Purchased a new home - Heating an in-ground / indoor pool in Iowa.....

[iowabowhunter]

We purchased a new home this summer and it has a 40,000 gallon in-ground concrete pool that is in an enclosure. It is currently set up with a natural gas heater that is not working. It was a fairly mild summer and the water never really warmed enough so that it was comfortable to swim even with a solar heat blanket. I've been thinking about purchasing a heat pump to replace the boiler but I would like to heat the pool through new years then shut it down until early spring. Would a heat pump work in this climate? I was also thinking about going with a large Coates electric unit cause we are planning on putting in a grid-tie solar array.

I figure I will need around a 400,000 btu gas unit with an average temp of 23 degrees in Jan and Feb. At at cost of .52 per therm any idea what my daily costs would be??

 

[swimcmp]

A heat pump will not work in the winter. It would have to be outside the enclosure to get enough air to it and usually they are not able to transfer any heat below 50-55 degrees ambient air temp. A 400k btu heater will burn four gallons of gas an hour when heating. Once water reaches set temp it will only run as needed so cost won't be too excessive once you reach desired temp.

 

[Citizen]

Here is an easy to use pool heater calculator i found. Enter your pool dimensions, gas costs and area of Iowa and it should give you a pretty through breakdown of costs: http://noanderson.com/services/swimming-pool-energy-temperature-calculator/

For efficiency under the heater I used the number 83 %

 

[scooperhsd]

Natural gas shouldn't be too bad, but the cost of propane will eat you alive right now (my last fill was $4 / gallon).

A heated pool is wonderful - I want to get a heatpump on my outdoor pool when I can. It would let me extend my swim season from end of may through middle of september to at least the first of may through middle of October (maybe longer) - AND make it more comfortable all season long ( I never did get to 80 degrees F this summer - blame it on the cool summer and the trees).

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to the forum Iowabowhunter

Please add you pools into to your signature as outlined here - - > http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/165-getting-started

Just a general chart of the differences in cost for the different methods of heating.