy to overcome the loss and them some. The result is a pool that reaches temperatures well above that of an unheated pool every day of the year. For most people, solar heating alone is enough to enjoy their pool on days when they are likely to swim (on the worst weather days of the year, people typically don’t care about swimming anyway). This is what makes solar pool heating so popular in Florida.
The other key to an enjoyable pool temperature is that it’s all relative. While an 80ºF pool feels cool (perhaps refreshing) on a 90ºF day, and 80ºF pool feels like a luxurious bath on a 70ºF day. While air temperatures vary much more throughout the days and hours of the day, pool temperatures tend to change much more slowly and lag broader ambient temperature changes over days and weeks. Solar pool heaters give pools an opportunity to recover lost heat every day. Even days with poor weather can provide an opportunity to replace at least some lost heat, making pools warmer than they would be otherwise.
All of this is done at no operational cost*. Because solar pool heaters use your existing pool pump to circulate water through the panels and back to your pool, there are no additional electricity costs, and no use of traditional fossil fuels. Once you make your initial investment in a solar pool heater, you get free pool heating for over a decade with little to no maintenance.
The smart choice for winter heating is solar pool heat in Florida. When you are ready to take the plunge — any time of year — consider solar pool heating.
*If you have a variable speed pump or need to extend the run time of your single speed pump to take advantage of a wider solar window, you may experience a slight increase in electricity use for water pumping with solar pool heating. If you add an automated solar controller, it uses a small amount of electricity. In all of these cases, the cost is absolutely minimal, and in most cases negligible.