gas vs. electric heater?

[kaybinster]

Dave while that maybe true for home heating it does not make sense for pool heating. The reason is that if it is warm enough to swim in an outside pool then the air is warm enough to provide plenty of heat for the pool. The efficiency is impacted by the outside temperature, but I don't think too many people swim when the outside temp is under 60 degrees.

[kaybinster]

Found this info at the following site:

http://www.millsco.com/Heatsiphon.htm

THE LOWEST OPERATING COST OF ALL POOL & SPA HEATERS.
Using 220v electricity, based on US Dept. of Labor Average US City fuel prices, HEAT SIPHON® will cost you:
50% LESS to operate than NATURAL GAS POOL HEATERS!
80% LESS to operate than PROPANE (LP) GAS POOL HEATERS!
75% LESS to operate than ELECTRIC RESISTANCE POOL HEATERS!

Also some very good info on how a heatpump works at the bottom of that page.

[waterbear]

I live in St. Augustine and my Aquacal Icebreaker not only kept my pool (6600gal fiberglass) warm all winer it will heat my spa (300 gal acrylic) to 100 deg. in abut 15 mintues! Heatpumps cost more inially but if you look at the cost over a 10 year period vs electric or gas they will actually save you money.(at least in Fl)

[rlp]

Thank you so much for your input. We will go with the heat pump. I was already leaning that way, but when I went to Leslies the sales person didn't really give me the information I was asking him for. He just kind of handed me some paperwork on the most expensive one & told me gas was too expensive to run, so I thought I'd ask opinions of those that use them so I wouldn't feel like I was getting misinformation. Thanks again!

[duraleigh]

Kaybinster,

The reason is that if it is warm enough to swim in an outside pool then the air is warm enough to provide plenty of heat for the pool. The efficiency is impacted by the outside temperature, but I don't think too many people swim when the outside temp is under 60 degrees.

Yeah, good point on only using the heat pump when it's efficient. I hadn't thought my post through very carefully.

Dave S.

[leejp]

It absolutely drives me crazy...

Here in upstate NY we have the house central AC going starting around mid-May and run it through mid September. But our pool usually doesn't get warm enough to swin in until late May early June. Late June through mid August is optimal for swimming and late August the pool begins to cool significantly.

Why can't I just dump the heat from my house from May-mid June and mid Aug-Sep to the Pool???!!!

If you live in Tampa you practically have the AC on all year long, no?

Many home geothermal heat pumps put heat to (or pull heat from) a body of water (pond/lake/ocean). Why can't pool water be used for this. Sure, one would have to make sure that the plumbing is done in a fashion so that the Chlorine in the pool does not corrode the condensor/evaporator but this just seems soooo simple!

[waterbear]

Many home geothermal heat pumps put heat to (or pull heat from) a body of water (pond/lake/ocean). Why can't pool water be used for this. Sure, one would have to make sure that the plumbing is done in a fashion so that the Chlorine in the pool does not corrode the condensor/evaporator but this just seems soooo simple!

A closed loop water cooled heat pump could probably work. Biggest problem is that your really would need a very big pool to handle the heat pulled from an average sized house and since the pool becomes the heat exchanger for the system imagine how hot that pool would become in the summer!