Help finding heat pump information

[Ezun]

Hey all, I’ve been using TFP for a while now and I’m a supporter...
About a year ago I was frustrated with the insane cost of running my heat pump and when I searched here I found some rather technical articles that clearly outlined when and why a heat pump can be more expensive than a gas heater. (Primarily due to the air being cooler than the water already), but I can’t find them for the life of me now.

Any help would be wildly appreciated!

thank you

 

[ajw22]

I am not sure what articles you remember seeing.

You will find links to calculators here that let you compare costs for different types of pool heating - Calculators - Further Reading

Do you have natural gas or propane available?

 

[Ezun]

That’s helpful. I’ll check it out, thank you.
My personal bill to run my heat pump monthly is in the $300-$400 range and that seems insane to me. I need to do more homework on it.
Also, 2 friends are building pools and I want to give them the most accurate information I can.

 

[ajw22]

To calibrate your $300-$400 /month electric cost we need to know your fully loaded KW/hr cost, what months are that cost, and what water temp you heat to?

Do you run your pump and HP 24/7?

 

[Ezun]

To calibrate your $300-$400 /month electric cost we need to know your fully loaded KW/hr cost, what months are that cost, and what water temp you heat to?

Do you run your pump and HP 24/7?

Allen,
The first year I just let everything run 24/7.
Year 2 (last year) I started shutting things down for 3-4 hours at night, and that helped. Mid season I went to manually turning my HP on at about 9 or 10am every day which also helped (I might try to get this on a timer somehow - I do have the Pentair Easytouch control system, so I might be able to use that somehow)
A few things I want to figure out is:
1) How much does it cost to run my main pump (secondary pump is only for the waterfalls and not on all that often)?
2) How much does it cost to run my HP?
3) does it make sense to run a gas line to the equipment and put in a gas heater and have the two tag team?

I do not have a cover for the pool so I lose a TON of heat at night - talking to the wife about that, not sure she’ll go for it.

I’m not sure what you mean by “fully loaded KW/h“ - can you explain or is that in the calc information you shared already?

 

[ajw22]

A few things I want to figure out is:

1) How much does it cost to run my main pump (secondary pump is only for the waterfalls and not on all that often)?

What speed do you run your pump at? Adjust the cost below for your kw/hr cost.

2) How much does it cost to run my HP?

Pentair has a Heat Pump Calculator to determine the appropriate size Heat Pump for your location.

3) does it make sense to run a gas line to the equipment and put in a gas heater and have the two tag team?

I doubt it.

I do not have a cover for the pool so I lose a TON of heat at night - talking to the wife about that, not sure she’ll go for it.

A cover will be the best money you can spend.

I’m not sure what you mean by “fully loaded KW/h“ - can you explain or is that in the calc information you shared already?

Look at my electric bill below. My basic electric charge is 8.382 cents but then there are distribution charges and transmission charges.

So when dividing the actual usage of 1793 kwh for the month by the $274 my fully loaded cost is 15.28 cents/kwh.

Electric_cost_per_kwh.png

• ajw22
• Apr 4, 2020

Example of electric utility bill to show loaded cost per kwh