In our brutal Texas heat your pool get's below 82 in the summer ??? I wish I had your problem, that time of year we are at 90-92 in pool.
I'm in New Orleans. I did my own solar and never cover the pool. This is my first year and thus far I am super pleased, but now I will be going through my first fall and winter with my solar collector which Ive added onto this summer expanding the capacity. Afte a few months of use in the spring, I threw the solar blanket away....too hard to take on and off and wanted to be able to see the pool with the LED lights....I feel bad for people who need to do this task each day....yuk! The solar gives me the bump every day I need to recover the 2 degree night loss, but with all the rain this summer I needed the solar running anytime we got sun to bring it back up. I try to keep the pool between 88 - 92 which has not been a problem so long as I get 3 - 4 days in a row of sunshine at 6 -7 hours a day. The pool only got down into the low 80s after a full week of rain....luckily that was the worse.
I was getting a 4 degree mid day differential between the pool and return from solar, but noticed this past week that I am now down to a 3 degree differential with the sun now lower in the sky. So.......I am looking to supplement and get ready for winter. We are going to try to use the pool through the entire winter.
I know I can get into mid November, but it's unknown past that what impact my solar "array" will have. I'm lucky with the position of the pool......I was able to build an aluminum canopy that can be assembled in an hour that I will put up late Nov and will be covered with a special greenhouse reinforced plastic. That will form the "cover" for the pool. Under the canopy I have 2 Bromic Heaters that should cover the pool area and provide body warmth. Will see if the canopy holds in enough heat and keeps evaporation low thereby keeping the pool from losing too much heat. Want to see how far I can push this so that I dont need a pool heater, but I doubt I will make it though winter....but this is a kind of fun experiment.
Looked at Nat Gas heater, I dont need a big one, but the only line I have nearby is too small. The cost to get a new line run is well over a thousand, and therefore making the Heat Pump a better choice, especially considering the running costs. The only downside is the size of the Heat Pump.
I've pre wired a 240 service for a Hayward
HP21004T heat pump and the pad ready to go once and if we get to that point....and if we find that we enjoy using the pool that much through those months.
So that is my experience and plan, and I would be interested in knowing if anyone knows of a good online calculator to estimate costs for a heat pump under such conditions?
Will be happy to share my experiences and results. Ive been hunting everywhere for data as to costs, but the closest Ive ever come is "its expensive" to heat through winter, which of course is only a relative term.
Rick
approx 8000 gal 12 x 28 freeform