Blog Tag: heating

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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How much heat is actually going into your pool? Today, we’ll show you how you can answer that question yourself.

Starting at 0:15 in the video above, you’ll see a two-page chart of some common gas heater brands and their features. These are the main brands available for pool owners in Florida, and there are a couple of things you need to know regarding BTUH ratings for these units.

First, a BTUH rating measures the unit’s heat input, not the heat output. In other words, that’s how much fossil fuel the unit is burning, not how much that’s going into the pool. If you want to know how many BTUHs are going into your pool, you need to multiply the efficiency rating of the heater by your heater’s BTUH rating.

For example, a 400,000K BTUH heater is a common heater for a commercial pool, and a 400,000K BTUH heater at 82% efficiency equates to a 328,000 BTUH output per hour.

No matter what heating unit you use for your pool, you need BTUHs to do it, so you need to know how many BTUHs are going into the pool versus how many BTUHs of gas the unit itself is burning.

As you’ll notice, some of the other categories of the chart include Low NOx and Fan-Assisted. A Low NOx rating is important for your heater from an environmental standpoint, and a Fan-Assisted feature basically means your heater is turbocharged.

If you have any other questions about heating your pool, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’d be glad to help you.

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Using geothermal energy to heat a pool is not only much more cost effective than using traditional heat pumps or gas heaters, but it is also much better for the environment. To fully understand the benefits of geothermal pool heaters, you first need to understand a little bit more about how they work.

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A heat pump is an efficient and effective means of heating and cooling a home in our temperate Florida climate. But as with other HVAC systems, heat pumps have a limited lifespan — usually no more than 20 years for most models. Depending on the age of your heat pump, chances are you have thought about a replacement or even a heat pump upgrade.

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