Heater or No Heater for Houston New Pool Build

[lalis83]

Hello to everyone,
Some of you have provided great feedback regarding several feature we had questions on for our new pool build in central Houston (77018)!
One major feature we're still debating is whether we add a heater or not. Resale value is very important for us, therefore we have been trying to keep it simple in terms of design and features. however we do want to make the most of our investment and if adding a heater means having at least some extra months of use (say April/May and October), then we will probably go for it. The big question is really how much more of pool time will we get out of the heater? Some details:
- Backyard size: 37 x 35 ft aprox
- Pool shape/size: rectangular 17x24 (outside perimeter with coping)
- Features: 3 large steps going from end to end, bench going from end to end
- Other features: no spa or water features
- Proposed heater by PB: 400,000 BTU @ $5,200 (is this reasonable?)

Thanks everyone in advance!
Laura

 

[tclayton10]

Hi Laura,

Since you say resale value is important, you should understand that you're never going to recover the full cost of a pool installation (in other words a house with a $50,000 pool won't automatically be worth $50k more than an identical house without one). So that $5,200 heater (probably a reasonable cost if it includes installation) MIGHT return $1000 if you're lucky. Since you don't have a spa, you then need to think about how much it will cost to heat your pool to your desired temp once we get into our cooler weather here in Houston (I live in Cypress). The pool will easily drop into the 60s or colder, and that takes a LOT of energy to get the temp up into the comfortable range (about 80 for me; about 100 for my wife!). Will you really swim when the air temp is cold even if the pool is warm? We heated our pool the first winter (2006) for a couple of weeks, but have not heated the pool since. We do heat our spa a few times per winter, and have found that the cost isn't that much of a burden for us compared to heating the entire pool. So if it were me, I would ask the builder to leave space for a heater to be plumbed in sometime in the future, but would probably not install it without a spa.

Tracy

 

[EngineerNerd]

Laura,

We live in the same area (Sugar Land) and the next time we turn our heater on to heat our 25+ year old pool will be the first! We really like to use the heater when it is cold out for the spa, but if we did not have the spa, I would NOT want a heater. Heaters are not only expensive, they are expensive to maintain over time (control board failures, lots of sensor interconnects, etc.).

Bottom line, I'd suggest no heater for your situation!

Cheers,

Jim

 

[lalis83]

Laura,

We live in the same area (Sugar Land) and the next time we turn our heater on to heat our 25+ year old pool will be the first! We really like to use the heater when it is cold out for the spa, but if we did not have the spa, I would NOT want a heater. Heaters are not only expensive, they are expensive to maintain over time (control board failures, lots of sensor interconnects, etc.).

Bottom line, I'd suggest no heater for your situation!

Cheers,

Jim

Thank you Jim!

 

[lalis83]

Hi Laura,

Since you say resale value is important, you should understand that you're never going to recover the full cost of a pool installation (in other words a house with a $50,000 pool won't automatically be worth $50k more than an identical house without one). So that $5,200 heater (probably a reasonable cost if it includes installation) MIGHT return $1000 if you're lucky. Since you don't have a spa, you then need to think about how much it will cost to heat your pool to your desired temp once we get into our cooler weather here in Houston (I live in Cypress). The pool will easily drop into the 60s or colder, and that takes a LOT of energy to get the temp up into the comfortable range (about 80 for me; about 100 for my wife!). Will you really swim when the air temp is cold even if the pool is warm? We heated our pool the first winter (2006) for a couple of weeks, but have not heated the pool since. We do heat our spa a few times per winter, and have found that the cost isn't that much of a burden for us compared to heating the entire pool. So if it were me, I would ask the builder to leave space for a heater to be plumbed in sometime in the future, but would probably not install it without a spa.

Tracy

Thank you Tracy!