Efficacy of heat pump in Sacramento California

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Jasop3

Jasop3

Gold Supporter
Jun 28, 2019
58
Sacramento California
Hello all. I’m in the process of getting pool bids and have found this site tremendously helpful. With the research I’ve done so far and the bids I’ve reviewed, I’ve made many decisions.

Pool size will be approximately 21,500 gal from 3.5’-7’ and 18” Cabo shelf.
IntelliFlo XF VSF
Quad DE 80 or 100
Intellichlor IC 60

I’m hoping to hear others experience with heat pumps in Sacramento California area. The majority of my pool will be in full sun and I plan to cover. I also have 15 owned solar panels on my roof as well. All PB so far have told me they won’t work well out here. I have not been able to find any “success stories “.

My goal is to use the pool as long as possible and maintain temperature.

When we are not running AC my electric bill is effectively $0.
After solar usage my rates are as follows:

Summer
June 1 - September 30
Off-peak
Midnight – noon
$0.1166 kWh
All day weekends and holidays
Mid-peak
Noon – 5 p.m.
$0.1611 kWh
Peak
5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
$0.2835 kWh
Mid-peak
8 p.m. – midnight
$0.1611 kWh
Non-summer
Off-peak
Midnight – 5 p.m.
$0.0969 kWh
All day weekends and holidays
Peak
5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
$0.1338 kWh
Off-peak
8 p.m. - midnight
$0.0969 kWh
 
Sorry, I have no experience with a heat pump.
I have solar panels and use a cover in the early and late season.
I have a gas heater that burns money to heat my pool so I don't use it except to heat the spa

My experiences, take them with a grain of salt.

Covers hold in the heat well when the cool breezy evenings come along, but it doesn't do much to heat my pool.
Solar heating cells warm the pool, and when the pool is also covered significant warming can happen early and late season. I can easily get 80 degrees in April even with a year like this one.
taking off and putting on the cover can be a pain, depending on the shape and layout of the pool.
I use a 12x24 rectangle in my free form pool early and late season to cover about 70% of the surface area which helps with retaining heat gains overnight when cool and breezy. It rolls up while floating on the water and is not too heavy for me to carry solo.

hopefully you'll get some heat pump feedback.

edit: I'm east of Sac in the foothills, about 800 ft elevation so I get very little fog and delta breezes are less frequent than down in the valley closer to the Sacramento river.
 

A lot depends on when you want heat.

Early or late in the year, the performance will be significantly lower than when the weather is better.

The air temperature and relative humidity are important factors in determining the performance of the heat pump.

How much do you want to extend the season and what will be the air temperature and relative humidity during the early and late parts of the season?
 
"The air temperature and relative humidity are important factors in determining the performance of the heat pump."

Thanks Everyone, I read the product brochures and the manuals and it seems like I could heat year round. I went back and looked at temperature data for the last three years. The closest weather station is approx 17 miles. In three years the 24 hour high dipped below 50 only 10 times. 9 of the 10 were in a 4 week span. However, it would probably be extremely innefiecent from around mid November till mid March.

I would still be eager to hear others experience with a heat pump as my data was only temps did not factor in wind, cloud cover, RH, etc.

"How much do you want to extend the season and what will be the air temperature and relative humidity during the early and late parts of the season?"

If I could I would just run it year round. However, it would probably be extremely inefficient from around mid November till mid March.

I attached some data I collected and average RH for Sacramento.RH.pngavg.png
 
Theoretically if you plan on keeping it at temperature a heat pump is the way to go. In practice I couldn't justify keeping my pool heated year round.Even in Sac. Come winter time the kids just aren't as interested in swimming, Jumping in and out of the pool is too cold in practice in the winter I suspect. That doesn't stop me from heating the pool for special occasions, We have a March birthday in the house and that is kind of special to do a pool party in the winter. Otherwise they just heat up the spa. My pool is just over 20K gallon with an attached spa and I have a 300K BTU NG heater (StaRrite SR333NA). So we use the heater mostly for the spa but I can heat the pool with it too. The last time we did a March party I heated the pool from 55 deg to about 85. We had a pool party the other weekend and I added about 10 degrees to the temp. In case you are wondering why I am heating my pool on 4th of July weekend... My pool is surrounded by big trees and it only gets an hour or two of direct sun a day. Most summers my pool is between 70 and 75, while my neighbor's pools that get all day sun are hitting 90. So I just wanted to get it into the 80's.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jasop3
@Jasop3

Did you end up getting the heat pump. We're in folsom and with the whole shelter in place would be great to get year round use of our pool. We are getting solar and there will be no roof left for solar heating and I heard gas is expensive. We don't want aggressive temperatures, we'd be happy with ~70 degree water and probably wouldn't even use in Summer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply