Help with Heater Questions and Costs in Atlanta

[tobejz]

Hello! Newbie to the forum - pool owner for 2.5 years. I live in Atlanta, GA and have a 15x30 in-ground pool ~18,000 gallons. Even with great sun (mostly morning/early afternoon), my water stays quite chilly until June, and I'm looking to extend my season on each end (start in mid April through early October ideally). I use the pool A LOT - get in pretty much every day it's not raining. I'm looking for a heating option that raises my temp and keeps it there fairly consistently. I'll be using a solar blanket to trap heat overnight. With that, I'm hoping for some help/insight on the following:

• I've landed on getting a gas heater, as the low air temps here at night in April and May can still hover in the low/mid 50s, making a heat pump not ideal. I'm trying to decide between the Jandy JXI 260K and 399K. Will the larger one be more cost efficient to run (keeping the temp consistent throughout the week)? I'd like to keep the pool around 82-85 degrees.
• I typically point my jets toward the surface of the pool to aid with circulation (main drain doesn't work, so skimmer has to do all the suction to circulate the water). Should I have them pointed more parallel in the water to keep more heat in the pool?
• Will it make a difference if I run the pump/heater during the day or at night?
• Is there anyone in my general region that can give me an idea of how much the gas bill will be to run a heater? Natural gas is around .55/therm right now. I'd love to see some estimates so I don't get sticker shock.

Any other insights are more than welcome. I've done a lot of research here and on other sites, and my head is spinning!

Thanks,

JZ

 

[borjis]

You will find most here recommending Raypak over Jandy. Simpler design and less parts/less costly to repair in the future.

You'd probably do fine with a 250 ish thousand btu heater but if you can go to 400 it will heat the pool quicker.
I have a 266k btu heater and it heats my pool about 2.5 degrees per hour. You would also want to get a bubble
cover if you don't have one to keep heat loss and water evaporation at a minimum. I lose about 2-3 degrees at night with it covered.

How far away is your gas meter from your equipment pad? Gas line installations can be one of the most expensive parts.

If you have a hopper style pool like mine (angled walls in the deep end) you could probably leave your return jets as is.
Something about that design tends to mix the water just fine for even warmth. I remember my previous plaster pool
with vertical walls, needed the deep end jets pointed down a bit for optimum mixing.

 

[tobejz]

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I didn't get any notifications, so sorry for the delay in responding!

The gas meter isn't too terribly far from the equipment pad - looking at around a 30ft run (i'm getting quotes on that now).

Do you just heat your pool up on occasion, or do you set it and keep it at a certain temp? How are the gas bills?

Thanks!

 

[PoolGate]

I think I figured my Jxi400 heater at @ $4/hour to run. They are both the same efficiency heater so I think they will cost the same to run but the 400 will heat faster. I also had around 30 feet to run and I got quotes up to $4500 to run the gas line. I ended up using my builder since he capped the price at $1500. This is highly dependent on the local economy. You will almost certainly need your gas meter heavied up but usually that is free. The gas company will make the call. I have yet to see the pool in my bills since I am on the gas company billing plan that evens out your bills over the year. So I never see any huge bills. I think this is know as the budget program?

I can heat up my pool very quickly and I LOVE the water that comes out of the waterfalls as it is around 10 degrees + warmer than the pool water. I get my pool up to the 90s no problem with this heater.

 

[borjis]

I just use the heater to get it up around 84 degrees, but I don't leave it on all the time.

The biggest add to my bill is around first weeks of may to get the initial temp up from
very low 70's to 84. About 50-60 bucks.
It costs me roughly 30-40 more a month on the gas bill during summer to maintain 84.

Except for last summer where we had a very rare no rain from june until september.
I don't recall using the heat at all in July. The hot weather pretty much maintained the heat.

 

[tobejz]

Thank you!

 

[kekin]

I'm interested in what you end up doing. I live a few miles north of Atlanta and I also want a heater for my pool. My gas meter is 80 feet from the equipment pad.

 

[tobejz]

I'll let you know for sure. I'm working with Atlanta Gas Light now to see if there will be any costs associated with upgrading my meter. Sometimes there are, sometimes there are no (or so they say). I'll report back when I figure this out...

Thanks!

JZ

 

[Swampwoman]

Hi there. I'm running a pool yearround in snowy Michigan in an air dome, so I'm quite familiar with gas costs

In terms of cost in your case and at your Per-therm price (which is 20 cents lower than mine), an 18,000 gal pool x approx 8 lbs per gallon = approx 144,000 btu per hour to move temp one degree - this is just a super rough hack estimate...there are other variables. But it will get you close.

So that would be roughly $.82 per daily degree/hour if you had a 80% efficient 200k btu heater...or a bit less than $1.64 with a 80% efficient 400k btu heater (per hour & 2 degrees).

In my experience but dependent on water-to-air differential, you may loose as much as .3 degrees an hour when heater is off. In winter with cover and dome and differentials greater than 50 degrees inside the dome I still might only lose .4-.5 degrees, btw.

So at the very very most you might lose up to 8 degrees a day (likely quite a bit less in your locale) so worst case to maintain a high temp using cover might be around $6.56 per day or $200/mo.

In MI open season, I spend a bit more (my gas rate is higher) but I leave it uncovered if night temps aren't too bad. In highest winter month I don't spend more than $500. I should add that I keep my pool in the 92-95 range for morning physiotherapy so your mileage may vary

I hope that at least gives you a means to estimate! You will never regret a heater IMHO!

 

[tobejz]

Thank you! Still waiting to hear from gas company about upgrading the meter. I'm glad I started early on this!