Swimming pool heaters

There are several different methods of providing heated water to a swimming pool. The standard approach is to pass the swimming pool water through a “water heat exchanger”, where the exchanger gets its heat from an evaporator that uses a refrigerant. This is one of the most efficient way of taking air in the atmosphere and turning it into usable heat.

There are of course several other (and sometimes less expensive) swimming pool heating options. Some use different kinds of exchangers and they can be powered by gas, oil or electricity.

In small swimming pools, a simple water heater can be connected to the outflow pipe of a filter pump to heat the water as in re-enters a swimming pool. This system is restricted to small above-ground swimming pools.

Swimming pool heater sources

Solar power

Alternative methods of power like solar panels can also be used to bring up the temperature of the water in a swimming pool.

The kind of power source is particularly good for swimming pools since solar power is effective at increasing water temperatures to comfortable levels and maintaining them. These panels are reducing in price continually and their biggest advantage is that once installed, the use is free.

These days solar panels can also take the form of solar matting which is more robust, can be rolled up and easily fits onto a roof. As a general guide, the area of solar matting required to heat a swimming pool in a country like the UK is equivalent to about half of the swimming pool’s base area.

Boilers

Boilers using gas or oil are still popular. These heater power sources usually need to be in enclosed environments and they should be well insulated.

These boilers include many features and components, with gas boilers having safety shut offs, automatic pilot ignition and temperature controls. They are ideal for medium to large domestic swimming pools.

Eco heater pumps

These are special heater pumps that heat water very efficiently and at a considerably lower cost than traditional heaters. These pumps tend to be compact and have quiet running characteristics. They are available from a number of manufacturers and in a number of power outputs.