Truly torn - SWG or Chlorine

wireform said:

Just for the asking why the heat pump and not a natural gas heater.

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Jimrahbe said:

P,

I'm pretty sure that this is because they changed the way they calculate the HP of pumps..

The did not change the actual pump to increase its HP, they just determine the HP by a different method.

So, in my "old person" mind, it is still a 1.5 HP pump.. It does not have an app, nor does it have an relay card.

Thanks,

Jim R.

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wireform said:

But, the heat pump will not work in the shoulder season meaning early and late in the season when the ambient temps are below 60° and even then they don't crank out the heat till warmer temps arrive.

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reggiehammond said:

Perhaps he doesn't understand the math. That's sad.
A larger pump is slightly more expensive, but will use drastically less energy to do the same job. It's foolish to follow this PB advice.

You might consider no heat pump to save some money. It's going to be less than useful in your neck of the woods.

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Newdude said:

It's basically a central AC in reverse. It struggles when it's cool the way an AC struggles in a heat wave, and at the same pretty penny. (Having PV solar sure will help offset this and make it sting less)

But so long as it isn't particularly cool early/late, you'll do ok. Last year was warm very late and it would have worked into October. It's entirely weather dependent year to year and the last several have been warm.

During the season you'll do great if we get a cool week and you're just looking to take the edge off. That's like using an AC in the fall, it barely needs to come on and blows ice cold when it does.

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SJPoe said:

Surely it just becomes an efficiency/heating rate calculation tho. I mean, they install heat-pumps here for Central Heating, and we get down to sub-zero, they still work although there is obviously a crossover point where NG or Propane makes more sense.

Looking at the specs online, and applying my patented napkin-math, it would appear at 80/50/63 (so heating 80 degree water on a 50 degree day) you'd need 5.1kw for 75000 BTU.
For me, thats roughly a dollar for 75000btu.
My 250kBTU NG heater has an 83% efficiency rating. and my cost per therm (delivered) is roughly $0.82 - so 210000/10000 = 2.1 x 0.82 = $1.72 , so 210000 btu for 1.72, or 122k BTU/Dollar. (and going up like 25% soon!)
So bottom line, in the 'shoulder months' you'd be looking at something that was maybe 50-70% more than an NG heater.

It'd certainly be cheaper than Propane, and if you don't have NG supply to the house...what other option do you really have ? Last I looked, Oil-fuel pool heaters out there would run maybe gallon/hour, and that would be for 100,000 btu, at $3/gallon

If he has Solar, he's probably getting his electrons cheaper than I am, so the NG to Electric comparison would narrow some - Sure, it might be slow...but I'd take it over no heater at all.

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