Heater for Caribbean pool (commonwealth of Dominica)

[scubadon]

Good evening All,

Starting some research on a heater for our pool in Dominica (No, not Dominican Republic )

The problem we have is the house is north facing for the view, but this means that the sun barely or doesn't touch the pool surface from aboot mid September till around March leaving the temp for these months as low as 77*F. We would like to be at 84*F

- The yearly temp swing is 77-88
- surface area is approx. 850 FT2
- 15,000 Gal.
- would like water temp of 84 (which nature can do for aboot 4 months)
- Would prefer to go electric due to the island situation

I was thinking aboot a heat pump, most likely Pentair as that is what we have for equip. so far. Obviously we are not looking at a large temp increase and perhaps due to that an electric heater would be fine? or a smaller heat pump??

Any ideas from you experienced and knowledgeable folks?

Cheers

Don

 

[ajw22]

You don't find electric resistive pool heaters used in the US because they use a lot of electricity and are expensive to run unless your electricity is just about free. And they have limited BTU capacity.

Pentair has a Heat Pump Calculator to determine the appropriate size Heat Pump for your location. See if it works for your location.

The more BTU's the better. No reason not to get a 140,000 BTU heat pump if it fits your budget. You will need to run your pump close to 24/7 for the heat pump to provide heat when it can. Can you provide a 50A 240V electrical feed for it?

Pentair UltraTemp Heat Pump - Further Reading

(Redirected from Pentair UltaTemp Heat Pump)

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[setsailsoon]

You might also find a solar heater would work well if you can place it in a sunny area. I have a similar situation with a totally screened-in pool. Solar heat panels are installed on the roof and supply plenty of heat for 88-92 deg f water most of the year. We supplement with a gas heater for a couple of months in the winter. So long as we have partly cloudy or better the solar heater works well. I would expect you'd have more clear skies than we do in S Florida so maybe a combination heat pump and solar solution would be most cost effective.

I hope this helps.

Chris

 

[scubadon]

You don't find electric resistive pool heaters used in the US because they use a lot of electricity and are expensive to run unless your electricity is just about free. And they have limited BTU capacity.

Pentair has a Heat Pump Calculator to determine the appropriate size Heat Pump for your location. See if it works for your location.

The more BTU's the better. No reason not to get a 140,000 BTU heat pump if it fits your budget. You will need to run your pump close to 24/7 for the heat pump to provide heat when it can. Can you provide a 50A 240V electrical feed for it?

Pentair UltraTemp Heat Pump - Further Reading

(Redirected from Pentair UltaTemp Heat Pump)

www.troublefreepool.com

Thanks, I will look into that.

 

[scubadon]

You might also find a solar heater would work well if you can place it in a sunny area. I have a similar situation with a totally screened-in pool. Solar heat panels are installed on the roof and supply plenty of heat for 88-92 deg f water most of the year. We supplement with a gas heater for a couple of months in the winter. So long as we have partly cloudy or better the solar heater works well. I would expect you'd have more clear skies than we do in S Florida so maybe a combination heat pump and solar solution would be most cost effective.

I hope this helps.

Chris

Thanks, I will research that direction as well.

 

[Joshii]

You should look into a HotSpot pool heater. I have one. It is like a heat pump, but uses your house's air conditioning unit instead of a separate pool-specific unit. Its a win-win, and largely gives you "free" pool heat by using the heat from your house.

Heat Recovery Pool Heater | Compare To Solar Pool Heater | HotSpot Energy LLC

It may be risky in your area though, due to complexity of AC installation. But if you have a good AC guy I would really look into it.

 

[Dave31410]

77 is actually not too bad if you are actively swimming