What did you do to your pool today?

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Couldn't help myself, pool store said CYA was 25 and that was several days after adding a pound of stabilizer. That made sense since I could not see the dot with my own test and boosted my confidence about my own testing. I didn't even buy additional stabilizer there, went to Walmart and added one more pound today hung in front of a return jet in pantyhose. I will do my own testing from here on out. CH is still low after my addition so I ordered more ice melt from True Value (Safe Step Extreme 7300).
 
It has been nice and sunny the last few days so it was time for some pool work. Raked, brushed, swapped filter cartridges and a full set of tests with my new test strips. Everything was in range except I needed more pucks. :crazy: kidding!

Interestingly, I didn't retest my CH all summer because it has stayed around 400 for a couple of years. But, it had dropped to 290, tested twice. Then, looking back over my notes, we got so much rain over summer that I had to add CYA twice later in the summer. CYA was still 70, down from 80 in late September. Borates also dropped. I assume salt has dropped as well but I didn't test it, SWG is on winter vaca.

TA is between 60 and 70 but my PH still rises a little, even with very little waterfall and no SWG. PH still likes to be between 8.0 and 8.2. Need to lower TA a little more and get borates back up to 50 to see if I can get it to stabilize.

Pool is clean and sparkly and ready for some swimming. Wait, no it isn't, the water is 54*. Where is the ice cube emoticon?
 
Ordered a Hayward HP50HA heat pump, a couple of valves for a bypass and a clear, 8 mil solar cover from sunplay.com. Time to get serious about warm pool water and extending the swim season! :paddle:
 
It is small, cheap and efficient and it will not be my primary heat source. It is rated for 13k gallons and my pool is 20k. But, we are in Texas so it seems like that makes it easier for the heat pump. We also have solar panels. And we have no desire to use it if daytime temps aren't in the mid 80s which puts night temps in the mid 60s. So, the heat pump will be very efficient. Part of my dilemma on getting a heat pump is the initial cost plus operating cost vs installing more solar panels. This heat pump is 1500 bucks vs at least 2500 bucks for the bigger ones. The main drawback of installing more solar panels is that they would have to be in a different location (probably on house) from the existing panels because that roof is full. Here are my pros on why this small heat pump is better than more solar panels. There have been a lot of days in spring and fall where the solar panels didn't quite get us there and 5ish more degrees would have made it good. We can heat the pool when it is cloudy or rainy. Most of the time the solar panels get the temp up so the temp differential for the heat pump is normally small. Now that I am paying for heat I'm more likely to use a solar cover. The operating current is 2.68 amps, so even if it runs 4 or 5 hours a day it will only cost about 10 bucks/mo to run it. We swim every day so maintaining temp is the goal, not spot heating.
 

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pooldv said:
It is small, cheap and efficient and it will not be my primary heat source. It is rated for 13k gallons and my pool is 20k. But, we are in Texas so it seems like that makes it easier for the heat pump. We also have solar panels. And we have no desire to use it if daytime temps aren't in the mid 80s which puts night temps in the mid 60s. So, the heat pump will be very efficient. Part of my dilemma on getting a heat pump is the initial cost plus operating cost vs installing more solar panels. This heat pump is 1500 bucks vs at least 2500 bucks for the bigger ones. The main drawback of installing more solar panels is that they would have to be in a different location (probably on house) from the existing panels because that roof is full. Here are my pros on why this small heat pump is better than more solar panels. There have been a lot of days in spring and fall where the solar panels didn't quite get us there and 5ish more degrees would have made it good. We can heat the pool when it is cloudy or rainy. Most of the time the solar panels get the temp up so the temp differential for the heat pump is normally small. Now that I am paying for heat I'm more likely to use a solar cover. The operating current is 2.68 amps, so even if it runs 4 or 5 hours a day it will only cost about 10 bucks/mo to run it. We swim every day so maintaining temp is the goal, not spot heating.
Click to expand...

Good info. I asked because I was sure you put a good amount of thought into it. Please keep me posted on the results. I am very interested in a heat pump as well.

I looked up your unit last night and was surprised at how low the current draw was. The ones I've been looking at draw 15x as much electricity so it makes me wonder....
 
bdavis466 said:
Good info. I asked because I was sure you put a good amount of thought into it. Please keep me posted on the results. I am very interested in a heat pump as well.

I looked up your unit last night and was surprised at how low the current draw was. The ones I've been looking at draw 15x as much electricity so it makes me wonder....
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am a little skeptical too, but I found some small heat pumps but bigger than this one with specs showing current draw in the 5-6 amp range so I am hopeful. One thing that should be true is that a 50k btu heat pump should draw less than a 90k btu heat pump! :) Heat pumps have gotten ridiculously efficient in the last 5 or so years too. We installed a new Climate Master geothermal heat pump this week with a 2 stage compressor, variable speed water pump and variable speed blower motor that blows away the efficiency of our nearly 20 year old Florida Heat Pump geo unit. I think some of those pool heat pump specs are very old school.

I have added all of this info to my build thread and will post updates there as we move forward.
 
I glanced at the pool from the truck on my way home from work this morning. I can not wait to open her up!
 
Been swimming twice per week this month sometimes w/ only solar and soaked in the spa at 100 deg F several times including 2 hrs ago. We love our TFP!!

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 

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