Natural gas heater or a heatpump??

[MarkC]

When you said money is no concern were you referring to the initial cost of the unit or the cost to run the unit over time. If you meant the initial cost is not important I would say go with the heat pump unless you want to open very early in the spring and stay open past the beginning of October. I have one in PA and it works great. Only downside is I usually have to time my initial heating with a warm spell in the spring as it takes quite a few days to get the water temp up into the mid to high seventies. Heat pump output drops off quite a bit with temps below 65 degrees. Your use of a solar cover and full sun will help a lot.

[RavenNS]

Heat Pumps can be purchased that actually will run bellow the freeezing temperature! ( -5C or 23F)

Heat pumps are so much more efficient that any other heating method ( except environmental like solar of course).

Check the internet for Heat pump vs gas heaters
there is tons of info on comparing the two.
( I saw a gov't study that showed that a heat pump could pay for itself in savings over a three seasons period compared to other methods... again, not including solar)

True, a heat pump isn't as fast as gas, but how fast do you need it to be?

I turned my summit heat pump ( 115000 btu) on at a water temp of about 54F... the air temp did not go above 65F ( most of the time way less), rained every night, didn't have a cover on my pool, & in less then a week the 140000L ( 37K gallon?) pool was 90F

It maintains heat wonderfully as well

To me, it isn't even a question:
If you want efficiency, you go with a heat pump

next question, go with a titanium copeland scroll ?.... (lol)

[cleancloths]

I'm in Morris County, NJ and have had a heat pump for 8 years - you have to be crazy to go with gas!

[Poolsean]

RavenNS,

Titanium for sure! Did you know that there are major differences in titanium heat exchangers though?
First, Titanium is a poor conductor of heat. That's why it took many years for the Heat Pump Industry to endorse titanium over cupric-nickle.

Second, the design of the titanium heat exchanger, the vessel that allows the exchange of heat from the super heated freon filled titanium tubes to the water, makes a big difference in how efficiently the heat is transfered to the water. A simple coil of titanium in an open vessel transfers less heat than a controlled flow of water over the titanium coil in a baffled vessel.
Think of this in terms of a solar heater. If you had a sealed bucket on your roof in which water was passed through it, would you collect more or less heat than an equivalent volume solar panel? The transfer of heat would be much less in the bucket because the many solar tubes, in which the main headers diffuse the water through, will transfer more heat to the water, like the baffled flow scheme of a higher efficiency heat exchanger system.

Third, chemically impervious to attack!

[bbb]

I have a heat siphon with the titanium heat exchanger and the scroll - it's the second year now and it works well and isn't a killer on my electric bill. I bought it specifically because it is cheaper to operate than a natural gas heater. It will heat more slowly than a gas heater, though, but I will take the tradeoff with lower operating costs any day. You can maintain heat even better (and save money) by heating in conjunction with using a solar cover.

[fjava]

Thanks for all your help...
I went with the Jandy Air Energy Heat Pump - 131,000 BTUs with Titanium and Air Defrost (Allows the heater to operate at lower air temperature) & it has a chiller for when the water gets to hot in the summer...
I should have it next week...

Here is a helpful link http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/.../mytopic=13220