Even in Atlanta the winters are cool enough that you'll need to heat the pool and that can get expensive for an outdoor pool. Have you looked into a dome over it to hold in heat? I spent about 3 weeks in Buckhead in August and while it got hot, it wasn't really any hotter than NJ in summer. But while you don't get the snow we do, if you're in the 40's and 50's your heat loss will be prohibitive for year 'round swimming. Aylad and PoolDoc are kinda in your area. Jan is in NW Louisiana and Ben is on the Tenn/Ga border, so they know the winter climate conditions better.