Blog Category: Heating

It’s time for part two of our side-by-side comparison of all your different Florida pool heating options. If you missed part one where we covered the pros and cons of electrical resistance heaters and natural gas/propane heaters, check it out here. This time, we’re focusing on the air source heat pump and the PH90 GeoThermal pool heater. 

The air source heat pump has an evaporator coil that is susceptible to damage from the salt air. If you have a pool on the coastline, you may not want this type of pump. However, it is a pretty efficient option.

Here’s how it works: It takes in air through the coils, sucks the heat out of the air, ejects the heat through the coil, and the condensing coil has a titanium tube heat exchanger that produces about 150,000 BTUs per hour. For every dollar you spend on heating, you’re getting six dollars worth of heat. To heat your average pool, it only costs around $1,300 to maintain 84 degrees. That’s much lower than the $6,000 average for pools heated with natural gas or propane systems.

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We’re here in the boneyard today to go over the different types of heaters that you can use to heat your pool in Florida. There are four different types of pool heaters that we’ll cover. We’ll go through the pros and cons of the first two today, show you how they work, and detail the maintenance costs of each.

We’ll start with the electrical resistance heater. It has two heating elements that stick down into a reservoir and heats water as it flows through. As you apply power to the coils, they glow and heat the water. 

They are very susceptible to chemical imbalances, however, so they end up having to be replaced quite often. They produce 37,000 BTUs per hour and a coefficient of proficiency of 1.0. That means for every dollar you spend, you get one dollar’s worth of heat. It’s not a great choice for bigger pools; it’s better for spas.

Next, we have the natural gas and propane heaters. It produces 400,000 BTUs at 84% efficiency. That means you’re only producing 336,000 BTUs per hour. It has a small footprint, and it’s not affected by the outside temperature no matter how cold. 

A weakness of this is that as pool water flows through the cuprohttps://symbiontservice.com/pool-heating-in-florida/#gasnickel heat exchanger, it’s also very susceptible to chemical imbalances. When the pool water gets to a saturation point, it will stain your pool surface with copper. You have to be extra careful with this one. In a typical residential pool, to heat the pool year-round, it will cost you $6,000 per year for natural gas but $14,000 per year with propane. It does have a small footprint and provides a lot of heat

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Today we’re at the North Charlotte County Park’s Aquatic Center. We’re going to explain the operation of the whole GeoThermal heating system (watch the video above to see everything in action).

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We’re at the Englewood YMCA to show how we maintain your pool heater.

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In October 2005 we installed four GeoThermal Pool Heaters, plus one for the spa, at the YMCA facility in Englewood. Symbiont Service also provides regular planned/preventative maintenance for the Y, and 15 years later they’re still going strong!

Join Director of Field Operations, Jim Howarth, and Service Trainer, Jimmy Dietrich, for a brief look at how we approach maintaining these systems, and how we can extend the life of yours.

Enjoy peace of mind and be comfortable for years to come with our Sole Source Solution: “One Company, One Call, Complete Comfort.”

You can find our entire 28-point checklist here!

If you have questions about our process or anything else, feel free to reach out via phone or email. We would be happy to help.

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In order to know what size of heating system you need for your pool, you will need to know how many gallons it holds. For the equations you’ll need to use to estimate this amount, please refer to the video above starting at 0:15.

After you know how many gallons your pool holds, you can then find the BTUs that your pool will need each day. You can see the equation for this at 0:37. This calculation requires using a recovery factor, which is the number of degrees that the heating system must be able to raise the pool each day to maintain a temperature when heat is lost overnight.

As I mentioned before, a pool that is not heated would match the outside average air temperature. So, if you wanted to keep a pool heated to 86 degrees in January when the average temperature is only 60 degrees, you will have to raise it 26 degrees just to counter the air temperature.

To calculate the recovery factor after this temperature difference is considered, there are many factors to evaluate: Average wind speed, shade from trees and buildings, if a blanket is used, where return locations in the pool are located, and depth, which is a large factor.

