Swimming pools blog

7 responses so far ↓

• 1 janis_40 // May 31, 2004 at 7:52 am

  In a message dated 4/19/2003 8:53:09 PM Central Daylight Time,
  Palfano908@… writes:
  Maria,
  What did you want to know about pool heaters!
  Ken (electricjet)

• 2 janis_40 // Jun 1, 2004 at 10:49 pm

  In a message dated 4/19/2003 9:33:31 PM Central Daylight Time,
  jecf@… writes:
  Have you considered a heatpump for your pool? You might want to weigh the
  cost of electricity vs gas per BTU generated. Yes a heat pump would not heat
  the pool as fast as a gas heater would but if the cost of gas is very high it
  might be worth a look. Also using a solar cover or some type of cover to cut
  down on radiational cooling at night and during the cooler months. A cover
  will cut your costs down almost in half. It is funny that something with an
  R factor of about one can do so much. Almost any of the pool equipment
  manufacturers make heaters and the size generally depends on how fast you
  want to heat the pool. One other thing is if you do get a gas heater get the
  largest size recommended by the manufacturer because it is generally cheaper
  to run a large heater for a short time vs a small one for a longer time. The
  larger one will be slightly more efficient and not cost but a few hundred
  dollars more. Also in a tropical climate I would think the solar would be
  
  an ideal choise. The solar would function as long as you have sunlight and
  it would heat as long as the pump is on. It would heat the pool all week so
  by the weekend the pool would be warm.
  Ken (electricjet)

• 3 janis_40 // Jun 2, 2004 at 6:17 pm

  In a message dated 4/19/2003 9:53:40 PM Central Daylight Time,
  larry@… writes:
  Larry,
  You are correct in that the heatpump would be more efficient but a lot
  depends on your cost of gas vs electricity. The heat pump would need to run
  longer because the output depends on the ambient air temp of the day and of
  course any sunlight that warms the air also helps.
  One down side is that you can expect the cost of the heatpump equipment to
  cost about twice what a gas heater would. If this were a new installation
  and you needed to factor in the cost of installing a gas line then the
  difference would be less. Yes you would need to include the cost of having a
  50 AMP service installed but the cost would be no where near what it would
  cost to install a gas line. This is especially true if you live in an older
  house where the gas line may not be large enough or it may be old and need to
  be replaced before another line can be tapped in.
  
  Ken (electricjet)

• 4 janis_40 // Jun 3, 2004 at 1:46 pm

  In a message dated 4/19/2003 10:25:45 PM Central Daylight Time,
  larry@… writes:
  You were lucky Larry,
  Had a house in Tucson AZ. that was built in the early fifties. We put an
  addition on the house and installed a heater on the pool at the same time.
  The contractor advised us not to even touch the gas line due to it’s age and
  the cost of replacement. We went with a heatpump and incorporated the cost
  of installation into the cost of the addition as we needed to update the
  electrical service to the house anyway because we were installing a larger
  A/C unit for the addition. I installed the heatpump myself because after
  the service panel is inplace you just need to wire it and do some pvc
  connections. Nothing major! The pool got sun from about 9AM to sundown in
  the late winter to late fall and from about 7AM to sundown in the summer.
  Needless to say the heatpump worked very well in extending the swimming
  season to about 10 1/2 months of the year and because we insulated the house
  
  and updated the A/C we saved enough in electric costs to cover running the
  heatpump. We had bill averaging so we could spread the costs out over the
  entire year.
  One cool feature of some heatpumps is that the manufacturers are installing
  reversing valves so yes the thing can cool the pool if needed and I did need
  it once. My wife was to remove the solar cover and being in the pool
  industry you think about everyones pool but your own. Needless to say the
  pool was at 98 before I noticed the cover was still on and had started to
  turn a slight shade of green. Cranked up the heatpump and shocked the pool.
  The temp was at a nice 84 in a day or so.
  Ken (electricjet)

• 5 vazquez_4 // Jun 3, 2004 at 10:11 pm

  thanks everyone for the infor now to find the money for one .
  maria

• 6 vazquez_4 // Jun 4, 2004 at 5:40 pm

  our is above ground I should have included that we already have gas so we
  might go that.
  maria

• 7 Cecelia Singleton // Nov 6, 2004 at 10:25 pm

  Ken, Thanks a bunch for your help on the heaters. I contacted my pool
  company (the place I bought this pool) I found a 100K BTU heater (propane)
  and asked them if it would work, the said “absolutely” so a friend of mine
  told me about a lady who was getting rid of the one she had (A pool co. from
  another city gave her the wrong one, it wasn’t big enough for her pool)
  She sold me the unit for $300.00 I was SOOOO excited to get one for so
  cheap. She only used it two weekends before she realized that it was the
  wrong size. I then talked to another person w/same size pool as I have they
  said they have the same heater it went thru 2-100 lb. propane tanks and it
  went from 63 to 80 in 2 days. I am gonna try this route and see what
  happens. I will let you know if it works. Our natural gas here is soooo
  high I want to stay away from that and electric.
  Thanks again for your help.
  Rachel

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