Our Pool Heater.

[Anarita John]

For anyone interested in reading this fairly long post, here is a breakdown of the costs of running our heated swimming pool from 19th October to 10th January, when we turned off the heater. A few people have messaged me about the costs, so here is a breakdown.
The heat pump heater was on for 74 days, totalling 466 hours. We only ran it when our solar pump was operational, taking advantage of the pump running on totally free electricity.
In November and early December, pool temperature got up to 28c but in late December and January 27c and on a couple of days, 26c.
Of the electricity we used, 27% of it was free, from our photovoltaic panels. The rest, 1182kwh came through our meter, costing us €71. Therefore, for just less than a euro per day, we have maintained our pool above 26c.
Last year we started heating our pool again at the end of February but we will wait till the air temperature gets up to above 20c again.
Greenair did all of the work on our pool and installed a 5kwh photovoltaic system plus a lot of other work and we have been really pleased with their work. A lot of tiles had to be relaid and non have sunk or cracked.

We decided to put the heater back on as the weather forecast is good again. So far 100kwh through our meter, which with net metering costs €6.70 has raised the temperature from 19c to 23c, over 4 days. However, 3 cloudy and rainy days and overnight temperatures between 6c and 8c.

[mark4007]

Interesting.. I assume you have a pool cover?

[cyprusmax47]

Interesting figures John, Thank you.

No wonder that Green Air installs so many of this type heat pumps. When they are powered by your own PV system they are even more environment friendly then without. So why not using your expensive pool all year long, also in the Cyprus "winter". A day like today would be perfect to have a sunbath in a sheltered place after a swim in your pool, and this in January....

Max

[jeba]

How many cubic meters does your pool have? How well is it insulated?

[Anarita John]

Jeba, ours is an 8x4 pool, standard pool put in by the builders going from around 1 metre in depth to just over 2 metres. No insulation but a solar cover, which means on a normal winters night we lose 2 degrees and during the day, with the pool heater running in daylight hours, gain 3c. If it is very cold, we can lose more, but tend not to have the pool heater running. Last December, the pool heater was off until 25th, when we switched it on again as our daughter was coming out, and then from 6th January to the beginning of February it was off, as it was quite cold.
When I switched it on again this morning, we had only lost 1c, with a water temperature of 26c.

[Cornelia]

We have everything the same, but we lose 4/5 degrees at night with the cover on.

[Anarita John]

Cornelia, I would think it depends where you are situated. We are near the coast and and the pool gets full sun all day and is sheltered by the house at night. Normal winters night, we lose 2c but on a colder night 3c.

Today we got the temperature up to 28c. It has taken 6 days and 250kwh to get the water temperature from 19c to 28c When I switched our pool heater on this morning, the water temperature was 25c, losing 2c overnight, and we gained 3c during the 8 hours it was on today. From 11pm our cover was off.