The pools that you see in the video at 3:00, although they look much different in terms of surface size, only have a 200,000-gallon difference. The depth of the pools greatly impacts the number of heaters required for the competition pool versus the diving pool. This is because there are less BTUs needed to heat a deeper pool with a smaller surface area compared to a shallower pool with the same volume. In this example, the competition pool requires eight heaters while the diving pool requires only three.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

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When comparing the differences between air source heat pumps and water source heat pumps, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The answer is simple: One uses air and one uses water. Yet there are even more differences between these two heat sources that may not be so obvious.

During my recent lecture about swimming pool heating systems, the room was set to a comfortable 75 degrees. However, this same temperature would be far less comfortable if you were in a pool, because water transfers heat more efficiently than air. A lack of humidity translates to a lack of efficient heating.

When you use a water source, the temperature is more consistent. Bodies of water experience temperature change less rapidly than air. So which heating method is most beneficial for maintaining a pool’s temperature?

Geothermal heat sources are a very effective option for heating pools, because they can be installed indoors while an air source cannot. Since they don’t need any air flow, you have more options of where to position the system.

Geothermal heat sources also offer great performance, low operating costs, and a life expectancy of up to 15 or 20 years if serviced regularly. They are also capable of cooling.

The primary drawback to this heating method is that it has a higher installation cost.

If you have any additional questions about geothermal heating, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

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In continuation of my course, “Choosing the Right Swimming Pool Heating System,” today I’ll be discussing the function and mechanics of geothermal heat pumps.

When you hear the term ‘geothermal,’ what do you think of?

‘Geo-’ means ‘earth,’ and ‘-thermal’ means ‘heat.’ Old Faithful geyser, the popular tourist destination at Yellowstone National Park, is just an example of the kind of power that can be harnessed for human use. The vapor and steam that erupt from the geyser is high-grade geothermal energy.

Another high-grade geothermal area of interest you might have heard of is Warm Mineral Springs in North Port. The water there bubbles at 87 degrees Fahrenheit and flows out into a lake, issuing a strong sulfur smell.

At Symbiont, we use low-grade geothermal power. When the sun heats the Earth, that heat is stored in groundwater, and we use our technology to operate heating and cooling systems by harnessing this phenomenon.

At 1:40 in the video above, you’ll see a map of the United States indicating the temperature of groundwater in wells that range in depth from 50 to 150 feet. In Florida, the average temperature of the water is 75 degrees. In the winter, this heat acts as a great source for our heat pumps. In the summer, this same temperature acts as a great sink, or a place to put heat back into the ground, if you’re using our cooling system.

As a recap for how a geothermal heat pump works, refer to 2:25 in the video above. Similar to the air pump we’ve discussed before, our heat pump differs only in that it has two water coils instead of the fan. It still has a compressor, refrigerant flow control, the condenser, and the evaporator. The refrigerant flows through, changing states depending on where it is in the cycle.

If you have any questions about geothermal heat pumps, please feel free to contact me. I’d be glad to help answer any questions you have.

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Today I’m bringing you information about air-source heat pumps, so you can make the smart choice about your pool heating needs.

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Today I’d like to bring you yet another excerpt from my recent seminar on choosing the right pool heating system. For this installment, I will be specifically speaking about air-source heat pumps.

A heat pump is a mechanical device which uses refrigerant to transfer heat from one place to another. Cooling with such a pump can also be achieved. But in that case, the heat would be transferred away from the desired source instead of toward it.

Heat pumps are actually a technology we all use every day. With that being said, let’s go over how this technology is applied as a pool heating method.

Every heat pump will share a common set of base components, including a compressor, an expansion valve, a condenser, and an evaporator. You can see how each of these components connects in air-source heat pumps, specifically, in the diagram shown in the video. Feel free to reference this graphic in order to better understand the process I’m about to describe.

The condenser side of an air-source heat pump is where the pool water absorbs the heat from the freon. From there, the freon moves to the evaporator, where a large coil and fan will vaporize the freon. Finally, the vaporized freon travels back through the compressor and into the condenser, where it again becomes a liquid. This process will repeat continuously, moving heat and vapor to the pool water in the condenser, until a certain temperature is achieved.

