Tulsa Pools : Heater For Your Pool
Cody Albright: Hello, divers, and welcome to Dive Time. The show where we talk about pools and such. I’m your host, Cody Albright. Here with me as always is my beautiful, lovely wife, Rachel.
Rachel: Hello.
Cody Albright: Together, we are the owners of the Sierra Pools And Spas of Tulsa. You can find us online at www.sierrapoolsandspas.com or you can give us a call at 918-884-8427. Again, that’s sierrapoolsandspas.com or give us a call at 918-884-8427. You can also find us on Facebook, you can give us a like there. We would like that.
Today, we’re going to be talking about an important, important issue for your Tulsa pools. I can’t think of anyone who really likes to be cold, especially my wife, she does not like to be cold. She likes to be warm.
Rachel: Yes.
Cody Albright: To be warm, you must have a heater.
Rachel: Yes.
Cody Albright: Sometimes your water can be cold and so we need heaters for your pool. Let’s talk about heaters, Rachel, and what’s the definition of heaters.
Rachel: Yes. We’re talking about heaters for your Tulsa pools today. A heater is somewhat of a luxury, you don’t have to have it for your pool.
Cody Albright: But who wouldn’t?
Rachel: Yeah. It’s a great benefit, especially here in the spring time. We have a little bit cooler springs and cooler falls, so you could open your pool earlier in the spring time if you have a heater and you can keep it open later in the fall when it’s a little bit cooler outside, and you can enjoy your pool for a much longer season if you have a heater. The heater is installed after the filter. That is so that only clean water is coming to the heater, and then after that the heated water will return back to the pool through the inlets. Another great thing about heaters, here in Oklahoma it does get really, really hot in the summer and sometimes the water can get really warm. Actually, some heat pumps, you can reverse them and they can cool the water in the really, really hot days of summer. That’s another added benefit.
Cody Albright: Two birds and one stone.
Rachel: Yes, exactly. There are several different types of heaters that we’re gonna talk about today. There are gas heaters, there’s heat pumps, there’s solar heaters, and there’s electric resistance and oil heaters. We’re gonna go over all of those, their differences, their benefits, their cons, their pros, everything Tulsa Pools.
Cody Albright: Yep. Here we go. Three, two, one.
Rachel: Here we go. The first one is a gas heater. Either natural gas or propane is the most popular fuel used for gas heaters. In this type of heater, water will flow through one port, it picks up heat from the heat exchanger in the heater, and exits another port on its way back to the pool. Most heaters mix the just heated water with cool water to maintain a present temperature so it’s not scalding hot when it reaches the pool. Some models are rated 90 to 95% efficient compared with 10 year old heaters that may only be about 60% efficient. Heater efficiency is a ratio of usable heat the unit produces to the energy it consumes to produce the heat. A 90% efficient unit gets 90% of the heat available from every unit of energy. In this case … I’m sorry. A 90% efficient unit gets 90% of the heat available from every unit of energy. In this case, gas. Gas is the unit of energy it needs to run.
To put it another way, if you spend $100 to run the heater, you are getting $90 worth of heat. Only $10 is gone to running that and you’re actually getting $90 worth of heat. That’s pretty good. There are pilotless ignition systems for gas heaters and they’re more popular in newer models, more popular than they were in the past. Some areas of the country even require them. In a pilotless system, there’s no standing pilot light, similar to an electronic ignition system on a newer cooking stove. The alternative is a heater with a standing pilot light of millivolt system, and these systems, the heat from the pilot is converted into electricity that runs the control on the heater. With a pilotless system, electricity must be hooked up to a transformer on the heater. That’s a gas heater in a nutshell Tulsa Pools.
The next type of heater that we’re gonna talk about is a heat pump. A heat pump has long been used for heating and cooling homes. They are becoming increasingly more popular for pools. They don’t produce heat as a gas heater does, rather they take heat from one place and move it to another. The outside air heats a refrigerator within the heat pump that is further heated and compressed by a compressor. This extremely hot gas goes to a heat exchanger where it gives up its heat to the pool water. Then that cycle will start all over again. It’s basically just a transfer of heat. You’re taking heat from one place and it’s putting it into another. The result is an energy efficient appliance that actually produces more heat than the energy it consumes, which is really important. Heat pumps are rated by a coefficient of performance. They can range from about three to seven, with the higher numbers being most efficient. That means for every unit of energy the pump is using, it’s producing three to seven times more heat energy for the pool, which is really good Tulsa Pools.
Cody Albright: Wow.
