Add gas heater?

[tpratap]

I have a 20K gallon in-ground pool, with an electric heater - live in Upstate NY. Kids/wife like the temp around 80-82. The Electricity bill is killing me!!
Hear me out....If I add a gas heater - I can keep the thermostat at 70, and then use the gas heater to bring it to 80 on the days we use the pool (3-4/week) - I will need the gas heater about 6 hrs before we swim, and turn off right after. Will this save me $ (spent $300-350 in July-Aug - likely a lot more in Sep)

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You are using a solar cover....right? Otherwise you're losing all the heat produced to the colder air.

I personally don't know a lot about heaters but this looked like a helpful post from years ago....good formula mentioned for how to judge costs. Do you know the cost of natural gas there?

Calculating per-hour cost of natural gas heater.

Ok, I'm well versed with calculating electricity usage - I can calculate (down to the penny) how much anything electrical costs to run, but I'm not finding the math as easy when it comes to our pool heater. I'm looking to do some comparisons this year on the costs associated with running our...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[1poolman1]

I have a 20K gallon in-ground pool, with an electric heater - live in Upstate NY. Kids/wife like the temp around 80-82. The Electricity bill is killing me!!
Hear me out....If I add a gas heater - I can keep the thermostat at 70, and then use the gas heater to bring it to 80 on the days we use the pool (3-4/week) - I will need the gas heater about 6 hrs before we swim, and turn off right after. Will this save me $ (spent $300-350 in July-Aug - likely a lot more in Sep)

A 400K BTU heater, the smallest you want for faster heating, will raise your pool 2 degrees an hour and use 20 gallons of propane or 20 therms of natural gas to raise the pool the 10 degrees you want. What your energy rates are you can use to figure cost. As has been mention, an insulating cover can help keep the heat in overnight.