Which heater to go with???

[Hottrodd1968]

Hello folks!!! I love this forum

Although I'm fighting my significant other on solar heating... I'm open to hearing about equipment for the job. Hubby wants to heat the pool quick, fast, and in a hurry! He's like the pool to be at least 85 if not 88, and doesn't care what it costs... I do however!!!
We've been trying to do the solar route, but it's just now panning out the way we want it. I'm getting a solar blanket as I know that will help (though it's a pain)... but I'm open to hearing what the equipment can offer.

We don't have natural gas, so it's between propane and electric.

I have an above ground salt water pool, 15 x 30 oval, about 12,000+ gallons... sees sun most of the day.
I'd like to hear from people who actually have the equipment and can provide real data on their usage, consumption, and capability.

Hubby wants propane because it heats better (propane company is coming to give us their 2 cents)
I was looking at the Raypak 156K unit that's about $1000. For those who have this, can you please tell me what your propane usage is over a 3 month period (is dollars and cubic feet). How warm do you keep your pool? Is this unit large enough for a pool my size? How long will it take to get the temp to 88... say if the water is 75.

If I look at electric, I'm thinking the Hayward heat pump. Ouch, those units are expensive! For those you have these type of units, how efficient are they? What kind of electric usage does it consume? KwH?
Again, comparing apples to apples... what's your experience and what do you recommend?

Thanks for all your support.

 

[danpik]

I can't give you much info on the Heatpump as I don't work on them. The gas heater you are looking at, will, under ideal conditions, give you about 1.2 deg/hr of temp rise. Propane is about 2500-2600 BTU/CuFt so with that you will burn about 60 CuFt/hr.

 

[ps0303]

I would consider looking at the Raypak 206K BTU or the 266K BTU unit instead of the 156.

 

[crek31]

If doing gas, I think do as big as possible -- I am unsure if propane is the same but I suspect it is. My understanding is using a 400,000 btu heater will heat in 1 hour the same as a 200,000 in two hours -- so the cost to operate it is roughly going to be the same and the big difference is really just the upfront cost of buying the bigger unit. That is my understanding at lease.

If you are trying to heat it fast and a lot over ambient temp (think shoulder seasons) you will likely want propane. If you do not really want to elongate the season electric will be good, and again the biggest cost is the initial cost to purchase -- the operation is not much if you just keep it at a steady number and assuming your electricity is not off the charts expensive.

When I was comparing natural gas to electric I came to believe that over time they would sort of even out in cost -- the gas would cost more monthly and last fewer years (I think - going off memory) and the electric cost a lot up front but was very cheap month to month and would last longer.

Good luck! BTW if your boyfriend really has the money, some would advocate for both -- do the propane for shoulder seasons and to get a big, quick rise. Use the electric daily for just keeping it where you want it. Best of both worlds if you can handle the up front cost.

Don't forget to be sure your electrical panel can take a heat pump if that is the route you go ...

 

[CJadamec]

I have the same size pool as you and live just across the sound from you.

In our neck of the woods with your size pool I would go heat pump. I opened my pool in the beginning of may and had my heat pump keep my pool in the upper 70's to and it easily got into the mid 80's on the few nice days we had last month. In all my electric bill to heat the pool was about 130 for the whole month. I'm paying 19 cents a kW delivered for electricity.

So for 130 I was able to swim every nice day we had in may and some not so nice days. If you went with propane you would probably double that number or more in propane costs.

My heat pump is only 75k btu.

I still don't have my solar panels done yet, even though they are in my sig.