Efficient heating is vital to ensure that the swimming pool functions properly. The temperature of your pool can affect its performance in a range of ways, including its hygiene, water clarity and  bathing comfort. In turn, pool heating can impact everything from the equipment bought to how often servicing is required.

Heating a pool is a relatively straightforward affair and heat retaining pool covers can make heating even more efficient. There is a range of commonly-used pool heating solutions on the market and this blog takes a look at the different options and type of pool to which they are best suited.

Heat pumps
Heat pumps are growing rapidly in popularity thanks to their environmental efficiency, convenient installation, and relatively low operating cost. They are particularly well suited to outdoor pools. As these are operational primarily during the warmest months, a heat pump is able to extract much more heat from the environment around the pool (from the air or ground). This makes them very efficient, consuming around 3.5-4.5 times less power than the heat they produce.

However, this efficiency depends upon whether or not the pump uses a direct or indirect unit. A direct unit, as the name suggests, heats water directly. Meanwhile, indirect units, which can heat things other than pools, rely on heat exchangers to warm the water – and thus are naturally less energy efficient.

Pools which use air-source pumps must be placed in an openly ventilated space – either indoor or outdoor. They can be noisy so the noise of the equipment must be taken into account when considering the pool location. Designed to match the average heat loss from a swimming pool, heat pumps also tend to require a longer warm-up period than other types.

Electric heaters
These completely silent, low-maintenance heaters are compact and fitted to the plant room of the pool system, and provide the cheapest initial cost solution to heating. However, while the initial cost is low, they are the most expensive to run.

Electric heaters have a longer warm-up period and are thus ill-suited to a pool used irregularly. The high electrical demand from electric heating also means an electrical survey will have to be carried out to ensure sufficient capacity.

Whatever heating system is  selected, make sure they are bought from reliable companies, ensure the supplier offers continuous support and double-check that the claimed performance is suitable to theclimate.