JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.
Customer Service: [email protected]
Pool Heating Guide
In order to make your swimming pool more comfortable, you should be heating it using some form of heater. There are various different types of pool heaters available and this guide will help explain how each one works and which one would be most suitable for your pool.
The most popular type of pool heating used in pools is a gas boiler as its fairly economical and can heat either a indoor or outdoor pool all year round. Gas Boilers either use natural gas or propane. A gas boiler must be installed by a registered gas engineer who is on the gas safe register. The gas boiler will have a control panel which will feature an on/off switch, a thermostat and there will be a small valve which will allow you to open or shut off the gas supply to your heater.
A gas boiler heats the pool water as it passes through special pipes in the boiler. The water volume (pool size) and the desired temperature will determine which gas boiler is needed and each boiler will have a different output measured in BTN (British thermal unit). To work out how much output is needed for your pool, we advise you need 20btu per gallon of water but we can work out for you which boiler you require based on the size and depth of your pool.
Oil boilers work very similar to gas boilers but use oil as the source of fuel.
The pool heat pump has become the best choice for heating your swimming pool as they are very efficient with a co-efficiency of performance of upto 5:1, which means every 1 in electricity the heat pump will give 5 worth of heat to your swimming pool. The heat pump works by extracting the surrounding air and then converted into heat which is used to warm the water. The fan on the heat pump draws high volumes of air and the liquid refrigerant in the evaporator air coil absorbs the available heat in the air which converts the liquid into a heated gas. The refrigerant gas is then pumped to a compressor which concentrates the heat and this is pumped to the heat exchanger condenser where the water is heated as its passes through the exchanger. After the gas is cooled by the water the refrigerant gas returns to a liquid state and is pumped through and back to the evaporator air coil to start absorbing heat again from the air.
Most heat pumps are now fully automatic and are controlled by a pool water thermostat. The heat pump works more efficiency when the air temperature is 15 degrees centigrade and above and could achieve the 5:1 co-efficiency, but will only achieve 3:1 co-efficiency if the temperature drops down to 10 degrees centigrade or less if the temperature is lower. The size of the heat pump depends on the size of your pool and also if you are going to be using the pool for the extended season and the temperature you would like to heat your pool too.
A heat exchanger allows you to use your existing heating system in your house to help boost the temperature of your pool water. The heat exchanger needs to be plumbed into your existing domestic boiler and connected to your swimming pool pipework. The heat exchanger works by running the pool water and the hot water separately side by side which transfers the heat. Installing a heat exchanger involved a large amount of pipework to connect the systems together.
Electric heaters are a simple solution to heating a swimming pool as they can be connected alongside you filter pump and other equipment and are relatively easy to install. An electric heater has a number of immersion elements inside and the water is heated when it passes through. The electric heater can measure the water temperature and supply the right amount of heat to ensure the pool is at the desire temperature. The size of the electric heater needed will depend on the size of your pool and with a heater sized in the ratio of 1.5kW per 1000 gallons of the water temperature of the pool from tap temperature to swimming temperature could take 2 days of continuous running. Pool Heaters are better suited to operate at night as some electricity tariffs are cheaper.
Heating your pool using free heat from the sun looks very attractive but however in this climate it can be unreliable at maintaining a constant pool temperature. The solar panel systems can also only increase the water by about (2 to 4 degrees) above the normal unheated pool water temperature.
