deciding on heating vs adding an endless pool

[Springboard]

we have a 60,000 gallon shortcourse pool 17.5' x 75'

we're trying to decide on adding an endless pool to create an easier heating situation (3900 gallons)

we can only liquid cover, the pool is not rectangular so no safety cover, it's fenced but we have two cats that walk on loose covers - right now we're using liquid covers. We have 1 to 1 solar water heating and liquid propane.

no cover we got an 8 deg drop at night
bubble cover 1 deg
liquid cover 2 deg


We use the pool from May - Oct

One crazy idea that I have is to fill our pool up with rocks except for a 7' x 75' x 3.25' lane and that would displace 3/4 of the water making it less hard to heat. 15k gallons vs 60k
but without a solid cover and windy 20 deg nights that may only go so far

Anybody have an endless pool? We are thinking the elite model 10'x 16' x 3.25' with an automatic non-insulated safety cover with liquid propane to heat and insulate it like crazy - we're going to put it in ground next to our pool if we go this way.

Has anyone put an endless pool inground? Heated an endless pool at all?
Any thought for us?

thank you!

 

[LapPoolMike]

I wonder if there's a geothermal heat pump system that might work? I wouldn't fill that beautiful lap pool with rocks! What is a liquid cover? SwimEx makes some nice looking swim spas, I've looked into them in the past. I'm unclear about the issue, do you not want to have to fool with covers, or are you looking to extend your swim season beyond October?

ive got a yacht club close to my house, they have a junior Olympic pool, they have a system that pumps ground water through a heat exchanger that heats the pool water in winter and cools it in summer. Wonder if something like that would work in your area?