Heater for large pool

[Enzodast]

I have a 40,000 gallon pool in Maryland. We don't have the option of natural gas and so we have a heat pump - a Pentair UltraTemp 120 Heat Pump. It works fine to keep the pool at temperature - which for my family is around 86 or 87 - from May through September. I just leave it set to that constantly during that time. In October when the night temps start getting cooler, the heat pump only gets the pool up to low 80s during the day typically. I still swim, but the rest of my family doesn't at that point (I grew up with an unheated pool in upstate NY!). We do NOT have a solar cover - just too much trouble to put on and take off every day. But if we did, the pool would obviously stay much warmer and we'd probably be able to achieve the high 80s even into October.

I know this is old but I'm in your situation and would love to know what you estimate your running costs to be to have the heater run all season. Also do you run your pump longer to make this work? I currently am in CT and run my pump around 8 hrs a day. I have 37,500 gallons approximately. Its one thing absorbing the cost of the heater running but if I need to increase the pump run time to say 16hrs that'll be a HUGE increase in my electric bill. Pump alone already adds $250 per month at 8 hrs a day.

Thanks!!

 

[wireform]

I know this is old but I'm in your situation and would love to know what you estimate your running costs to be to have the heater run all season. Also do you run your pump longer to make this work? I currently am in CT and run my pump around 8 hrs a day. I have 37,500 gallons approximately. Its one thing absorbing the cost of the heater running but if I need to increase the pump run time to say 16hrs that'll be a HUGE increase in my electric bill. Pump alone already adds $250 per month at 8 hrs a day.

Thanks!!

From your comment on cost I'd recommend a vsp which will cut the electrical portion of the pump drastically. You can probably run a whole month for 20% of your normal single speed pump.

 

[PoolBrews]

From your comment on cost I'd recommend a vsp which will cut the electrical portion of the pump drastically. You can probably run a whole month for 20% of your normal single speed pump.

Wouldn't this depend on how much that heater runs? A vsp won't save nearly that much if that heater is running most of the day. On my pool, the pump has to run at 75% speed minimum to satisfy the flow requirement of the heat pump. The cost to run my pump at 75% is a little less than half of what it costs to run at 100%. I agree that a vsp can definitely reduce his power cost, but it will only drop the cost of electricity for the pump by roughly 50%-60%, and the heat pump is still the elephant in the room with regards to power usage.

 

[wireform]

A 3hp vsp can and will run at a lower rpm and still satisfy the heater so from the pump perspective and be down to close to 20% of what the single speed costs. The water and heater can care less of how fast the pump runs as long as the flow is satisfactory for the heater to run which can be pretty low in situations.