Pricing & Minimizing Pool Heating Running and Operating Costs

Sydney Swimming Pool & Spa Heating
Pricing & Running Costs for Pool Heater Setup
Heat Pump, Gas Pool and Spa Heaters and Repair

Pool heater pricing, minimizing heater operating cost & heating running costs as of July 2013.
Heating running costs include the heater operating cost AND cost of running the water circulating pump.

Since swimming pool heating is a specialized field, every
installation should be designed individually and as such it is almost impossible to give a generic price to supply and install a pool heating system. There are many variables such as, size of pool, does the pool have a cover, desired and ambient pool temperature, time to wait for heat up, shade, wind, weather condition and so on. Some of these variables also depend on how you would like to use your pool and whether you would like to use it all through the year. You may set up a budget for the running costs that would also be a factor for the swimming pool heating system design.

To ensure that you get the correct system and don't spend more than you should, we will call on site at a time convenient to you and give you an obligation free quote at no cost. In this quote, we will also give you a good indication of the approximate running costs for the heating system that we will recommend to you, based on information that will be discussed with you and indicated to you by a heating specialist.

If you'd like a FREE QUOTE* please call or SMS Steve,
0408 227581 and he will be in touch, usually within 24 hours to discuss your needs. Alternatively, you may contact us, indicating your name and how may we be able to contact you.

You'll be surprised at the competitive quote we'll give for your pool heating project and you can have peace of mind that all will turn out just as planned. For minimizing the heating running costs see below.
*Available in the Sydney region only.

Sydney Pool & Spa Heating is a division of Nash Plumbing Pty. Ltd. (Lic. No. 228896C)
and Steve Nash is a member of SPASA (Swimming Pool and Spa Association of NSW).

Copyright 2013. Nash Plumbing Pty. Ltd.
Sydney pool and spa heating, design, installation, servicing, upgrades and pool heater repairs.
Gas swimming pool heating, heat pump pool heating, equipment from Hurlcon, Raypak, Accent and Pentair.
MasterTemp^® gas pool heater is our special offering for reliable, energy efficient and fast pool and spa heating.
Viron pool heaters: gas pool heaters and heat pump pool heaters.
Turbotemp™gas pool heater is our latest offering for high performance, fast and efficient pool and spa heating.

Minimizing Pool Heater Operating Cost and Heating Running Costs At Current Sydney Energy Prices from 1st July 2013 to 30th June 2014 Frequently soaring energy prices are making the heater operating cost and heating running costs the major component of pool heating costs. The initial cost of pool heating equipment may become dwarfed by these running costs over a longer period. As part of the heating running costs, you have to include the cost of electricity for running the water circulating pump in addition to the operating cost of the pool heater. We recommend a combination of the following three strategies to reduce your swimming pool’s heating running costs.

Use a More Efficient Pool Heater to Reduce the Heater Operating Cost Heater efficiency is the ratio of usable output to energy input. For example, an 80%-efficient heater uses $80 worth of useful heat for every $100 worth of fuel. Therefore, it wastes 20% of the fuel. An 84%-efficient heater would produce $84 worth of useful heat output for every $100 worth of fuel. It would waste less fuel. A 95%-efficient heater would waste even less fuel. Thus for an 84%-efficient heater, (output heat energy)/(input heat energy) = 84/100 . . . . . . .(equation 1) So that (input heat energy) = (100/84) x (output heat energy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (equation 2) OR the (input heat energy cost) = (100/84) x (output heat energy cost) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (equation 3) Thus from (equation 2), to generate an output of 24 MJ from an 84%-efficient gas pool heater, we may need an input of at least (100/84) x 24 = 29 MJ as there may be some heat loss due to evaporation and radiation during this process. Today, you'll find some gas pool heaters with 89%–95% efficiency. Heat Pump Swimming Pool Heaters If you want an energy-efficient way to heat your swimming pool, consider using a heat pump pool heater. Heat pumps use electricity to capture heat and move it from one place to another. They don't generate heat. The energy efficiency of heat pump swimming pool heaters is measured by coefficient of performance (COP). The higher the COP number, the more efficient. COP's usually range from 3.0 to 7.0, which converts to an efficiency of 300%–700%. This means that for every unit of electricity it takes to run the heat pump's compressor, you get 3–7 units of heat out of the heat pump.

