New construction in Austin, Tx. Heatpump or gas heater?

[sfawley]

We are still in the decision making stage of the construction of our new pool. We are trying to decide if it is better to go with a heatpump or a natural gas heater. We tend to use a pool at night a lot so our goal with the heater will be to keep the water at a comfortable temperature after the sun has gone down. We also anticipate that our swim season will be from from late March through the early parts of November...depending mostly on how warm it is outside. I do not anticipate that we will want to heat the pool during the winter months. We are not having a spa built with the pool.

All that being said...what would be the most economical route to go with regards to energy costs?

Thanks!

Scott

 

[chiefwej]

Solar.

 

[JasonLion]

As chiefwej said, solar is by far the most economical. However, if solar is out for some reason, a heatpump is best if you are going to maintain the pool at swimming temperature for weeks/months at a time in the spring/fall. Natural gas is better if you just want to swim once in a while in the spring/fall.

 

[Stevereno]

We are still in the decision making stage of the construction of our new pool. We are trying to decide if it is better to go with a heatpump or a natural gas heater. We tend to use a pool at night a lot so our goal with the heater will be to keep the water at a comfortable temperature after the sun has gone down. We also anticipate that our swim season will be from from late March through the early parts of November...depending mostly on how warm it is outside. I do not anticipate that we will want to heat the pool during the winter months. We are not having a spa built with the pool.

All that being said...what would be the most economical route to go with regards to energy costs?

Thanks!

Scott

Once your water has warmed up in the spring, you won't likely see much drop in temperature overnight so you wouldn't really need the heater to keep the water at a comfortable temperature after the sun has gone down. In the middle of the summer you will likely be wishing that it would drop a few degrees. So the heater would really be used to extend your swim season by "opening" earlier in the spring and "closing" later in the fall (even though we generally don't "open" and "close" our pools in Texas as they do in northern climes). Heating a pool from cold to warm takes a lot of fuel not to mention the time involved (unless you have a really big heater) and keeping it at a comfortable temperature for a few weeks in the spring and fall could be rather costly. In Austin I would look at solar or heatpump if you want to use it regularly during the cool/cold nights of early spring/mid-late fall.

 

[RobbieH]

Are you sure you need a heater in Austin? I do not have a pool heater here in Dallas, and have no desire for one. As Steve stated, come summertime you are going to want to LOWER your pool temps. If you still are inclined to have a heater, going solar will allow you to run the pump at night through the solar panels and get your some lower temps for the next day. If I were to have a heater, I'd go solar just for that single reason.

Once pool season is here, we swim at all times of the day and night. It takes a lot of energy to lower the temp of a pool, and you won't see it drop in just one night.

 

[shakenbake]

We installed a heatpump a couple years ago. If you put a cover on the pool you can maintain 80F except for long ambient dips into the 30s. The energy cost is similar to a large air conditioner. We decided not to heat it this year because my wife is swimming with a team and the kids are not that enthusiastic about going outside in bathing suites the winter. Austin increased energy prices for us about 0.02/kWh, which is about 20% more than last year.