Gas heater vs heat pump

Which is better for a northeast climate? We're trying to get the pool warm enough to use in May and September.

I'm curious to hear from those of you who have either.

Thanks.

Take a look at this thread where there is a discussion about gas heaters vs. heat pumps. In northern climates where the air temperature gets below 50 degrees regularly during periods that you *might* want to heat your pool for swimming, a heat pump using the ground as its source of heat might be better. However, May and September should still be in the 60's so a regular above-ground heat pump should work well. Heat pumps are for slow maintenance of temperature while gas heaters will generally heat more quickly, but much more expensively.

I have a gas heater that is mostly used in mid-April to mid-May and in mid-October to mid-November (it's used other times as well, but not continually) and it is VERY expensive. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Richard

Where in the Norhteast? Lots of people around here use regular air heat pumps. I have solar and do others in my area (NY, just north of the city). Don't know of anyone with a ground source heat pump.

Gas heat is cheapest to install, most expensive to run. We visited many neighbors with pools before putting ours in. Since we don't have piped natural gas, lots of them had propane gas heaters. They all said that it was so expensive to run that they only heated the pool for company! Not what I wanted!

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Originally Posted by tphaggerty

Where in the Norhteast? Lots of people around here use regular air heat pumps. I have solar and do others in my area (NY, just north of the city). Don't know of anyone with a ground source heat pump.

Gas heat is cheapest to install, most expensive to run. We visited many neighbors with pools before putting ours in. Since we don't have piped natural gas, lots of them had propane gas heaters. They all said that it was so expensive to run that they only heated the pool for company! Not what I wanted!

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Hi, thanks for the replies. I'm in the Pittsburgh area. Hot summers and cool spring and fall. I have natural gas heat to my home and wouldn't need to go the propane route. I'm not too crazy of the thought of having a big propane tank around anyway. The only thing I'd need to do for the heat pump installation wise is have a 220 line installed, and the location is close to the box in the garage so that shouldn't be a big deal.

I'm looking at the Hayward Heat Pro for an above ground 21ft round:

http://www.haywardnet.com/inground/p...rs/HeatPro.cfm

Thanks for the post link Chem Geek. I looked around yesterday but didn't see anything.

I took a look at that thread - good info! Up to $400 a month to heat with gas, eh? Crimeny! I'm glad I asked, lol.