Pool Heating: Is It Worth It?

It’s a lazy summer day, you’re sipping lemonade while sitting in the cool refreshing water of your swimming pool, and you wonder if there is anything that could possibly be more blissful than this moment in time, and you want to live in it forever…

And the good news is, you can.

Having a pool heater installed means you get to enjoy your pool year-round, whether it’s during the sunnier summer days or the colder winter ones here on the Gold Coast. You don’t have to brace yourself for a few pool-free months as soon as that first chill of winter descends, and you don’t have to go without scheduling a pool party just because it’s cold.

Pool heating comes with a plethora of benefits, but we understand if you’re still hesitant to take the next step and actually invest in one. If you’ve been combing through resources on Google, trying to find out if investing in a pool heater is actually worth it, then you’re sure to have been met with a lot of technical terms, pool sizing, and the thermodynamics behind how everything works explained in tortuous detail sometimes, and maybe you ended up more confused than when you started.

Well, not to worry. In this blog post, we’ll be breaking it down for you in easy uncomplicated terms, putting out all the facts on the table, and giving you inside information as to the best kinds of pool heating systems to invest in! Let’s find out if a pool heater is worth investing in!

What kind of pool heater is worth investing in?

Before you invest in a pool heater, you have to know that there are primarily three types of pool heating systems up on the market. Each of these pool heating systems comes with its own set of pros and cons, maintenance routines, and different operational mechanisms.

There are a number of questions you might want to ask yourself based on which pool heater you plan to invest in, like what you want, how much you are willing to pay, and how much benefit a specific heater type will provide for you.

Solar pool heater: Solar pool heaters are the most environmentally friendly pool heating systems out there. They greatly reduce your carbon footprint since they run on clean energy that emits zero toxins. Solar pool heaters will also last you a very long time— in fact, our Rhino Solar Pool Heating Panels boast an unmatched 25-year warranty!— which makes them well worth the costly initial investment.

Electric heat pump:  Electric pool heaters are extremely efficient, with the inverter technology they now adopt. Electric pool heaters are also safe to use; and have a much longer lifespan than gas pool heaters. They are also very easy to install. Electric pool heating pumps, however, operate on the principle of drawing heat from the ambient air—which means they might not be all that great of an option if you live in colder areas where there’s very little heat to be extracted from the ambient air. This doesn’t pose much of a problem for us on the Gold Coast, since our winters are generally sunny and dry! For areas that do get colder we recommend to upsize the unit so they can maintain your pool temperature in the winter months.

Natural gas or propane pool heater: if your pool only needs to be heated occasionally, a gas pool heater is your best bet! Gas pool heaters are able to heat the water in your pool in only a short amount of time. In fact, they are the fastest pool heating method, able to heat the pool at 1 to 3 degrees per hour—which means you’ll only have to wait a few hours for the gas pool heater to heat up your pool completely! But while gas pool heaters tend to have a much lower initial cost, they are very costly in terms of operational costs, due to the amount of natural gas needed. They also have a shorter lifespan than that of electric heat pumps or solar pool heaters.

What is the climate like where you’re based?

There are a few things to be kept in mind when it comes to the climate; when you’re considering investing in a pool heating system. In very harsh winter temperatures, a pool heating system can be cost-prohibitive to run after a certain point— especially in the case of electrical pool heating pumps which extract heat from ambient air. Queensland, however, is known for sunshine and beaches, so we don’t really experience very harsh winters.

This means we Queenslanders have weather that’s ideal to own and operate a pool heating system in.

Pools also tend to lose surface heat, overnight and when temperatures are low. An advantage of living in areas that have generally sunny temperatures is, you can trap some of this surface heat by investing in a solar pool cover, so your pool won’t be mind-numbingly cold when you go for a swim in the morning! Pairing your solar pool cover with a pool heater can provide additional warmth, and prevent you from losing valuable heat overnight (and save you an exorbitant electricity bill!).

Another factor that makes pool heating — specifically solar pool heating— well worth the price and investment, for all of us at the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Brisbane, or Sunshine Coast, is that they’re also pretty useful in the summer. Swimming pool water can be cooled by being circulated in the solar panels of solar pool heating systems on summer nights, which means you don’t have to deal with warm pool water on a humid summer’s day!

Are pool heaters expensive?

Depending on which kind of pool heating system you want to invest in, they all come at different prices.

Gas pool heaters have a relatively lower initial cost, but their operational costs, as mentioned earlier, can be quite high. They also require in-ground plumbing to establish a natural gas line.

Electric pool heaters have a much higher initial cost than gas pool heaters. Electric pool heaters might take a bit of a toll on your electricity bill, but generally, the operational costs of electrical pool heaters are lesser than that of gas pool heaters. An additional 20 percent more heat output at the press of a button via our Summerwave Full Inverter Turbo Boost Heat Pump, or heating of up to 35 degrees from the Heatseeker Novas, are advantages that definitely make an electrical heating pump worth the purchase!

Solar pool heating pumps have the highest initial cost, but the lowest operational costs out of all three pool heating systems—this means you can realize a return on your upfront investment; because the energy you obtain from solar pool heating systems is virtually free of charge. This is why investing in a solar pool heating collector like Nanotek would be absolutely worth the purchase, considering these heating collectors are the most advanced strip solar collectors in the world with a 15-year warranty formulated to withstand harsh Australian conditions.

Is a Pool Heater Worth it For You?

Now that all the facts are on the table, it’s time to answer the question we started off with: is a pool heater worth investing in, for you?

Of course, it’s a little expensive, initially. But it makes your life easier and adds to your experiences and your joy. It means warm pool parties in the winter months, and lounging in warm water feeling blissed out in your own little summer spot, even when it is winter everywhere else.

We’d say it’s really well worth investing in!

Happy Pool Heating!