Reducing Heat Costs HOA Pool

[AZHeat]

I am on the board of a small HOA with a heated community pool that is 38ft long by 18ft wide. The cost to heat this pool using a natural gas heater has become very expensive and I'd be interested to know what are some economical and cost effective methods of reducing heat loss or increasing the temperature of the pool? I'm aware of solar pool blankets/covers, however our HOA doesn't have a staff or person that can remove and put back into the place the cover on a daily basis. I'm not a believer in liquid solar pool covers, since I think they are high priced snake oil. One method that comes to mind would be to heat the pool only on request/demand and for a daily fee to cover heating costs, however I'm sure that would be met with resistance by homeowners. I'd appreciate any creative ideas on how pool heating costs can be reduced.

[PoolDoc]

Dunno if you mean that the cost to heat has literally gone up, over the past 2 years OR if you mean that community concern about the cost has gone up.

If the former, you may want to check your heater AND your gas rates. The national trend on gas rates has been down. Your locale (Phoenix) could have some special reason why natural gas is up, there. But, if it's not, you probably should check your heater. Arizona has some truly nasty water, with respect to minerals, and if you haven't been doing everything just right, your heat exchanger could have a nice thick coating of minerals that's doing a good job of insulating the pool water from the heat, with the result that most of the heat goes up the vent.

In that case, you can
+ try to clean the exchanger, OR
+ replace the exchanger, OR
+ get a new hi-E heater.

Otherwise, the black plastic solar heat panels should work very well for you in AZ.

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However . . . I'm not eager to get into a long exchange over the merits of this or that process with folks from an HOA. I've worked with HOA's, locally, and when I'm being paid to do so, it's been worthwhile, but just barely.

In my experience, HOA boards consist of 6 - 10 guys, each of whom thinks at least 1/2 of the OTHER board members are idiots or criminals, and that the remaining members are nice, but a little slow. Working with HOA boards has been a lot like herding cats: it's a lot of work and the results are pretty much the same as if you hadn't been there.

[snowboardphil1]

have you given taughts to liquid to liquid geothermal units withproper coil material for your pool water.Typicaly the offer from 300% to 400% efficiency over electricity (bassicaly take a planned electrical cost and divid by 3 to 4). You would have to find a undeground source of water of addequate gal/min and pipe it to the geothermal unit (with the option to pipe it to a solar heater before). Initial cost can be pretty steep but return on investment can be anywhere from 5 to 15 years depending on applications

[Poolsean]

I would definately inspect the heat exchanger for calcium build up, as Pool Doc mentioned. This will reduce efficiency and cause your heating costs to increase.

However, depending on the usage of your pool, a Heat Pump could be a viable alternative (or compliment) to your gas heater.

What's the average depth of your pool? Deeper pools are actually more efficient (less heat loss).
What months is your pool opened for usage?
What temperature do you want to maintain? If you're not too concerned with maintaining 86 or higher temperatures during the colder months, a heat pump can probably maintain your pool, without the need of the gas heater. However, if you need to maintain a specific temperature, year around, you will need to suppliment with your gas heater during those cold months.

In either case, the heat pump can potentially save you quite a bit of money in your operational costs over the gas heater.

I can provide an operational cost comparison if you know your cost of electricity (per kilowatt) and natural gas (per therm), and the above questions.

[PoolDoc]

Hey Guys;

AZHeat isn't paying any attention to this, and hasn't logged back in since he made this post on March 6.

BTW, that's pretty typical of commercial posters, which is one reason I created this forum 'ghetto' for them.

[Poolsean]

Sorry Captain...I didn't even bother looking at the OP date.