The refrigerant moves the heat from its free source. Meanwhile the air fan and motor move the air itself.

For an air-source heat pump to work properly, though, they must be installed outside. It’s also important to note that they are most effective, and most commonly used, in mild climates. An air-source heat pump used on a pool in a colder climate will typically be accompanied by a backup gas heating method of some kind. This is because, if air gets cold enough, the evaporator coil can freeze.

Now that you’ve got an understanding of how this kind of system works, let’s discuss a few pros and cons.

Starting with the positive aspects, air-source heat pumps are relatively inexpensive in terms of installation and operation costs. They are also capable of cooling pools in addition to heating them.
However, air-source heat pumps do have some definite drawbacks. Namely, they tend to exhibit poor performance during cold weather, which is when pool heaters are needed most.

If you are interested in learning more about your heating options and what I think is the best, please feel free to contact me. I would be happy to speak with you.

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Today we will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of a rather passive pool heating method: solar heating.

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Welcome back to our series on heating pool methods where I review information from one of my past seminars on the subject. For today’s installment, we will be discussing solar heating systems.

Solar heating systems are very passive. Panels on the roof of the property adjacent to the pool capture solar energy. Water moves past these panels through a connected tube, absorbing between three to five degrees of heat upon each pass. That said, it takes a significant amount of time for the water to become adequately heated. And solar energy is only effective when the sun is shining.

As a result, 70% of heat loss occurs in the overnight hours. This means, when it comes to building up energy, your system must essentially restart each morning. If you are a morning swimmer, you shouldn’t expect your pool to be warm early in the day when using solar heating systems. It essentially takes an entire day just to replenish the heat lost overnight, leaving you with very few hours in the day to enjoy a sufficiently heated pool.

Many people who use a solar heating system will add an additional, supplementary system, but doing so ultimately negates the reasons why someone might opt for a solar system.

On average, a solar pool heating system will produce 1,000 BTUs per square foot of panel per day. So, you will need a lot of panels. This is certainly something to consider before investing in a solar panel.

Beyond that, this heating method offers limited effectiveness during winter months when the days are shorter, the sun is lower in the sky, and the air tends to be cool.

There are, of course, benefits to the solar heating method. Two examples I have already mentioned are low operating cost and limited environmental impact, but there is also the fact that this method can work to cool pools down in the summer.

Yet, there are also a number of disadvantages to keep in mind. Low heat output during pool heating season and a large physical installation footprint are just two examples.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I would love to speak with you.

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Recently, I gave a seminar about different types of heating methods for swimming pools that I thought I would share with you. We have previously discussed the pitfalls of using gas. In this section, I will be discussing electric heating.

Among the multiple types of pool heating methods for commercial and residential pools, some are more popular than others. Electric, solar, air source heat pumps, and geothermal heat pumps are all used.

Electric heating works a lot like a toaster. There are electric coils in it where water runs across it. This creates a little bit of heat from the small box. Because of the size of the heater, it is not a good application for a commercial pool. For residential pools or residential spas, you can see electric heaters like that.

You can think of an electric heater like your water heater. It is an insulated, contained tank that is about 50 to 80 gallons. Meanwhile, spas average 500 gallons with no cover, so it takes a lot more heat than the little electric strip can do.

With electric heating, for every kilowatt you pay FPL, you get one kilowatt in the form of heat. So, your efficiency is still 100% compared to 82% for gas heaters mentioned in my video here. You also need a 60-amp breaker for that 11 kW heater at 240v. So that’s a lot of electric just for 37,000 BTUH.

You’re not getting a lot of bang for your buck there on that kind of a small system. But, there are some pros of the method. It is a small physical footprint and it can be installed indoors or outdoors.

The cons, however, are high. It has a super high operating cost, and the performance and electrical demand that you need is quite a bit.  

If you have any more questions about electric as a method for heating a swimming pool, please don’t hesitate to ask. I would be happy to speak with you.

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