Thinking About Adding a Heater to Your Pool? Read On.

 Pool heaters are a great addition to any pool, ensuring that swimming times are extended through the year and the water temperature is always to your liking. However, installing a new pool heater is often more of an investment than pool-owners anticipate, and that's due to many factors. In this short article, we wanted to go over pool heaters, the benefits they bring, and what installing one might look like for you in terms of investment, time, and overall energy!

Installation and Maintenance Costs

Before you go ahead and get a pool heater installed, make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. A pool heater is expensive not just because it eats up energy heating thousands of gallons of water, but also because of the unit price itself, which is often higher than people might be expecting. That's due to the fact that quality heating units that use energy efficiently and will last for some time are quite expensive up front!

That being said, it's never a good idea to scrimp when it comes to electrical equipment. Not only can a shoddy heater do a lackluster job, it can do potential damage to your electrical system, raise your energy costs significantly, and be a safety risk in general. That's why we always recommend going all out when investing in a piece of equipment like this. Energy-efficient heaters will pay for themselves given time, so calculate your ROI based on one simple question: How often are you going to be using the heater to begin with?

Types of Heating Units

Different heating units yield different results, but the right unit will always get the job done. We're not necessarily comparing and contrasting these different types of units, but we'll talk about each type, its energy source and the potential benefits there, and so on.

Gas Heaters

As you might've guessed, gas heaters use gas - natural gas or propane are two common examples. While you might be thinking: "Well that's good, both of those fuel sources are pretty cheap," hold up a second. That's not where the bulk of the money goes when installing these units, which retail for around one to three thousand dollars. The bulk goes into the unit cost, and the hiring required for a proper installation.

For a gas heater, you'll need a plumber, a gas fitter, an electrician, and multiple appointments for everything to be set up correctly. This will all start to add up fast, so make sure to have your calculators ready.

Solar Heaters

Solar heaters utilize the sun's natural energy and turns it into warm water for you and whoever you want swimming with you. Solar panels are fairly cheap, but many are required to heat a pool effectively - roughly half of the pool's square footage worth. That means if you lack space, then solar panels might not be the best option, even though they're cheap, work decently well, and will provide little to no extra cost once installed.

Electric Heat Pumps

This might be the most commonly used type of pool unit. It's cheap and effective if you aren't trying to heat your water to any high degree, but once you get to a certain level of warmth this can be a costly method. High temperatures also require a rigorous electrical system that can withstand high energy output.