Running a Pool Heater Pump [ How to Choose Optimal Time ]

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Pools can be fun, but maintaining them may not be. Managing the heat of your pool, however, falls into the maintenance part. Heating your pool is an important chore that needs to be done to add some warmth to the water in your pool.

But you might be confused about when is the best time to run a pool heat pump asking yourself things like “Should I run my pool heat pump at night?” 

The best time to run a pool heat pump is at night-time. At night-time, sudden drops in temperature of the pool water are very common. Electricity costs are low from 9 PM-8 AM thus, running heat pumps at these hours are money-saving as well as energy-efficient.

Regardless, there are still a lot of things left to be covered regarding pool heater pumps. This is why my advice to you is to follow this article to educate yourself further about the topic and get the answers to your questions. Without further ado, I advise you to keep reading.

How Often Should Your Heat Pumps Run?

Your heat pumps should be running constantly to maintain a comfortable temperature in the water. 

A common assumption that people may have when thinking of running heat pumps is how much energy they may waste if they leave it running for long hours. However, it’s been proven to be not the case.

Making this assumption false with no proper evidence to back it up with. Pool heater pumps are one of the few efficient appliances that can benefit you if left to run for longer periods.

Explaining this would be much easier if you understood how a pool heat pump works. Hence, I’m advising you to give this article a thorough read.

Learning to know how it works would make it easier for you to follow that unlike most types of heaters, they are quite efficient. It is possible for you to use them often without making any heat loss whatsoever, partly because they heat slowly.

The main work of pool heat pumps is to slowly heat the water to a certain temperature and then maintain it. The latter is not much of a problem as maintaining a steady warm temperature does not require much electricity or strain.

However, using the pool heat pumps only before usage of swimming pools will require them to suddenly reach high temperatures over a shorter time.

This causes immense strain on the pumps as well as costs significant time and money. Short-time heating at a high rate is a lot less efficient than long-term heat maintenance for these pumps.

To better understand this, consider the following points:

• The low operation costs of Heat pumps allow them to make up for the heat lost in the pool due to evaporation, cold winds, rain, weather, etc. Replacing the heat loss taking place due to the causes mentioned are crucial.
• You can always set a timer deciding how long you want the heat to circulate. Setting the run-times for circulation is however not possible.
• Constrictions include; only being able to set the water temperature and nothing else.
• Whenever you specify a certain temperature for your water, your heat pump utilizes an on/off system on its own to maintain that temperature. Some models of Heat pumps can even provide cooling cycles to make up for excess heat.
• Your heating pump works simultaneously with your swimming pool’s circulation system. Thus, unless your pool’s water circulation system is up, you can’t expect your pool heater pump to keep running.

Should I Run My Pool Heater Pump at Night?

Yes, you should definitely let your heat pumps run throughout the night. This will save you on electricity bills and your pool will be heated most efficiently. 

I’ve mentioned previously that your heater pumps are best left to do less work, the goal to achieving this is quite simple. Which is by letting them run for longer times.

Now, whether you should run them at night-time is entirely upon you. Do you plan on using a warm pool first thing when you wake up in the morning?

If yes, then running your heat pump for long hours at night can ready your pool by dawn. Additionally, yes you should run your Pool Heater pump at night even if you’re not planning to use it right away in the morning.

This is because I’ve mentioned before how sudden usage of pumps can cause them to compensate for high heat losses.

Note: Running your pool heat pump at night is the most optimum and efficient. I’ll further elaborate on this point in the next section.

When To Run Your Pool Heat Pump? 

Running your pool heater is most important and economical as well. The natural heat loss is greatest at night. So, not using heat pumps at night will cool the water too much. Heating it up suddenly will require a lot of power. There is daytime heat loss as well. But it can be prevented by various methods. 

The best way to do that is by using a solar cover. Using an old-school bubbly solar cover is sufficient enough to prevent heat loss. However, if replacing them on a daily basis is tiring, then you can resort to liquid solar blankets.

Solar balls are also viable options to cover up heat losses and add style to your pool. Though this will count as maintenance, it’s only done so to save your money. Hence, they are long-term solutions to the daytime heat loss problem.

Now let’s head back to night-time. Heat loss is greatest at night not just because there are no ‘solar’ solutions to keep the temperature maintained. The main cause is the lack of sunlight.

This makes the water in your pools more vulnerable to heat loss. Notwithstanding the fact that the atmosphere is also cooler at night, the pool water is bound to get cold. 

Turning off the heater at night cools off the water very quickly. Making the heater burn more strongly using high energy to make up for the lost heat in the morning. Using higher energy to compensate for lost heat makes the heart pump only far less efficiently.

The colder the pool water gets, the more time and money-consuming it will be for your heat pump to revert the pool to a comfortable temperature.

Thus, I’m advising that you keep heat pumps running for long periods. Maintaining the temperature at night-time is very crucial in terms of energy saving.

If you’re worried about money factors, just know that during the non-peak hours (9 PM-8 AM), your electrical company will charge you less for energy usage.

This way you can guarantee the best circulation of water while also keeping it cost-effective. Ensuring that your pool is ready for you to dive first thing in the morning.

So, all in all, I think we all can agree that nighttime is the best for running your heat pumps. But, running it throughout the day is more optimal. 

Conclusion

We all love a nice warm pool. And there is no alternative to heat pumps for that. But heat pumps are not as simple as you might have thought.

Making sure they run as efficiently as possible will require you to learn how they work which I’m sure I was able to help you with after reading this article.  

Thinking of only using heat pumps when convenient might seem ideal but it is not efficient. If you were asking yourself, “Should I run my pool heat pump at night?” then I’m sure you’ve learned that nighttime is the best for running your heat pump.

I hope you found what you were looking for in this article. Thanks for tuning in and farewell.