I Am Thinking About Adding A Pool Heater

[Don]

Hey gang,

I am considering adding a pool heater for my inground swimming pool. The pool is app 18x36, 18,500 gallons.

I have natural gas here in the home, and am thinking I would be perhaps better off going with a natural gas heater , versus a heat pump?

I love in the southeast ( TN ), and the reason I am considering, is the water is pretty cool up until around mid June or so, and starts to get too cool again for swimming, around early September. I figure if I go with a heater, then I could at least extend the swimming season by a few weeks?

Another consideration, is how much the gas bill will be to heat a pool. I would be curious to know of others experience with this.

I am looking at something like this:

http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/poolsupplies/poolheaters/products/LRZ250EN.htm

I would certainly appreciate any feedback/advice on this topic. I may not add until spring of next year, just trying to do some research on the pros versus cons.

Thanks,

Don

[AquaclearNZ]

All depends on when and how you want to swim

Solar is the cheapest to run, but no guarantees on temp it will reach as you are obviously a the mercy of the sun

Heat pump - cheaper to run than gas (around 20%) however will work less efficiently at the start and end of the season as the air temp cools

Gas - heat when you want it - school holidays / winter parties. These are also a lot cheaper if you do not swim all the time and simply want to heat the pool when you are using it - ie predominantly weekeks ?

also a good cover is pretty much essential if you are heating as this will lower the cost by around 30%

if you know your local gas cost per mj and electricity cost - please post and i can do a little bit of maths for you

Hey gang,

I am considering adding a pool heater for my inground swimming pool. The pool is app 18x36, 18,500 gallons.

I have natural gas here in the home, and am thinking I would be perhaps better off going with a natural gas heater , versus a heat pump?

I love in the southeast ( TN ), and the reason I am considering, is the water is pretty cool up until around mid June or so, and starts to get too cool again for swimming, around early September. I figure if I go with a heater, then I could at least extend the swimming season by a few weeks?

Another consideration, is how much the gas bill will be to heat a pool. I would be curious to know of others experience with this.

I am looking at something like this:

http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/poolsupplies/poolheaters/products/LRZ250EN.htm

I would certainly appreciate any feedback/advice on this topic. I may not add until spring of next year, just trying to do some research on the pros versus cons.

Thanks,

Don

[Bugman1400]

IMO, for that size pool, I wouldn't go with a heater larger than the 250K BTU that you had the link to. The heat pump units only go up to around 100K BTU and will be more expensive up front but, less expensive on the utility bill than the gas. You could get away with using a heat pump on that size pool in Texas but, it may take a day or two to heat up initially. However, I think the gas units are easier to work on and the parts are cheaper.

I have a 400K BTU on a 26K gallon pool in N.C. However, I found my gas heater at a garage sale at some yuppie's house for $350. I found out about the garage sale on craigslist......hint, hint.

[Don]

Thanks for the replies gang, sorry for not getting back sooner have been out of pocket last few days.

I will do some more investigating...

[PoolGuyNJ]

Bear in mind that water is heated somewhat differently than a house.

1 BTU will heat 1 pound of water 1 degree F per hour

There are about 8.3 lbs per gallon.

What this means to the consumer is that the larger heater will get the job done faster, using the same amount of gas.

A 400K BTU output heater will inject about 320,000 BTUs/hour, assuming it is at about 83% efficient (typical) and less the loss to travel through the pipes and evaporative losses (this is variable with the outside temp).

A 20K gallon pool weighs about 165,000 pounds. You would expect about a 2 degree rise per hour with a 400K unit.

It all goes by BTUs. Gas companies usually use Therms as a measure. A Therm is 100,000 BTUs.

HTH,

Scott

[Don]

Thanks for the info Scott!

[Bugman1400]

Bear in mind that water is heated somewhat differently than a house.

1 BTU will heat 1 pound of water 1 degree F per hour

There are about 8.3 lbs per gallon.

What this means to the consumer is that the larger heater will get the job done faster, using the same amount of gas.

A 400K BTU output heater will inject about 320,000 BTUs/hour, assuming it is at about 83% efficient (typical) and less the loss to travel through the pipes and evaporative losses (this is variable with the outside temp).

A 20K gallon pool weighs about 165,000 pounds. You would expect about a 2 degree rise per hour with a 400K unit.

It all goes by BTUs. Gas companies usually use Therms as a measure. A Therm is 100,000 BTUs.

HTH,

Scott

Question.....

How come, in the summer, my 400K BTU heater can heat my 26K gal pool from 80 deg to 86 deg in an hour? That almost seems physically impossible according to your calcs.

Perhaps there are other significant, outside influences.

[PoolGuyNJ]

Bugman, you are correct, that would be impossible unless there were additional sources or only the top half were warmed. Bet its colder in the deep end.

Scott