Best Pool Heating Options According to Climate

The climate you live in can dramatically alter your pool-heating options. Thinking about your climate and using the pool heating options available to their best potential can save you time and money. A pool cover can save you a fortune, and your heat pump can help keep your costs down.

Warm climates

Warm, sunny climates can utilize a combination of solar-powered heating and pool covers with minimal power used. The real problems in warmer climates are likely to come from evaporation, and heat transfer, with the resultant heat loss. This places an extra strain on the heating system. It’s wasteful, despite the efficiency of the heat pumps, which produce 5 units of heat for every 1 unit they consume.

Basically, the heat loss just creates an unnecessary situation. The problem is easy to fix, however. If you simply install a pool cover, you minimize heat loss. The pool cover traps heat, prevents evaporation, and of course also operates as a shade and sun screen. This reduces demands on the pool heating system, saves time, and adds a nice feature to the pool.

Note: Any form of excess strain on the heating system also costs money down the track, because it shortens product life, and can create situations requiring more maintenance than would otherwise be the case. A pool cover will add at least a few years to your heating system’s life.

Cool climates

Colder climates will do best with a heat pump (or perhaps two different types) and a pool cover to keep the warmth in. This is a similar situation to that of warm climates, but in this case the heat loss can be more severe, even if the evaporation is less of a problem. Heat transfer is much faster in colder environments, and this creates another situation where the heating system is required to do a lot more work.

The added problem is that the heat loss is continuous in cold climates, as well as faster. This is a significantly tougher problem, but again, the pool cover will do the job very efficiently. The pool cover traps heat, and creates a “micro climate” which loses heat much more slowly in this situation. The heating system is under far less strain, and therefore more cost efficient.

Pool heating economics and power systems

The economics of pool heating are measured by the cost of the power required to do the job. Obviously, if you’re having to continuously heat the pool, that’s not an efficient outcome. It costs money, and you’re not getting the best results. You may also incur additional costs in servicing the overworked heating system.

The best general approach is to use a combination of a power system and a pool cover. Whatever system you’re using for power, whether it’s an electric heat pump, gas, or solar, you can reduce costs to a minimum. The solar combination option makes energy cheaper, and reduces the cost of the other systems.

Heating your pool can be very cheap and very easy. Check out a pool cover and ask about your pool heater options, and you’ll see how easy pool heating can be.