Looking for ballpark cost to heat my pool

[Link77]

Hi all. I am planning on having a pool installed this summer and one of the big hang-ups my wife and I are having is about the ongoing heating costs. Can anyone give me VERY general estimates on how much it would cost to heat my pool given the following information:

-- I do not know how exactly many gallons the pool holds, but the dimensions are 14' x 32' with a graduated depth between 3' to 7'. It will be a gunite pool.
-- I would only use the pool from May through September. The average daily high is around 77 degrees and the average nightly low is around 55 degrees during those months.
-- The pool would have an auto-cover on at all times when not in use.
-- I will be using a 300,000 BTU natural gas heater.
-- I'm a cold water sissy and like swimming in warm pools, preferably 90 degrees.
-- The pool would be used about 3 days per week throughout the season.

I'm just looking for a rough estimate of how much it would cost per month to heat the pool to 90 degrees for about 3 days per week in the climate described above. I would be okay with spending $400 per month for those 5 months on heating, but would not be okay with spending $1,500 per month (doubt it would cost this much, but just giving you an idea of what I'm willing to pay).

Thanks for your help!

 

[bdavis466]

Any idea what your gas and electric rates are? Its impossible know what it will cost without knowing those.

Without any doubt you'll need to cover the pool and should look into an insulated cover.

 

[borjis]

I can tell you that if you have south facing solar panels installed, you will get free heat on sunny clear days.

I'm near you and only used solar heating on saturdays & sundays the entire last season. The water was 82 degrees
from june until september using only a cheap 5 mil blue bubble cover to retain it.

I'm at a totally different house this year but have gas heating and I'm pretty sure if I use the gas heater
just as the solar schedule I had before, I doubt the gas would be more than $ 400....but I could be wrong.

 

[gwegan]

First you need to understand that anything we could give you on here is little more than a guess.

You are talking 20K gallons plus. You don't heat it up for three days a week. That's not how it works. It will take 2 or three days to get the water from 65 or 70 to 90. You lose a lot of heat getting there. You will probably get it hot put a cover on it to retain heat as much as you can and heat up the day before. Or use a solar heater to kick the temperature up and supplement with gas. Hang around do some reading of old posts and you can learn stuff.

Of your heater is too small. You will use less gas with a larger heater to get to and maintain the same temperature because the pool loses less heat when the warm up time is shorter.

 

[Nectarologist]

Hi. I had a heater for the first time last year. I have a similar sized pool and I'm at about 20k gallons. Funny I figured $400 as well when I was thinking about the bills I'd incur. For my two largest usage months my bill was never above $90. That includes basic services charge of $20. I pay 51 cents per CCF. I was shocked and happy. I kept it at 84 degrees and when we swam I put it to 86 (once in a while 88 if it was going to be a cloudy day). Once it's heated it stays warm especially if you use your auto-cover (that will be the key). Keep in mind I'm just outside NYC so it's a bit warmer here (table pasted below; the 1st two values are avg. high/low). Also my pool gets sun from about 9am to 4:30-5pm. I did not use any cover but I did use the liquid "solar blanket." I love the heater, it makes all the difference and extends the season by at least 6 weeks for us.

So ballpark, if you're ok with $400 you'll be very happy, even at 90 degrees. My advice is to keep it at 82 the days you won't swim (I assume during the workweek mon-thurs) and then keep it at 90 the swim days. Just be sure to have the pump and heater run early in the morning on your fist swim day so it starts to heat early in the morning.

High °F Low °F High °C Low °C
38 27 January 4 -3
42 29 February 5 -2
50 35 March 10 2
61 45 April 16 7
71 54 May 22 12
79 64 June 26 18
84 69 July 29 20
83 68 August 28 20
75 61 September 24 16

 

[MarianParoo]

I will agree that maintaining some heat between usage will save you. Just like a house thermostat, you don't want large fluctuations between "hot" and "cold" as it requires less energy to maintain a temp.

The auto-cover will help a ton on conserving heat, but I would open it at least a couple of hours everyday to allow the pool to breathe (outgassing). If you can do it mid-day, the sun will help heat it.

 

[wjr75]

I would get the 400k BTU heater if you can and always keep the cover closed at night. My heater heats my pool similar to yours about 2 degree's per hour. I think it costs about $2.00 per hour the last time a calculated a few years ago. The pool usually holds at around 82 degree's by itself with the cover closed at night during mid-summer. I just heat the pool when we want to boost it up to around 85-86 on the weekends and only takes a few hours turning the heater on in the morning. Then again that heater will heat my 900 gallon spa on demand in about 30-45 minutes up to 98 degree's from around 75-80 degree starting point.

 

[pooldv]

I'm with you on the warm pool, 87 minimum and 90 preferred. We use solar panels but I don't know if you get enough sun in the northwest. Plus, rain is a major factor, nothing cools a pool off faster than a rain shower. A heat pump would be a lot more efficient at maintaining water temps than a gas heater.

 

[borjis]

We get lots of sun from jun-sep...enough that I was able to maintain 82 degrees only using solar heating on saturday & sundays for 5 hours each day.

 

[petermie]

When I had my 400k Btu heater hooked up the gas man gave me a quick and dirty breakdown. He said roughly 100k BTUs = 1 therm = $1 (in Las Vegas). My pool is very similar in size (except only goes to 5') and he estimated at least 24 hours to heat