Heating Pool

[jeffc1965]

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

[Bogie Shooter]

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[Bogie Shooter]

I added solar after pool was completed.
If you have a roof or space for gas heater and the money should not be too difficult.
Are you looking to buy?

[melpetezrinski]

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

How did you come to that understanding? Maybe they ran the necessary wires/piping, so you can add your preferred choice of heating at a later time.

[tophcfa]

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

You will definitely need heat from at least mid December through early March. Installing a system is only as difficult as writing the check to have it done. A heat pump along with a pool cover should do the trick for a small pool.

[asianthree]

How did you come to that understanding? Maybe they ran the necessary wires/piping, so you can add your preferred choice of heating at a later time.

Some of the spec houses we have looked at Did Not have heater, just pump and filter.
At our design meeting T&D gave base pump/filter only price, mentioning many don’t heat pools in FL. We choose aftermarket, and not T&D.

[fdpaq0580]

Solar heat for most of the year works well for us.

[MikeN]

If you’re going to use it year round you will want a heater. Just another cheap cost cutting for the villages that you are going to have to pay for

[paulajr]

We put solar heat on our pool. We have discussed putting another heater on our pool… then we quickly realize that when it is too cold for the solar to adequately heat the pool…it is usually too cold for us to want to go IN the pool!

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

[callalily]

I bought a house with a pool and no heating system. The concrete pad for the heater had been put in when the pool was built, otherwise that would have required a permit. I chose an electric pump, but kind of wish I'd chosen something else. Installation required an electrician to get a permit for the appropriate electrical outlet. Once the outlet was installed, it took maybe an hour or two for the pool company to install the heater.

I had tried the pool without heat for a year. It was comfortable for me from about May through September. Adding the heater added an extra month on either end, so April through October. I'm a wimp and don't like getting out of a heated pool into cold air.

[MandoMan]

You will definitely need heat from at least mid December through early March. Installing a system is only as difficult as writing the check to have it done. A heat pump along with a pool cover should do the trick for a small pool.

True, but a good heat pump for my 14,000 gallon pool cost $6,000, and solar heating is nearly that much. A solar blanket to keep the water warm is the least expensive, but it doesn’t heat the pool but just holds heat in. Pool cleaning and chemical testing and all corpse $2,000 a year, and various repairs cost at least another $1,000, generally. Given how seldom I used the pool, compared to what I spent on it, I’d guess that each use cost me about $500. I was happy to sell that house and buy a smaller one without a pool.

That said, some of these really tiny pools about twice the size of a hot tub—more conversation pools than swimming pools and with lots of built in seating—are a delightful idea and could be much cheaper to heat and maintain. Ideally, get one that uses salt rather than chlorine to kill the bugs, so you don’t need to shower each time you use the pool.

Good steps and handrails are very important. You might think you don’t need them, but the rare times I had visitors, several would not have been able to get into or out of the pool without those.

[coconutmama]

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

We have electric heat for our pool & live in a SECO area, so electric is not that bad. About $25/mo for a 10,000 gallon pool. We heat it Oct/Nov & Mar/Apr for sure. Only Dec-Jan if we are having a warmish winter & will swim. Use a solar cover during those months.

Thought about solar but with roofs not lasting long, decided it wasn’t worth it.

It should be fairly easy to add whatever heat source you decide on aftermarket.

Interesting to know that pools of any size are being added to new builds again. Good Luck with your decision

[G.R.I.T.S.]

Buy preowned with a heated pool?������������*♀️

[jeffc1965]

Thanks for all of the replies. If we are fortunate enough to get the house, I think we will go for the electric heat pump option. I would be fearful of solar panels on the roof as was mentioned.

[asianthree]

True, but a good heat pump for my 14,000 gallon pool cost $6,000, and solar heating is nearly that much. A solar blanket to keep the water warm is the least expensive, but it doesn’t heat the pool but just holds heat in. Pool cleaning and chemical testing and all corpse $2,000 a year, and various repairs cost at least another $1,000, generally. Given how seldom I used the pool, compared to what I spent on it, I’d guess that each use cost me about $500. I was happy to sell that house and buy a smaller one without a pool.

