Babcock Ranch is known as the first Solar City for its centralized solar electricity energy source. But did you know that it’s shaping up to be a hotbed for solar pool heating, too? Solar pool heating is over 5 times more efficient than solar electricity at converting the sun’s energy to usable energy. While about 20% of solar energy can …
Pentair Intelliconnect With Solar Pool Heaters
The Pentair Intelliconnect pool automation system was introduced in 2018. We are starting to see it in the wild here in Southwest Florida. This product is intended to fill a small niche market for pool only scenarios (no spa). It’s for pool owners need only control a couple of features and want online control via an app. It covers only …
Header Brackets – Another Myth Busted
We have published many posts on the myths, inaccuracies, and outright lies that some competitors talk about during sales presentations. When we bust the myth, they tend to move on to another scare tactic. Here one you might hear that has been used extensively recently: “They use a plastic header clamps and ours is metal.” So? Yeah. And? I guess …
Solar Pool Heating for High Rise Condo Pool
Southwest Florida is not exactly Manhattan, but there are lots of beachfront high rise condos with swimming pools. We frequently get calls from owners in the building seeking information on solar pool heating for their condo swimming pool. The client is usually a board member or a concerned unit owner trying to reign in the cost of pool heating with …
Continuously Improving Solar Pool Heaters
Most of the solar pool heating clients we visit immediately realize that we have a better product. But we are never satisfied just because we have the best solar pool heating system on the market, installed using the best methods and components. To be absolutely clear, while the panels themselves are important, the entire system is equally important. This includes …
Pool Heat Pumps Use Lots of Electricity
Despite the claims of heat pump sellers that say all kinds of crazy things, heat pump are not cheap to operate. Our favorite is that heat pumps “cost about a dollar a day to operate.” Let’s be clear: it’s not true. At a minimum, it’s very misleading. You see, there are all kinds of caveats to these claims about when …
Solar Pool Heating How To Video Released
For our valued customers, we have released a solar pool heating how-to video that we call our Solar 101 video. This video is applicable to all past and future customers. Note that the section on valves will be most relevant to installations performed after March 2018 when we started pre-manufacturing our valve manifolds. However, our installations prior to this date …
Solar Pool Heater Plumbing – Before or After Gas and Electric Heaters
There is a certain way that all solar pool heaters should be integrated into the plumbing of a new or existing pool. Solar panels are always installed after the pool filter and a series of vales controls operation. One of the questions we get is whether we plan to install the solar pool heater before or after an existing gas …
Solar Panels And The Added Pressure on Pool Pumps
A common belief is that solar panels add pressure to pool pumps, causing damage and premature failure. It simply is not a problem. This is an often-repeated myth perpetuated by pool service companies or dealers that sell traditional heaters (scare tactics). The thought process goes something like this: when using solar panels to heat a pool, you have to lift …
Solar Pool Heating Manual
By popular demand, we have published a solar pool heating manual for our systems. This manual is supplemental to any manufacturer instructions you may have received. Since all systems are arranged and plumbed differently, it is very difficult to have a one-size-fits-all manual covering all scenarios. However, we believe our manual is general enough to cover most solar pool heating …
Glazed Solar Pool Heating Collectors in Florida?
Why don’t we use glazed solar pool heating collectors in Florida? It isn’t a common question, but it’s one that we get occasionally, especially from our northern friends. The idea behind a glazed collector is that the glazing creates a greenhouse effect that increases the temperature of the collector surface. The main problem is that the cost of the collector …
Collier County Reduces Permit Fees for Solar Pool Heaters
Collier County Building Department has recently reduced permit and inspection fees for solar pool heaters. Fees are now approximately 1/3rd less than previous rates! The jurisdiction previously had the highest permit fees in the Southwest Florida area. We never understood why the fees were so far out of line with other building departments, and it seems they have realized the same …
Do Heated Pools Cause More Evaporation and Water Use?
Heated pools do result in more evaporation, so more make-up water is required to refill heated pools than unheated pools. Whether using solar heating, heat pumps, or gas heaters, heated pools do require more water. But how much will the increase in water usage cost? We have heard just about every question imaginable when it comes to solar pool heating. …
Pentair Introduces Intelliflo VSF Variable Speed/Flow Pump
The Industry Leader Gets Better Pentair has combined the features of its variable speed (VS) and variable flow (VF) pumps into one model that does both. The new model is the Intelliflo VSF. This is the first swimming pool pump on the market that can perform variable speed and flow functions in a single unit. We previously recommended the Pentair …
Solar Sales Consultations are Enlightening
Our clients consistently comment that they learned so much after having us in their home for a sales consultation on solar panels. When we hear that, we know we’ve done our jobs. Sometimes they say that after making a decision that solar isn’t right for them, and that’s okay. Other times, they have shifted gears completely after learning a key …
New Aerial Solar Site Analysis Tool
Florida Solar Design Group has acquired new tools to process solar site analyses. This exciting technology provides three-dimensional site maps from unmanned aerial systems (UAS). We can now process huge amounts of data with amazing precision. This provides shading analysis, visualization, layout assistance, and crew mobilization advantages. As the only solar contractor in Southwest Florida who is also a FAA licensed …
Finance Your Solar Pool Heater
Solar Loans and Deferred Payments For Every Budget We are pleased to announce a new financing option for our valued solar pool heating clients. Through a manufacturer relationship we can now offer low payments on solar pool heaters starting at just $50 per month. Enjoy Your Pool Without The Up-Front Cost! Pay Less Than a Traditional Heater For less then the …
Do Solar Pool Heating Panels Melt or Burn
the We have heard just about every question about solar pool heating panels. But we never gave much thought to what happens to them in a fire. We just assumed that in a serious house fire or if exposed to flame that the panels would simply melt. We did some research and found that polyethylene, which is in the polyolefin …
Solar Panels for Swimming Pool in Naples, FL
These solar panels for a swimming pool in Naples, FL were installed by Florida Solar Design Group recently. This “banked” system was sized for a large pool with lots of water features, needing maximum heating performance. Naples has one of the highest densities of swimming pools in Florida. Despite the southern Florida location, most homeowners find that they need to …
March 2017 Solar Panel Design Layouts
Here are some recent solar panel layout we have done for clients. These three dimensional computer models are produced to accurately size and depict solar panels on roofs using aerial imagery and a proprietary process that we developed that results in a high level of accuracy. Solar Panel 3D Computer Renderings Using two dimensional aerial imagery is not adequate, as skewed …