You don’t have to get a PV system that put you into the negative. You can get a system big enough to cover your Tier 3&4 usage. I had a Pentair Intelliflo and for most of the year, I have it on speed 2 running for 8 hours a day during the winter/spring/fall and 12 hours a day for summer. I only turn it on speed 4 for a few hours to turn on the heater. It heated my entire pool in ~4-5 hours (on the first day, 2-3 hours on subsequent days) and it last the whole day . My electricity bill without solar PV with those settings were around $150-450/month (depending on how often I use the pool heater and turning the pump on to 4. After solar, my electricity bill were around $5-90/month with similar usage.
