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]
What Size Swimming Pool Heat Pump Do I Need?
Heat pumps offer one of the most cost-effective and energy-efficient methods of heating your pool water, ensuring you can enjoy the swimming season for longer and with reduced heating bills!
To get the most out of your swimming pool heat pump, you must be sure it is sized correctly. Follow our top sizing tips to equip your pool with the right heat pump.
When we talk about sizing for heat pumps, we typically don’t mean the physical size of the unit but rather the energy output.
There are a couple of things you’ll need to consider when working out what size heat pump is most suitable for your pool.
The size of your pool is the most obvious and easily measured factor that’ll determine the necessary heat pump size. The more water a pool contains, the greater the energy requirements to heat all the water.
When you size a pool heat pump, you will need to know the pool’s volume.
The average outdoor inground pool in the UK is around 10m x 5m with an average depth of 1.5m. Using these figures, a standard swimming pool would have a volume of around 75m3.
To work out the volume of your pool, please use our swimming pool volume calculator.
If you live in a colder climate, then your heat pump will need to work much harder to increase your water temperature. This is because they rely on ambient air temperature to transfer heat into the water via a heat exchanger.
Air source heat pumps will continue working in cold weather but will become slightly less efficient. If you want to use a heat pump during the extended season from April to November, a larger, more powerful unit will probably be more appropriate.
Aqua Inverter Turbo-Pro Silence Heat Pumps can operate in air temperatures as low as -15℃ and are available in various sizes to correspond with your pool volume.
Swimming habits have less of a direct impact on pool heat pump sizing but you may still need to factor it in.
As the technology is so efficient, a standard-sized heat pump for your pool size should be sufficiently robust and reliable, providing the right level of heating throughout the swimming season.
The heating capacity of your heat pump is measured in kilowatts (kW). The more powerful the heat pump, the quicker it’ll be able to heat up a pool and the more suitable it’ll be for higher-volume pools.
Please note that the below table provides a rough guide only, as the factors mentioned above may have a significant impact on how large you need the heat pump to be. Different heat pumps also have varying coefficients of performance (COP), meaning specific models have different power needs.
We would recommend finding a heat pump model with all the features that suit your needs and then checking the manufacturer’s notes to determine which size you may require. All of our heat pumps come with handy tables for you to refer to.
As a basic guide to help steer you in what to look for, here are some averages from across our pool heat pump range.
Our different heat pumps range from 3.5kW to 32kW.
If you’ve looked around at various heat pump calculators and the recommendations for your pool hover between a few sizes, it usually pays to size up rather than down.
The more powerful the heat pump, the quicker it’ll heat up your water – and once it’s up to the desired temperature, it only requires a little bit of energy to maintain. Larger heat pumps tend to have higher coefficients of performance (you get more heat out than energy that goes in), so may be more efficient than smaller units.
Balance this thinking against the size and specs of your pool though, as you won’t need the largest possible heat pump for a smaller than average pool or one that has good levels of insulation and measures against heat loss!
To find out more about choosing the perfect heat pump for your pool, check out our advice guide.
If you have any questions about our heat pumps and which one is right for you, please get in touch with the 1st Direct Pools team on 0333 900 4040.
