best heater for my needs?

[badutahboy]

Ok, so here's my question... I have an above ground pool that's about 14000 gallons (18x33x52)...

I live in Utah, and I'd really like to open my pool a few weeks earlier and close it a few weeks later... I REALLY want to swim today, but the water is still in the 60's.... It's frustrating having to maintain my pool from april-october, but only able to swim june, july and august..

Will solar do anything for me? I'm pretty doubtful that it'll help me jumpstart the heat in my pool significantly earlier...

I think that I'll be better served with a heat pump or gas heater... But again, the question is, will a heat pump actually give any on-demand benefit, or does it need to run constantly to be effective? I really only see myself using the heater in may and september, although, if solar is a viable option, I'd love the pool to be 5 degrees warmer all summer...

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Solar heat is by far the least expensive to operate. How much heat you can get out of it depends on how much space you are willing to dedicate to solar panels. A 20 degree increase in water temperature is quite possible if your panel area is as large as your pool. But you will lose heat when there is a run of cloudy days in a row.

Nothing is "on demand" when heating 14,000 gallons. Even a huge heater will take 10+ hours to heat that many gallons. Heat pumps cost more to purchase, but less to operate, compared to gas heat in most areas. Both heat pumps and gas heaters can get expensive to operate fairly quickly.

 

[badutahboy]

Thanks for the welcome... I can't believe that was my first post.. lol.. I've been lurking here for about 8-9 months.. posted at poolforum until I finally figured out why it's so dead, and found a link and came over here.. I guess that means I haven't had any trouble with my pool recently, haha..

Also, thanks for the input... a quick question about solar.. Is there any reliable way to figure out what temp you'll be able to maintain with it? Logic seems to dictate that some average between the daytime high and nighttime low would come into play... Is that true?

Just as an example, right now, our average highs are in the mid 70's with lows around 50.. my water is right near 60 degrees... Is it really logical to think that I'd be able to add 20 degrees to that water, and maintain a water temperature that's actually higher than the outside air?

 

[JasonLion]

It all depends on how large your solar panel area is, if you have enough panels you can get huge heat gains. You are taking the solar energy over a large area and storing it in the water. The more area you collect heat from, the warmer the water will get. If taken to an extreme (don't do this at home) you can actually boil the water with solar heat.

 

[badutahboy]

It all depends on how large your solar panel area is, if you have enough panels you can get huge heat gains. You are taking the solar energy over a large area and storing it in the water. The more area you collect heat from, the warmer the water will get. If taken to an extreme (don't do this at home) you can actually boil the water with solar heat.

I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the heat losses from cool air overnight wouldn't offset the gains during a nice sunny day... Is that really possible?

 

[JasonLion]

The key is that you are losing heat from the surface area of the pool, but you are gaining heat from both the surface area of the pool and the surface area of the panels. The panels are turned off at night.