Recent content by valdisr

I am having a new geothermal system put in. I asked them about adding in a water to water exchanger for my small pool and it was going to be about a 3 ton system. With the 3 ton ground loop and unit it was going to be an extra 20k or so. I didn’t seriously consider it but it’s one data point.

I appreciate the insight. I’m going to lower the temperature from 80 to 72 and see what that does for my propane usage. If I see a difference I may end up dropping it down below that.

It is correct. It takes about 90 minutes to raise it about 20 degrees. In theory I could just let it get below 68 and heat on demand, but I do worry about the damage to the heater. Not so much cost but the pain of having to replace it, including the downtime to replace. It is also nice to keep...

I guess I realized it would be more but hadn’t done the analysis. I do have an auto cover that is on when not in use so that helps with evaporation loss. I’ll try turning it back down to maintain at 75 and see if the energy usage is reduced. To be fair it’s 30F outside here now so I’m not sure...

We swim in the pool year round, more so on the weekend than the weekday, so I don't think I'd save a lot by letting it drop to 50 and then heating it up a few days later. I'm assuming that heat loss from keeping the pool at 80 is about the same as 70. Maybe this is wrong? I guess was really...

We pretty much heat it when we want to go in. Pentair doesn’t want it below 68 (Heater Condensation - Further Reading) so I’ve kept it at 75 before but now 80 as i can get it up to temperature in less than an hour during the cold months. I haven’t noticed a large difference in propane usage with...

I’ve been wondering if the way my pool heater is running is going to cause it to fail early. I have a 400k BTU heater with a 3k gallon pool. This is open year round and set to 80. I have an automatic cover which helps retain heat. The heater comes on for about 5 minutes at a time each hour or...