Rachel: This is what I was talking about earlier. These heat pumps can also run backwards. Because they transfer heat from one place to another, if you run it backwards it can take the heat from the pool and take it out and put it into the air, and then run the water back through as cooler water. It’s useful in very hot climates like Oklahoma and Tulsa where our average temperature in July is 93 degrees. Then you have a heat index that is much higher. It’s really hot.
Cody Albright: Like to the melting point of skin.
Rachel: Yeah. Your shoes are sticking to the ground. It’s not good. Heat pumps are very beneficial, probably my top choice in heating a pool because of their multi-use for heating and cooling. Because they use transfer heat that is in the air, it can sometimes take a long time to warm a pool in the spring or fall because the air’s a bit cooler, it’s not as warm. Usually, there isn’t any problem during the hot days of summer. Cool water in the swing seasons often means the heat pump just has to run longer to heat up the water. That is a heat pump Tulsa Pools.
The next type of heater that we’re gonna look at is a solar heater. You probably don’t know anyone with a solar heater. They’re pretty expensive at the upstart. If you know a lot of people with in-ground pools you might know someone with a solar heater. Solar pool systems are popular because they’re simple and once they’re up and running, they don’t cost anything to keep going. Even though the startup cost is a bit more, once they’re going, they’re taking energy from the sun so there’s no cost for electricity or anything like that. The basic pool solar system consists of collectors, piping, and temperature sensors.
Water flows from the filter to a valve that responds to the sensor measuring the collector’s water temperature. Then another sensor will measure the temperature in the pool. When needed, the valve opens and it will send water to the solar collector to heat up the water. You can mount the collectors on the roof of your house or keep them on the ground as long as they can face south and are tilted for maximum exposure to the sun. Once the water is heated, it will flow back to the pool. In most cases, the pump you use for your pool will be able to handle this load. Sometimes though an extra booster pump may be required.
It is possible to design a solar system heater that will provide all the heat you need for the pool, but these systems would not be practical in many parts of the country. You’d need too much collector area to heat a pool adequately. To compensate, many homeowners install a solar system along with a standard gas heater. They pay more upfront but they get at least part of their heat for free during the life of the system. That’s another option if you’re interested in saving a little bit of money. I don’t necessarily recommend it, but it is an option Tulsa Pools.
There’s two other types of heaters. There’s electric resistance and oil heaters. Unlike heat pumps, which also use electricity, electric resistance heat is more direct. An electric current creates heat that warms the water. These heaters are usually not a first choice for pool owners because local utility rates make them very expensive to run. They are usually specified if natural gas or propane is not available. The same is true of oil-heated appliances. They use number two fuel oil rather than gas to heat the water. Tulsa Pools They’re our less popular, probably not something that most people would be interested in. Again, another option.
Just like with a pump or a filter, you do have to size the heaters for the pools and the spas because you want to make sure that the heater can handle the amount of water that you have in your pool and that it can heat the surface area enough. We take care of all that. We will size the heaters for your pool and for your spa and make sure that it will be adequate to heat all of the water. One thing that you can do to reduce heating cost if you do decide to have a heater or a pump, actually there are several things you can do.
You can keep a thermometer in the pool. It’ll help you determine what water temperature’s right for you. Once you determine that, you can try and keep your heater running at a pace where it will keep the water at that temperature. You can make the comfort setting on the thermostat dial to avoid accidental or careless overheating. Once you find that right temperature, you can make a mark on your heater dial and make sure that it always stays there so you’re not accidentally overheating the pool and spending more money. You can lower the thermostat to 70 degrees Fahrenheit if the pool will be in use for several days. If you’re going out of town or you’re going on vacation or whatever, you can turn the heater down or even turn it off so that you’re not running it while no one is there and no one’s using it.
You can protect the pool from wind. Wind is gonna cool the water down so you might want to build a fence or have some trees located near your pool that’ll cut that wind so it’ll keep it from cooling down so quickly. Another thing is you can use a pool cover. This can reduce your pool’s energy consumption by 50 to 75%. Ff you keep a pool cover on there it’s gonna keep that heat in the water. The last thing would be just get your pool heater tuned up annually, make sure that it’s running efficiently and properly. That can help cut some of your cost also. That is a basic overview of heaters for your Tulsa pools.
Cody Albright: Wow. That’s great information, Rachel. Thanks for that input about and information about heaters and heat pumps and gas heaters, and all that good stuff, solar heaters, electric resistance and oil heaters, all types of heaters. That was some good stuff. I think that about wraps us up for the day. Appreciate you listening, Divers. We will talk to you next time. As always, I’m Cody.
Rachel: I’m Rachel.
Cody Albright: We’ll see you next time. Bye.