Running Costs
Wake up with a warm smile and benefit from minimal costs - and low up keep!
Every Thermalec owner wakes up to find that the pool water is just as inviting as it was yesterday and the day before. That is the great advantage of having a positive and powerful heating system. That smile also comes from knowing that keeping the pool at an even temperature all summer long will not have cost as much as other systems because both the heating and the filtration will have been carried out using Economy 7 only. Satisfaction too in knowing how little the heater cost to buy and maintain.
The greatest Advance in Pool heating - Thermalec + E7 + Solar Cover
The introduction and almost universal acceptance of the use of the floating solar blanket has been the greatest advance we have seen in over 30 years of specialising in pool heating.
The blanket allows the Sun's rays to penetrate deeply into the water. It also seals the surface preventing evaporation and cutting heat loss night and day - halving the running cost.
Most heating systems will start to heat in the early morning unaware that the Sun will do all the work necessary and so they start to heat while the Sun is out - wasting energy competing with the Sun.
Because the Thermalec operates only during the Economy 7 period, starting at about midnight, its very sensitive control thermostat can detect exactly how well the water has been warmed by natural means, then makes sure the pool is exactly at the temperature you have set for your morning dip.
After a warm day it may not have to heat at all, but after a dull day it may run for most of the night. During a typical summer it will operate for 3 or 4 hours on average, after the initial warm up period at the beginning of the season.
The detailed guide to swimming pool running costs and other factors in the choice of a heating system
Five whole months of swimming in beautiful clear clean water at temperatures well above those of the Mediterranean with a heating cost that is less than the cost of one package holiday for a week.
With a 12’ by 24’ pool the total running cost of both heater and filter pump can be less than £430 for 22 weeks swimming at 80ºF as shown in the example given below.
Using a Thermalec heater and taking advantage of low cost electricity at night for both heating and filtration gives you up to 22 weeks of summer swimming, without ever leaving your own garden.
Taking a pool with a solar cover maintained at 80ºF for the whole 22 week season from early May to the end of September, our experience over 40 years is that you can expect on average a heat loss equal to 28 Units of electricity per sq.ft. or 300 Units per M² of pool surface area.
This will be the heat loss from a pool of this size held at this temperature regardless of the type of heating system used. This then gives you a yardstick by which we may compare running costs.
To find out the seasonal consumption, simply multiply the sq.ft. of surface area by 28 (or M² by 300).
Most people we talk to do not realise that a pool only alters in temperature 2 or 3 degrees in 24 hours, but being a large mass of water it is thermally very stable. Consequently, heating a pool by night is the perfect way of using Economy 7 which is now much less than half-price electricity - much nearer 1/3rd of the daytime rate.
The Thermalec utilises this power in the most economical way possible. Unlike a storage heater, which heats its core up to a very high temperature, much of which heat must be given off during the following day - The Thermalec simply heats its storage medium, the water you swim in, to the exact temperature you want to swim in and not one degree more.
1. Heating Elements (always fully submerged)
2. Air passes safely above the elements)
3. Curved base (swept clean of scale and sediment)
For example a 12 x 24 ft pool has a surface area of 288 sq.ft, multiply this by 28, you have 8064 Units. If the price you pay for E7 electricity in your area is 4.92 pence per unit, then the total cost per season is £0.0492p x 8064 Units =39675 pence or in other words, roughly £397.00 per year.
One of the many benefits of using a Thermalec on Economy 7 is that a dramatic reduction is made on the cost of filtration, as, in private pools, it is normally arranged for the filter pump to run during the E7 period. A ¾HP pump uses 0.55 units per hour or 4 units in 7 hours, which at £0.0492p per unit, costs £0.20p per night or £31.50 per season. The heating and filtration costs together come to just £428.50 using the Thermalec system.
With other systems the filtration costs add considerably to the total running costs. If for instance you compare this with a Heat Pump of the same daily output as a Thermalec, it can only give this output if the filter pump runs 24 hours per day and that will be on day-rate electricity at approx. £0.179p a unit.
The heating cost is still based on replacing the 8064 units heat loss from the pool. Whilst the heat pump takes 3 parts from the air and one part from the mains, the 2000 units of electricity it does consume are at the day-time rate of £0.17.9p – making a heating cost of only £358.00
But the cost of running the same filter pump as above for 24 hours, just to transfer the heat from the Heat Pump to the pool is then 0.55 units x 24 hours x 7 days x 22 weeks x £0.179p per unit which comes to £285 for the season on filtration alone – and with the £280 heating cost totals £720.