That said, some of these really tiny pools about twice the size of a hot tub—more conversation pools than swimming pools and with lots of built in seating—are a delightful idea and could be much cheaper to heat and maintain. Ideally, get one that uses salt rather than chlorine to kill the bugs, so you don’t need to shower each time you use the pool.

Good steps and handrails are very important. You might think you don’t need them, but the rare times I had visitors, several would not have been able to get into or out of the pool without those.

Our 12x18 rectangle 28 feet and length only cost us about $23 a month in January February and March to heat it. Rest of the months around $12.
As far as chemicals it’s not that hard to maintain yourself. Monthly chemical cost is $26, takes me 5 minutes to test water.
If I add in the robot cost that does all the cleaning and the hard work, divided by months owned
that’s around $10 a month,

Then again I swim 2 miles a day, so pool is worth the 5 minutes of testing

[tophcfa]

Thanks for all of the replies. If we are fortunate enough to get the house, I think we will go for the electric heat pump option. I would be fearful of solar panels on the roof as was mentioned.

Good choice, some advice from a pool owner with a heat pump. Get a solar blanket pool cover also and keep the pool covered whenever not using it during the colder months. Heat pumps work great, but they work slow, heating the pool only about 1-2 degrees per hour. The key is holding the heat in the water once it gets warm. Without a cover, you will loose most of the pools heat overnight and the pump will be running almost all the time. With a cover, you typically only need to run the heater for a little while before swimming and while swimming. The difference between the pools temperature before going to bed and waking up can easily be 10 degrees on a cold night depending on weather or not it’s covered. Running a heat pump typically cost about the same as running your A/C, which you don’t need during the cold months, so your electricity bill will be about the same. Getting into a 90 degree pool on a 50 degree night, with the steam raising out of the water, is priceless.

One note of caution, a covered pool holds in chlorine better than uncovered, so watch the chlorine lever carefully and adjust your chlorinator accordingly. Swim on : )

[larrycrilley@gmail.com]

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

I recently changed out my 20-year-old gas pool heater for a new one, it was around $3500.

Heaters (solar, electric, and units) simply tie into the same plumbing as your filter system. This requires zero excavation work. Of course you will need an energy source and hopefully you have at least electric near the filter pump. Adding a gas line or solar panels to your roof will increase the cost of installation. You may have to increase the concrete pad to put the heater on. This is not an overwhelming project as long as you have room to place a heater near the filter.

Being from the north, I find my pool heater to be a wonderful thing!

[Range Rider]

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

You don't need anything but Solar Heating for your pool. I have had mine for 15 years and it works good. Call Jack's Solar !

[Chi-Town]

My gas heater is quick to get to the pool temperature set. Heats up the spa surprisingly fast.

[Vickim]

The Villages developer has started building veranda homes that include small swimming pools. My understanding is that the pools are not heated. Does anyone know how difficult it is to install a heating system afterwards? A small pool may not require heat during the summer, but I can see the need for heat during the winter. Any thoughts?

I’d call T&D pool ! We had a heat pump and Solar. The Solar kept the pool too warm in the summer and didn’t work in the winter , sun too low in the sky. We had solar panels removed now pool is nice and refreshing in summer and when winter comes around we use the heat pump. We have a 60,000 gallon gunite swim spa by T&D pools .

[PoolBrews]

I added solar after pool was completed.
If you have a roof or space for gas heater and the money should not be too difficult.
Are you looking to buy?

Solar won't heat the pool to any reasonable temp in the December-February timeframe. I keep my pool at 88 during the winter, and solar can't come close. A heat pump will heat the pool for less than $50 a month. If you're going to install solar AND another heat source to heat the pool when solar doesn't cut it, it doesn't make sense to install solar. You'll never recoup the additional cost for solar.