Blog

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 cupronickel 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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We installed GeoThermal heating systems for a 1,700-square-foot home and an 8,000-square-foot pool, and we want to show you the layout of this installation.

The first question we have to answer any time we install a geothermal heating system is how we use the earth to heat the water, and there are three main options to do so:

• 1. Closed loop in the ground
• 2. Closed loop in the water
• 3. Wells
  

For this job, we went with the third option. At the beginning of the video, you can see me standing outside the home by the supply well where we have a pump submerged in the ground that’s regulated by internal controls.

As we move into the garage, we find the controls for the water we’re bringing into the home from the well. There are several items to take note of here. The first is the variable frequency drive, which controls the speed of the well pump and ensures there’s no unnecessary energy consumption and the home gets the gallons it needs for the air conditioner, heating of the pool, or both.

Next to that is the intermediate plate heat exchanger—a stainless-steel device that separates the well water from the air conditioning system. Underground water is very unstable, and geothermal heating not only saves energy, but it also protects the unit from underground water.

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Watch some highlights of Sandy’s speech from our end-of-year party.

Today we wanted to share part of our end-of-year party. Sandy King, our CEO, recapped our year and made an exciting announcement. You can watch some highlights of her speech in the video above.

We wanted to celebrate Symbiont Service Corp’s fantastic year. The hard work and dedication of our employees have made this company flourish. In 2019, we earned $9.4 million in revenue. That number dropped significantly in 2020, but we continued to survive COVID. This year, we exceeded $13 million in revenue, which marks our hottest year ever. It’s all thanks to everyone at Symbiont.

This company was founded in the early ’80s by Roy and Karen King, Sandy’s parents. Since then, ownership has been passed down to her. However, Sandy has found a new successor. We’re excited to announce that, from this point forward, we will be an employee-owned business. Our Symbiont Service employees will be our new owners through our ESOP plan.

A Business Observer article by contributor Beth Luberecki, published on March 23, 2022, revealed more about Sandy’s motivation for her decision to transition to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). “To walk away after 26 years with Symbiont without making sure the employees are taken care of would be counterintuitive to my business philosophy,” Sandy told Ms. Luberecki in the interview. “I recognized that the strength of the company is its employees, and I wanted to do right by them. I didn’t want to have a succession plan that only took care of me. I wanted it to be symbiotic and take care of the employees too.”

We hope you’re as excited by this news as we were. As always, if you have any questions about our products or are looking to have a GeoThermal pool heating or air conditioning unit installed, feel free to call or email us. We would love to hear from you.

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Comparing the costs of gas, GeoThermal, and air-source heaters.

Today I’m at Sand Hill Preserve, where we just finished installing four air-source heat pumps to heat their pool and spa. I wanted to take this opportunity to compare gas, GeoThermal, and air-source units.

They decided to install four air-source AquaCal SQ-166R heat pumps for budgetary reasons. These units can cool the pool during the summer and heat it during the winter. They also have a titanium heat exchanger, which is impervious to the chemical balance of the pool water, so you never have to worry about staining the pool. Our GeoThermal units have the same feature.

Gas heaters, which they used to use at Sand Hill Preserve, have a cupronickel coil. The copper will eventually be stripped out and will stain the pool walls a blue-green color. While we’re on the subject, Sand Hill Preserve paid almost $29,000 a year to heat the pool with gas heaters. With their new air-source heat pump, it’ll only cost them around $8,800 a year. Had they gone with GeoThermal units, they would have saved an additional $3,000 per year.

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We all took some time to share what we’re thankful for this year!

It’s December, and 2021 is drawing to a close. We wanted to take some time to share what we’re all thankful for this year. Everybody in our office got in front of the camera to talk about what they appreciated in their life. To hear from all the amazing members of Symbiont, watch the video above.

As Sandy King, our president, puts it: We’re so grateful for all of our customers and amazing Symbiont work family. Where would we be without all of our customers and everyone on our team?

It’s been a challenging but great year, so thank you so much for being a trusted customer. As always, feel free to call if you have any questions. We look forward to serving you in 2022!

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Please note that our office will be closed on the following dates to allow our staff to spend time with their families over the holidays.

Christmas: Closed Friday, December 24 & Saturday, December 25

We will return to normal business hours on Monday, December 27.

New Year’s: Closed Friday, December 31 & Saturday, January 1

We will return to normal business hours on Monday, January 3.

As always, we will have on-call technicians available for 24‑hour emergency service.

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VillageWalk has saved a lot of money by switching to GeoThermal.

We’re here this morning at VillageWalk to discuss the difference between GeoThermal heating and gas heating, which they used to have here. In 2008, VillageWalk asked us for an estimate to convert their pool heating system from gas to GeoThermal. GeoThermal pool heating works by simply transferring heat from the nearby lake water to the pool water through the air conditioning cycle. The two waters never mix, and it’s one of the most efficient ways to heat the pool.

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How can we help you? Contact Us Today

Our goal is to have a symbiotic relationship with our clients. Rick Harding, the Director of Maintenance for the Regal Oaks and Encantada Resort in Kissimmee, has entrusted us with installing a GeoThermal system in a third resort pool. We appreciate being able to work on these projects with him. Here’s what Rick had to say:

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How can we help you? Contact Us Today

Today we’re here at Countryside Verandas to do a post-installation walk-through of the GeoThermal units that were installed. Follow along in the video above to gain an understanding of how these units work to regulate your pool temperatures year-round.

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How can we help you? Contact Us Today

Today we’re at Heritage Pines again with Herb Hurly, the general manager, and Patrick Morse, the energy consultant who put together the proposal and quote for their project. To see the first two videos on Heritage Pines and their installation, watch part one here and part two here. They’ll save $33,000 per year with their new system (compared to using gas), with a 3.9-year return on investment. Those numbers are from the old gas prices; in January, natural gas was $2.05 per metric million, and now it’s $4.90 per metric million, meaning they’re saving even more.

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