[Packrat1]

Recently I had a new gas pool heater 400K btu installed for my pool and spa in Henderson. I am having out of town family over for the weekend and wanted to heat the pool as efficiently and as cheap as possible. My target temp is 90 degrees.

I am doing a little unscientific experiment. Below are the stats. I think my pool and spa are about 12,000 total gals but I could be wrong.

Starting pool temp, 72.1 at 245pm when I turned the gas pool heater on, 75.7 at 345pm, 78.8 at 445pm, 90.0 at 1045pm at which time I turned the pool heater off. At 700am it was 85.1. So it looks like the temp drops about 1/2 a degree an hour or so after I turned the heater off.

So, if we wanted the pool at 90 degrees at 1100am t looks like it would take me 2 hrs or 900am to bring it back to temp at 1100am ie $5 x 2hrs $10.

Now here is where I see I might be saving money? Since i didn't have the pool on from 1045pm to 9am (about 10 hrs). I am saving roughly $5 an hour for the gas to keep it at 90 degrees 10hrs x $5 =$50. It then cost me $10 to bring it back to temp. Additionally, I am saving 10hrs of running my 220 volt pool pump (not sure how much that would cost).

So do you think I have saved any money or am I just spinning my wheels?

What I should have done is log the gas meter reading as well as the electricity too. I suspect that the pool uses less gas than $5 an hour just keeping the pool to temp but then again it is colder overnight too.

Anyway I would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

[beachhead]

put a solar cover on it. itll help keep it from cooling off as much at night, and will probably keep it near 90 during the day, with it being over 100 still. a little bit of a pita, but cheap.

[Packrat1]

Unfortunately my pool is not square and has multiple curved angles so I am not sure that a solar cover would be available.

Is there a good brand and model/thickness I should look at?

[EA]

Assemble neighborhood kids.
Have them drink a lot of beer.
Lock the bathroom door.
Insert kids into pool.
Marvel at low cost pool heating.
Disregard the yellow/green tinge the pool now has.

[OmegaSupreme]

Originally Posted by Packrat1

Unfortunately my pool is not square and has multiple curved angles so I am not sure that a solar cover would be available.

Is there a good brand and model/thickness I should look at?

unless it's really oddly shaped, you cut the cover to match your pool

i got mine from homedepot and it seems to work well.... doubt any cover will last too long in the las vegas heat

[April R]

Originally Posted by EA

Assemble neighborhood kids.
Have them drink a lot of beer.
Lock the bathroom door.
Insert kids into pool.
Marvel at low cost pool heating.
Disregard the yellow/green tinge the pool now has.

I came to post almost the same thing.

[WestieJeff]

This.

You just buy the largest square cover and cut it to size. It's a pain the first time, I always save the old cover to cut the new one. No rule that the cover has to be all one sheet either, sometimes I cut the cover in half so I can only uncover half the pool. Still works just as well.

I find the cover usually lasts 1-2 years. NPS with the NV Energy pool cover rebate is usually the best price, sometimes Amazon has it cheaper (even factoring the rebate).

Originally Posted by OmegaSupreme

unless it's really oddly shaped, you cut the cover to match your pool

i got mine from homedepot and it seems to work well.... doubt any cover will last too long in the las vegas heat

[MediocreButArrogant]

The solar blanket I bought off Ebay has lasted far longer than the one I bought from NPS using the SNWA rebate. For whatever reason, the one from NPS didn't even last one year, and it spend most of the time under a solid winter cover, so it wasn't UV damage.

[Packrat1]

Do you remember the brand name and model of the one on ebay?
Thanks.

[beachhead]

When you cut it, even if it's got a couple inches that do not match, it will still do it's job. In other words, don't stress if your cuts aren't a perfect match for the pool!