If you want to swim earlier in the season or swim longer at the end of summer, using a swimming pool water heater makes sense. Should you heat your pool water with a solar heater? It is a question the swimming pool contractors from Tipton Pools in Knoxville, Tennessee get asked all the time.
Heating the pool water is something many pool owners want to do simply because they want to use their pool for as many months of the year as possible. There is a cost to a solar pool set up, but once that’s done, the sun will save you money and is an inexhaustible supply! Even pool owners in the cooler parts of the country can benefit from heating the pool water with a solar powered heater.
Should you heat your pool water with a solar heater?
The most efficient and economical of pool water heaters is a solar swimming pool heat pump. The heater works by transferring heat from the sun to the pool water and heating it to a comfortable level for swimming. When you compare the ongoing pricing for using a pool heater such as gas, electric or oil heaters, solar heat pumps cost less to operate and that makes them an attractive choice.
Solar powered pool water heaters do have temperature settings so you don’t have to worry about swimming in water that is as warm as bathwater. Chances are you just want to take the chill out of the water, not turn it into a hot tub level temperature!
When you invest in a solar pool heating system it will include:
- A solar heat collector which circulates the pool water through it to be heated by the sun then transferred back to the water.
- A filter to remove debris before the water is pumped through the solar heat collector.
- The pump that will circulate the water through the filter and heat coils then push it back into the pool
- The flow control valve — automatic or manual — to divert pool water through the solar collector
Plan to spent about $4,000, on average, for a swimming pool solar heating system. You will reap the benefits of the cost and it will pay for itself over the course of the lifetime of pool operation — especially if you heat the pool water regularly.
Give us a call and let’s talk about your pool, any pool renovations and a pool water heater.