Pool Heating Options

[ali-cat]

I'm now a little fed up with our Abri owning friends telling us that their pool water temperature is up to 28 degrees and they've been using it for over a month.  Our 10x5 pool with floating roller cover hasn't got above 17 degrees as yet (Dept 17). Admittedly we don't leave the pool open for safety reasons so the sun hasn't been heating the pool however even last year the pool temperature never exceeded 23 degrees even when open all day.

Looking at the various options (electric, heat pup, solar - an abri is not an option as we recently installed the roller cover and an abri would dominate our patio area) it occured to me that you would need to use an awful lot of electicity to offset the captital costs of installing a heat pump or solar setup (which will also use electricity).

I'd be very grateful for anyone's experiences with these options.

Regards

Mr Cat

 

[Moorejw]

Well, we have a 10 x 5 pool with a bubble cover and the temp was up to 25 degrees two weeks ago, before all the rain. We regularly get 28-29 degrees in the height of summer. Keeping the bubble cover on heats it up, so don't take the cover off except when you are swimming. Is your pool in a very exposed place? I would have thought you would achieve more than 23 degrees.

[Poolguy]

Alison

 

I have sent you an email about the Evacuated tube solar system for your pool. Its the best solution all around as you have the best insulated cover already and you have the south facing roof on your pergola to mount the panels.

All you will need in addition is to install a bypass in the pumproom to take the heat exchanger and the pressure circut. After that's in itsvertaully free as the circulation pump uses next to nothing, in electricity.

further info available on my website...

 

Andrew

[ams]

We live in 17 also, ours is 10x5 and is geothermically heated and has an abri, which is 2.5m high at one end and 2m high on the other.  Two doors and can be folded back in about 4 minutes. The maximum temp with the heating system is 28c.

 

The abri was a great investment, as being heated was cool but  when your head is out of the pool and the temp is -4C not a lot of point. Generally the pool hits 18c at the end of march and we turn off the heating, this year being the exception. Now the temp in the pool is 26C and has been for the past week. In summer it is necessary to take the cover off as the temp once hit 38c and algae grew at a huge pace. Normally about the second week in november the heat goes on again.

 

Heating the pool geothermically is not expensive.

 

ams

[ali-cat]

Hi there.

Many thanks for the response.  Our pool is in a very sunny and well sheltered patio area.  I assume that, while the roller cover does insulate against heat loss overnight, the fact that it is opaque means that there is no deep heating of the pool from sunlight when the pool isn't open - which is all the time at the moment.

Could I ask if the bubble cover is safety compliant - and is actually safe for pets etc.

Regards

Mr Cat

 

 

 

[ali-cat]

[quote user="ams"]

We live in 17 also, ours is 10x5 and is geothermically heated and has an abri, which is 2.5m high at one end and 2m high on the other.  Two doors and can be folded back in about 4 minutes. The maximum temp with the heating system is 28c.

 

The abri was a great investment, as being heated was cool but  when your head is out of the pool and the temp is -4C not a lot of point. Generally the pool hits 18c at the end of march and we turn off the heating, this year being the exception. Now the temp in the pool is 26C and has been for the past week. In summer it is necessary to take the cover off as the temp once hit 38c and algae grew at a huge pace. Normally about the second week in november the heat goes on again.

 

Heating the pool geothermically is not expensive.

 

ams

[/quote]

Sorry ams.  I not sure if you meant that the geothermal heating alone was cool as in 'pretty neat' or cool as in not warm.  Presumably also the installation costs of geothermal are pretty high?

Regards

Mr Cat

 

 

[ams]

Cool as in great, however the reality of leaving the house in winter to get into a heated pool is not very practical, thus we put an abri over the pool and can now use it all year. Before the abri we got to use the pool for about 3.5 months a year and spent a lot of time cleaning leaves, bird deposits, insects out of it, now virtually no work.

 

The cost of geothermic heating. ?

 

The operating running costs for the heating is about €4.50 per day. I have no idea of the cost of installation as we bought the house from a person that used it as his geothermicac show house and residence. I do beleive that one can obtain sustantial grants towards the cost of installation.

 

ams

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="Poolguy"]

Alison

 

I have sent you an email about the Evacuated tube solar system for your pool. Its the best solution all around as you have the best insulated cover already and you have the south facing roof on your pergola to mount the panels.

All you will need in addition is to install a bypass in the pumproom to take the heat exchanger and the pressure circut. After that's in itsvertaully free as the circulation pump uses next to nothing, in electricity.

further info available on my website...

 

Andrew

[/quote]

We had a similar system set up on our pool in Australia and it enabled us to swim 9 months out of 12. Very efficient system, and I think it also enabled us to be able to cool the pool down in the summer somehow, but I forget how that worked. A pool temp of 36C was too hot to swim in the middle of one summer, but this system helped us bring it down to a more comfortable 28C somehow.