WHY A SOLAR SWIMMING POOL IS IMPORTANT TO YOU!
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WHY SOLAR POOL HEAT?

Your pool represents a significant financial investment. Heating your pool enables you and your family to enjoy your investment more than just a few months a year. Heating your pool enables you to comfortably enjoy your pool - earlier in the spring, evenings after work, and later into the fall. A warmer pool means more time for family fun, more opportunities for healthy exercise, and a better gathering place for family and friends.

How does light make heat?

Most of the sun’s energy that makes the 93,000,000-mile journey to earth is in the form of visible and ultraviolet light. Heat is produced when high frequency light is converted into low frequency infrared radiation. Ultraviolet and visible light easily passes through glass, however when they strike a darkened surface they are converted into long wave infrared radiation. The glass or special solar glazing traps these long waves generating heat . This is known as the greenhouse effect. CO2 is also capable of trapping long wave radiation. Small amounts of CO2 keep our planet nice and warm. Too much CO2 in the atmosphere may transform our forest into deserts. Is it not ironic that we are using the same effect to save the planet that is destroying the planet?

$ VALUE OF SUNLIGHT $:

How much is one hour of sunlight on three square meter worth? Let’s see, if we’re talking about electricity and we say that electricity is worth $0.10 per KWH than 3KWH’s are worth $0.30. The problem is that PV panels have a radiant energy conversion rate of about 20% or less so three hours of sunlight on one square meter of a solar panel is worth less than $0.06

How about heat? How much is 3 hours of sunlight on one square meter of a solar collector worth if we’re talking about heat? Well 1KWH = 3400 BTU so 3KWH = 10,200 BTU. Since one gallon of fuel oil contains 150,000 BTU 10,200 BTU’s are the equivalent of .07 gallons of fuel oil.

Now if fuel oil is selling for $3.00/gallon, the value of 10,200 BTU’s is about $0.25. You might think this is an unfair assumption since we're not taking into account the heat conversion efficiency factor like we did with the solar panel. I’m glad to see you’re paying attention and you are right about this. The heat transfer efficiency of a solar hot water system is between 50% and 70% the same as oil burner heat transfer efficiency. Since the heat transfer efficiency for an oil burner is about the same as solar collector and the price of oil is $3.00/gallon than the value of 3 hours of sunlight on one square meter is worth actually $0.25, without having to purchase oil or cause any pollution.

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