Pool temp

[digger01]

When are people turning on the heaters? And to what temp? Air temps at night are cooling down to below 70 (New Jersey) I just turned on our heater to get the pool temp up after a rainy period.

I was visiting a friend and he had his heater at 90 deg :eek:

I want to keep the pool open as long as possible (late close-early open) so I turned on my heater, just waiting for the electric bill :confused: thou it is a elec heat pump...


Thanks for any input.

[DanS]

My heat pump is on in Maryland. I set it to 84, but the pool temp is only 80 as of 1:30 PM, with temperatures in the 60s in the shade, but over 80 in the full sun. The pool is in the sun. I ran it overnight with temps down probably to the high 40s or low 50s, and the pool was 81 at 10 PM last night. I've never been happy with the heat pump, except when it barely needs to work to maintain temperature. How long does it take for your heat pump to raise the temperature?

[digger01]

Well I got the temp set to 85 and thats where it is at. It took about 3 days to raise the temp from 71 - 80+, (the sun was strong after the rain period and I ran the filter for 10 hr cycles). I have an Aqua comfor heat pump. Hope that helps..

Its set to run 8hrs (cooled off a lot in last couple of days). Last week the heater turned on at first but run for a 4-5 of hours and then shut off. The last few days I noticed the heater was running the whole time :( the filter was running.

We used it both days this weekend so I try for 85 and if the weather doesnt stay sunny and/or the heater cant keep it that warm I will lower it to 80 or less. We do use a solar cover every night and move it off the deep end during a sunny day when kids are at school. Just a note, while in the vicinity of my electric panel i thought I heard it humming :eek: Just waiting for the utility bill.

[Jeffski]

I left my heater on 84 all summer. Now with the temps falling I have it turned off and it will probably remain off until we close it in a couple weeks.

[chem geek]

My wife uses our pool for exercise therapy so we keep it close to 88F. We've had to use gas for some days the past week or two -- mostly going from 84F in the morning to 86 or 87. The solar takes it to 88 or 89 by the end of the day, but then we lose about 4F overnight (during earlier summer, loss is only 3F overnight). We have an electric opaque safety cover which helps reduce heat loss, but by only around half of what a true solar cover would do.

We'll probably go between solar and gas through October and perhaps into one or two weeks into November, but then it gets way too expensive and the air temperature gets too cold for swimming as well. She'll then use an indoor pool at a local community center where the elastic in her swimsuits will deteriorate in just one season (no CYA used in the indoor pool and around 2 ppm FC). It costs around $3.50 per hour to run the gas heater (250,000 input; 200,000 output) -- not very efficient so I may replace it with a heat pump IF it makes sense to heat the night before with air temps of 55F heating the water to 88F (so a 33F rise -- seems kind of high to me so maybe the heat pump won't be that efficient?). Also, our electric rates are high -- around 32 cents/KWh.

Richard