Solar Panels Warm Water for Pool at Bill Jackson’s Shop for Adventure
Customers who venture beyond the palmetto-filled parking lot and through the dive shop know that the Bill Jackson Shop for Adventure has a 100,000-gallon pool for swimming, paddling and scuba diving. What most people don’t know is that Bill Jackson’s warms all that pool water in a most eco-friendly manner: solar panels.
In October 2009, the shop replaced natural gas as its primary source of heat for the pool with an array of solar panels on the roof, dropping gas consumption at the store by as much as two-thirds.
Two days of labor resulted in approximately 1,400 square feet of panels capable of a producing a total thermal output of 100,000 BTUs. Two sensors communicate with the overall control box. The first sensor monitors the temperature in the pool, while the second monitors the temperature of the panels. When the temperature of the pool water falls below 87 degrees and the temperature of water in the panels is above the pool water temp, the controller opens a valve and starts the pump. Warm water from the roof heads for the pool and cooler water from the pool cycles up to the roof to be warmed.
The pool has had 89-degree water temperature when the air temperature outside is in the mid 50s.
At Bill Jackson’s, we strive to protect our adventure playgrounds.
