Newbie - Pool Heater Question

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sleepysdad

0
Jun 3, 2017
18
Hershey PA
First time post, been reading for about 6 months. Thanks TFPP for providing so much valuable information and thanks to all the posters who make these forums a treasure trove of information.

So we just finished out pool last Saturday so we're having a lot of fun, in spite of the cool Pennsylvania weather.

My basic question is this -
This weekend we have plans (and guests) who will use the pool each day through the labor day weekend.

High temperatures forecast are 68 today, 62 Saturday, 75 Sunday, and 82 on Monday.

Based on your experience, should I set the thermostat to 80deg this afternoon when water temp peaks and hold the setting through the entire weekend (warm it up once and maintain for 3 days) or should I shut if off in the evening when the temperature really drops and start from scratch heating the pool each morning. My intuition tells me heating it up once and maintaining will likely consume less gas than trying to heat the pool three times this weekend. Please let me know your opinion. Thanks.

PS
I know we need to include these (been loving my taylor test kit)
FC 16 (I know it's high, I messed up on day one and set the SWG at 100% for the first 24 hours as the pool had 0 FC and 1.5 CC from the dichlor floaters that were in the pool before the pump was hooked up - I didn't realize that my SWG could kick my FC up to 21 within 24 hours. SWG has been turned off for the last 4 days as I'm waiting for the FC to come down to between 5-10)
CC 0
CYA 50 (added some stabilizer prior to this test, but will test again later this week to make sure it has all shown up before adding a little more)
PH 7.4 (Have the same upward drift everyone else seems to have, added quite a bit of acid twice to pull back down)
TA 190 (No clue how it got this high - was it the fill water or did the PB put in some 'alkalinity up' during initial set up, either way intend to just let it fall over time due to acid addition)
CH 130
 
Can you cover the pool??

If you want to use it the entire time then you need to leave the pump and heater running. Allowing the water to cool significantly only to try to reheat the following day will waste more gas than just trying to maintain it. Covering the pool will save you a HUGE amount of energy as all of the heat lost is through evaporative cooling. Trying to maintain a 20 or 30 degree temperature differential with no cover is a losing battle.
 
Our builder told us not to use the heater for the first month. Is that not correct?
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I would call the manufacturer and the plumber (does not sound correct).

Thanks for the input, we will use solar cover when not using the pool
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Sleepysdad:

Place the solar cover on while heating the pool up. This makes a huge difference. With my cover, I get 1* per hour, vs. .5* per hour without. I have a heat pump. The gas heater will heat up faster and you will be surprised after about 2 hours how quickly the water will heat up. Then allow the pool to breathe for a few more hours while the sun is out, and this will save $$ on gas, etc.

My heater is off and water is at 75* today. If I wanted to bring up to 85 degrees, at night, I would place the solar cover on and run the filter through the night. Now, in PA and NJ, it does not make sense to keep water at 80* if no one is using the pool. Try this the night before company and you will be very happy the next day.
 
I keep mine at 84 and go to 86 if it's windy or cloudy. FYI, you get a lot of water loss (evaporation) overnight without a cover. I don't use one and if the pool is 84 and the temps go down to 65 I can see the water loss in just two days. Just mentioning b/c I thought I had a leak at first.
 
Nectarologist said:
I keep mine at 84 and go to 86 if it's windy or cloudy. FYI, you get a lot of water loss (evaporation) overnight without a cover. I don't use one and if the pool is 84 and the temps go down to 65 I can see the water loss in just two days. Just mentioning b/c I thought I had a leak at first.
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Why is it that water loss occurs mostly at night and not during the day. This is why a solar cover is recommended at night and should be removed as sun is beating down on the pool.
 

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Catanzaro said:
Why is it that water loss occurs mostly at night and not during the day. This is why a solar cover is recommended at night and should be removed as sun is beating down on the pool.
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because the water air temp difference is larger at night more heat is lost/transferred to the atmosphere and water with it as it evaporates. I've seen my neighbors pool steaming in the morning when it was upper 40s the night before. All I could think of was "wow, that's like pennies floating up into the sky." Lots and lots of them! haha
 
Based on some of the temps I see folks posting they hold their pools, curious how much you spend per month to keep your pool heated?