Cover Your Swimming Pool Using, Solar Pool Blankets You can significantly reduce swimming pool heating running costs by using a solar pool blanket. Swimming pools lose energy in a variety of ways, but evaporation is by far the largest source of energy loss. Evaporating water requires tremendous amounts of energy. It only takes 4.184 KJ (kilojoule) to raise 1 Kg of water 1° C, but each Kg of 26.7°C (80ºF) water that evaporates takes a whopping 2.44 MJ (megajoule) = 2440 KJ of heat out of the pool. For more information refer to the US Department of Energy, Energy Savers website.
Our demo swimming pool has a surface area of 30 square meters. To work out how much heat is lost by the evaporation of 1 cm deep of surface water from our demo pool, we work out the volume of water evaporated that equals to 30 x 1/100 = 0.3 cubic metre. 1 cubic metre of water = 1,000 litres of water = 1,000 Kg of water. Thus 0.3 cubic metre of water = 0.3 x 1000Kg = 300Kg. Thus 300 Kg of water is evaporated. So the heat lost due to this evaporation = 300 x 2.44 = 732 MJ. To replenish this heat using a gas pool heater would cost 732 x 0.025 = $18.30 @2.5cents/MJ, the approximate price of gas in Sydney. This cost would be the output cost from the gas pool heater. The input cost for the gas for an 84%-efficient gas pool heater = (100/84) x 18.30 = $21.80. See (equation 3) above. It is estimated depending on your location that the individual pool can lose between 50% and 150% of the pools capacity in water per year by evaporation. Our demo swimming pool has a water volume of 40 cubic metres. 50% of this volume is 20 cubic metres that has a mass of 20 x 1000 Kg = 20,000 Kg of water. Thus the heat lost due to this evaporation = 20,000 x 2.44 = 48,800 MJ per year. To replenish this heat using a gas pool heater would cost 48,800 x 0.025 = $1220 per year @2.5 cents/MJ, using a 100%-efficient gas pool heater. For an 84%-efficient gas pool heater, the input heat energy cost = (100/84) x (output heat energy cost). See (equation 3) above. So that for an 84%-efficient gas pool heater, the input heat energy cost = (100/84) x 1220 = $1452 per year The solar pool blanket featured in our website can reduce the rate of evaporation by as much as 97%. That could be a running cost saving of $1408 per year in our demo swimming pool by reducing heat loss due to evaporation.

The water circulating electric pump is also a substantial contributor to the running costs. In Sydney, the OFF-PEAK electricity rate can be set up at less than half the rate during PEAK periods. Therefore, we recommend that consideration be given to heating the pool water mainly during OFF-PEAK electricity periods, usually overnight if it is safe to do.

The running cost of solar pool heaters is no longer negligible You would have to circulate pool water through the solar pool heater using PEAK high electricity rates. In Sydney, Energy Australia's post July 1, 2012, PEAK electricity rate is 26.84 cents/kWh for the first 1,000 kWh per quarter, 28.05 cents/kWh for the next 1,000 kWh per quarter and 37.73 cents/kWh in excess of 2,000 kWh. The OFF-PEAK electricity rate of 11.11 cents/kWh is not available during daytime. You may also have to circulate the whole volume of pool water through a solar heat exchanger more than once and this would need to be done during the day when the sun is up. The circulating pump running cost would even be higher if one is under a PowerSmart Home scheme, where the electricity PEAK rate is 52.547 cents/kWh. Compare these electricity price rates pre-July 1, 2012 below. Furthermore all the above prices will continue to increase from July 1, 2013. These prices are now available from this link. Apart from maintenance costs, operating cost for solar pool heaters is negligible, but the operating cost of the pool water circulating pump is considerable and is increasing annually.

Currently the Commonwealth Government is pushing for the mandatory adoption of a scheme similar to the PowerSmart Home scheme (Smart meters) by all States. See a recent (7/12/2012) news article on this in The Australian newspaper. See also the "smart meter" article in Wikipedia, a more recent (24/12/2012) article in The Sydney Morning Herald and EnergyAustralia's Victorian smart meter rollout. Thought provoking discussion may also be found at the links "Will smart meters benefit consumers?" and "Smart Meter Problems in Victoria". To lower heating running costs try using off-peak and/or shoulder electricity rates for pool heating. In the Sydney region, current electricity rates from EnergyAustralia are shown below under the headings : Domestic All Time & PowerSmart Home (requires a smart meter to be installed).