Quote:
Originally Posted by lrvalley
This statement is not entirely true. The new heat pumps are more efficient than gas heaters and cost far less annually to run. See below link:
Heat Pump Swimming Pool Heaters | Department of Energy
I have experience as I have had 3 pools in my life, and have used gas and heat pumps. It really comes down to size of the pool, and geographic location. In MI, a heat pump couldn't be used on a 42,000 gallon pool. The ambient temperature was generally too low for a heat pump to work, and heat pumps only go up to 144K BTU's. I had a 400K gas heater, and it was barely able to keep up... and was very expensive.
In The Villages, most pools are fairly small (6K - 15K gallons), and ambient temperatures are perfect for heat pumps. I keep my pool at 88 degrees year round, and during January and February, it only adds $30-$40 to my electric bill. The rest of the year, it adds less than $20 to my bill ($0 for about 5 months).
There are numerous calculators online that compare gas to electric costs for heating a pool. You can input your local electric and gas rates, size of your pool, and it uses zip code for normal ambient temps.
When I use these calculators, it shows a heat pump have a savings of $800 per year over gas when keeping an 8,000 gallon pool at 88. |
I have a 14,000 gallon pool, solar heating for the pool on the roof, and a heat pump for the pool installed last summer. In January the pool guy installed a pool blanket thaT looks like bubble wrap. This keeps a LOT of heat from escaping at night when it is cooler in the winter. I also turned off the heat pump, as we weren’t using the pool at all at the time. A couple days ago I checked the pool thermometer. It was 85°, depending on solar heating for most of the heat and the pool blanket for keeping it there. If I want to hang out in the pool, the heat pump will bring the pool up to 90° in an hour from 85°. I’ve read that having a pool blanket isn’t going to heat your pool many degrees by itself, but it certainly helps keep in the heat from sunny days provided by the solar heating on the roof. It was about 1/20th the price of the heat pump.