In central Pa in september, daytime temps averaging low 70, nights around 50, to heat my pool up to 80 degrees (thermostat on when pool runs for 3 hour schedule, can typically hit heat target within two hours) it will consume around 150 gallons of propane. Full landed price a bit shy of $3/gallon. So looking at $400-600/ month. Solar cover is on the pool for 23 hours/day.

Curious to others experience.
 
Sleepysdad:

Are you saying that with your solar cover over 23 hours per day in September, with the temperatures at 50-70 and water temp. @ 80 degrees, and the pump is running for only 3 hours, you spend $400-$600. That seems pretty excessive.

I did run a test from 80-85 degrees with my heat pump and the time was 6 hours and 22 minutes and total cost around $7 for the day. This was during the morning and temperatures were in the 65-75 degree range. I would assume cover at night and heating during the day would be better. I have not done any testing with the cooler weather here, but will put on the cover today and run another test.
 
400 - 600 a month seems high to me too. I did some back of the napkin calculations for my natural gas fired heater and figured that I would spend about $100 per month on gas with heating the pool up on weekends only. Assuming about 10 hours of heating per weekend.
 
My heater consumes 2 gallons of propane per hour and increases pool temp by 2 degrees per hour. Typical day the heater needs to run 2 hrs continuous (to get from 75 to 80, roughly average day of late). So around 4 gallons/day, or 120 gallons/month. Just plug in the rate per gallon. We just switched gas companies and wife is telling me new vendor delivering at <$2/gallon so I will revise my estimate to closer to $250/month.

I believe if I targeted 85 I would burn an additional 1-2 gallons per day (hard to tell with heat retention between runs). I have held the temp at 85 for an entire weekend when it was cool/rainy and burned through 30 gallons.

Think my initial estimate a bit high. Very impressed with the cost efficiency of the heat pump.
 
Propane is the single most expensive way to heat a pool. Well I guess you could heat it with #2 oil and that would be more expensive but there aren't too many people doing that. It's roughly double the cost of heating with natural gas, and way more expensive than an electric heat pump.

There are a lot of good things about using propane as an energy source cost just isn't one of them.

I know this has already been said in this thread but its worth repeating. If you pay to heat your pool, you need to have a solar cover on the pool if you aren't in the pool. Otherwise you are just literally throwing your money into the air. A pool with a solar cover will use 40-60% less energy to heat the pool when compared to the same pool with no cover. On a month to month basis.
 
Very impressed with the cost efficiency of the heat pump.
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Heat pumps are efficient, not quick. The efficiency is even there if the temperatures are low. Humidity in the air is usually higher when the temperatures are lower. As the temperature increases through the day, usually the humidity decreases. I also believe the circulators make a difference. The return jet is taking water coming out plumbing lines and pushing down in the shallow and deep end. We all know that heat loss from a pool is from evaporation on the surface for the most part.

I ordered 2 extra returns and next year, I will add all 6 to the pool and run another detailed analysis. The temperature increase will be 10 degrees, from 75 to 85 to have more of a better feel. I went from 80 to 85 on the first run.
 
DanielJ said:
400 - 600 a month seems high to me too. I did some back of the napkin calculations for my natural gas fired heater and figured that I would spend about $100 per month on gas with heating the pool up on weekends only. Assuming about 10 hours of heating per weekend.
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Your gas must be expensive. I need to actually check a bill but some quick calculations based on BTU/hr and figuring 100 hours of heating a month I'm figuring it costs me ~$50-60 a month to have my heater switched on round the clock.

I need to get better about covering my pool. I never put the solar cover on because it is such a pain in the behind. a few weeks ago it got down to like 43 one morning and the pool was 85 without a cover, looked out and thought one of our cars was on fire! lol
 

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