Question on heat cycling...

[Northrider]

I'm sure there will be differing opinions on this so heres the question. Our pool has a 350000 BTU propane heater. It will bring the temp up about 2-3 degrees per hour when fired up. I'm racking my brain over should I set and hold the temps at my desired temps (mid 80's) or turn the temp down (mid 70's) while not in use. Case in point, we will not be in the pool at all for the next 5-7 days (just looking at the forecast) Would I be better off turning the temp down a few degrees until warmer weather returns? What do others do? Thanks for any help!
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[koht]

We use natural gas. I typically turn the heater on Friday morning and leave it on over the weekend. It generally takes all day Friday to heat up from roughly 74 - 84 degrees. We are going through some low temps here around high 50s low 60s at night. Typically we will keep the heater on once my wife finishes up for her summer break. Once our house remodel is finished, we will go back to keeping the heater on as the pumps are on, usually 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.

 

[Northrider]

12 hours on and 12 hours off sounds about right for filtering, do you have the pump set to turn on with the heater or do it manually?

 

[danpik]

The only way to know for sure is to watch what the temperature drop is over a day or two period. As it is now, (based on my gas costs) your heater is costing about $4/hr to run so to come up 10 deg it will cost about $16. If the water temp drops that much over night, each night, then it will cost about $16/day to maintain. Assuming that the water temp will not drop 70 deg over a week time it would make more sense to only run on the weekend. You will need to figure out how much heat you loose each day and what it is worth to you. Personally, mine only runs prior to the day we will be using it.

Dan

 

[Northrider]

Thanks for the reply, you are saying what I need to hear! So far I have seen the temps drop about 6 degrees overnight with outside temps in the low 50's. Sunny days have brought the temps up by 3-5 degrees using the solar cover, just haven't seen much sun in the last few weeks. I'm really hoping for 1-2 hours or less run time on the heater per day. The one sunny weekend we had with temps in the low 80's the water temps started at 83 in the am and were up to 88 by 4 pm just from keeping the cover on. The heater never cycled for 2 days as the cool down seemed to slow with 60's vs 50's at night.

 

[koht]

SWG and heater are all on the same switch. It all comes on together and everything runs at the same time. The heater can be turned off and not come on with the rest. When the switch is flipped off everything turns off.

I do have to say one weekend we hit high 80s and even though we had the heater on, we really didn't lose much temp in the water. It never really ran that weekend.