Solar pools
 

Hi All
Planing to rent a house in Cape Coral Florida this coming March. It has a private pool that is solar heated. The pool is very important to us and we are concerned that solar heated will be warm enough during the month of March. Can anyone who has had experience please elaborate.
We generally enjoy water temps in the low to mid 80s

thank you in advance. Tony5

Moved from Europe forum and tagged for Florida

Solar heated is a euphemism for "we don't pay to turn the pool heater on so it's warm enough for you"

I would not count on it being low to mid 80's, but it all depends on how much solar the pool gets. March the sun is not high in the sky so if the pool is on the north side of a building that casts shadows much of the day then you may be SOL. Ditto for tall trees east, south, or west of the pool. If there is a floating cover that absorbs the sunlight and also prevents cooling at night that can greatly help warm it up.

Really? I would have thought that "solar heated" referred to a solar heating system, which costs less to run that electricity and will keep the water nice and warm.

OK -- what am I missing? How is anyone on here to know if the pool will be warm enough for you. Why not simply ask the owner at what temp they keep the pool water?

The OP isn't really asking about solar versus anything else. At least they shouldn't be. They're asking about the setup in that rental. Like Janisj suggested it's highly unlikely any of us know the property and have spent enough time there to answer.

FWIW nothing stops a solar system having an electric or other backup system. Virtually all the solar systems sold around here have an electrical backup. Solar would boost the water somewhat and lower the overall running costs.

OTOH I'd be surprised if a place in Florida would have a system large enough to heat the pool in March. That system would be extremely oversized during the summer. But we're back to asking the landlord. How common is pool use in March in Florida?

From a person in South Florida with a pool that has a heater I would say "not very."

I swim all the time in Florida in March but most hotels and communities that I know of have heating systems that are not solar. Solar systems can raise the heat quite a bit, however, is they are set to high temperatures. AND if it is sunny, which it is almost always in south Florida. Today in NY it was in the high 70s but the solar-heated pool I just swam in registered 86F. Good idea to look at the photos of foliage or buildings circling the pool, and if the solar panels are g round level, they need to be free of weeds. Is the pool even large enough for swimming? Many rentals boasta about their pools but in person they look more like bathtubs which would not satisfy a lap swimmer.