Making the most of your swimming pool heater

As you can imagine, boiling a kettle can actually use quite a bit of energy, much in the same way as

your swimming pool heater. Of course the one in your pool will not be heating the water that hot!

However it is good to bear in mind that you can save some money by looking at a different type of

heater.

There are a number of different types of swimming pool heater and what this article will do is have a

look at a few of them to see what the differences are.

The first heater we come across is the common gas swimming pool heater. The reason why they are

so common is normally due to their cost, however they are not very efficient, especially the older

versions. As the name suggests they are powered by either propane or gas. How they work is a fairly

simple process. The water from the pool is pumped into the unit, through the filter and finally on to

the heater.

As the gas burns, this then creates the heat which is then transferred to the water being pumped

through. Different sizes and strengths of heater are available. This will depend on the size of your

pool and what sort of environment the pool is in. After all if you live in Iceland you are going to need

a lot of power to heat a swimming pool!

The great thing about this sort of heater is the fact that they can heat up in a short amount of time

and once they are running they can keep a steady temperature. If you are only looking to heat your

swimming pool occasionally then this is a good option for you.

The second type of heater we are going to discuss is the heat pump heater. They are more efficient

than gas heaters and will also last longer but as you can imagine this does come at a price. One thing

to consider about this type of heater is the fact that you will need a professional to install the unit

and to maintain it.

Last but not least we have the solar heater. This heater is quite topical at the moment with

governments looking for more ways to use renewable energy sources. The cost of them is not much

more expensive than the other two products but the annual costs are definitely cheaper. These

types of units operate by pumping the water through the filter then on to the solar collector which

will then heat up the water.

One of the main factors in how successful a solar swimming pool heater will be is the amount of

solar energy you have available. You will notice that it is not necessarily dependant on how much

sunlight you get. The reason for this is a solar heater can absorb solar radiation as well as direct

sunlight. So as long as it’s not shady then you have a good chance of the heater working for you.

One downfall is that the solar collector has to be quite large, sometimes up to 100% of the surface

area of your swimming pool!