Heating Pool during Fall and Winter

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creechy

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Oct 14, 2009
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We recently added a fiberglass pool (12,500 gallons) in our backyard. We added a gas heater so that we could use the pool year round. We live in Northeast Tennessee. We heat it up to 90 degrees each weekend. We turn the heater on Friday morning and it is ready by Saturday morning. Then, we turn it off on Sunday afternoon. We also recently purchased a solar cover to help retain some of the heat. Is it more cost effective to maintain the temperature at 75 degrees or some other temperature during the week and then increase the temp to 90 on the weekend, or better to just turn it off and only heat it up starting on Friday? Will the solar cover help? I am trying to find the most cost effective way to swim on the weekends.

Thanks for your help!!
 
I think it would be better to leave the heater on as opposed to turning it off and on. (atleast for homes) According to my friend who works for the gas company when you turn your thermostat down in your home and you want to heat it back up again you are not just heating the air you have to reheat the furniture, walls, floor etc. so you wast a lot of energy reheating everything as opposed to keeping a constant temperature.
 
creechy,

Welcome to TFP! :wave:

It's more efficient (for a gas heater) to heat the pool only when needed. The reason is that the rate of heat loss is much higher when the pool is at higher temperatures. Of course, if the pool gets too cool, you may have to start heating it even earlier since it can only heat the water so quickly.

X-PertPool,

The guy at the gas company is wrong since whatever causes the heat to escape from the room is going to happen even if you keep it heated, except that the heat will be escaping even faster because the room is warmer. This is why you use a lot less gas maintaining a lower temperature than maintaining a higher temperature in the house. The rate of heat loss is proportional to the difference in temperature between inside and outside.

Richard
 
creechy said:
Is it more cost effective to maintain the temperature at 75 degrees or some other temperature during the week and then increase the temp to 90 on the weekend, or better to just turn it off and only heat it up starting on Friday? Will the solar cover help? I am trying to find the most cost effective way to swim on the weekends.
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At one point I tried to maintain my 750 gallon in-ground plaster spa as I had an above-ground spa... heated and ready all of the time. I terminated this experiment in less than a week once I saw the amount of energy I was using. Though I don't have the comparative data to demonstrate the veracity of chem geek's reasoning, I believe it to be correct.

Not only will the solar cover help, I would suggest that you have your pool covered every moment that you're not swimming. Though there will be some temperature loss via conduction to the ground and from the plumbing into the air, evaporative heat loss would be the largest contributor to cooling the water (and draining your pocketbook.) You may be able to retain some of that precious heat (energy) that you invest each weekend for the following weekend by keeping that solar cover on during the week.
 
Thank you for your help. I will just turn on the heater when we plan to use the pool and keep the solar cover on when we are not using the pool. I have so much to learn as a new pool owner!!

Thanks again!!
 
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