Swim Spa Heat Pump Install: Reviewing a Heating Upgrade

When it comes to heating a pool or spa, there isn’t usually a single solution that suits every installation. Gas, solar and electric heating all have their place, but the best option depends on much more than the heater itself.

Recently, we helped a Melbourne customer upgrade from an electric heating element on their swim spa to a more efficient and economical heating option, a heat pump.

Like many spa owners the client was unaware that their heating options depend greatly on the location of their spa. This is an easily overlooked aspect of heating upgrades, which is why we’ve decided to take the opportunity to inform our readers who might be feeling overwhelmed by these factors.

Not All Heating Options Are Suitable for Every Property

There are a few important factors that will dictate whether certain heating options are available for your pool or spa, and we’ll get into these below.

The three main ways to heat a pool or spa are:

• Gas
• Solar
• Electric

Gas Heating

Gas heaters offer on-demand heating which allows for heating water quickly, making them a popular choice where rapid heating is important such as spa’s.

However, gas isn’t always an option.

If the pool or spa is located a long way from the property’s gas meter running a new gas line can become extremely expensive or impractical. Gas pipework must be installed to Australian standards, and longer underground runs increase both the complexity and installation cost.

The construction of the home can also play a significant role.

Installing new services beneath a home on stumps is often much simpler than doing the same work at a property built on a concrete slab, where trenching around the house can be much more difficult.

Solar Heating

Solar pool heating is one of the most economical systems to operate once installed, but it isn’t suitable for every application.

Firstly Solar works well in the warmer months when the sun is shining but not so much through autumn and winter. Also sun shine in Melbourne is unreliable even in spring and autumn so you can’t guarantee the temperature of the water.

Some might assume that solar can be installed on any pool or spa of any size, but this is not the case.

Solar relies on the circulation pump moving water through a large roof mounted collector tubes. While this works well for swimming pools with large water volumes, it becomes far less practical for smaller bodies of water.

In this case, the customer’s swim spa holds approximately 9,200 litres of water. Although that’s considerably larger than a typical portable spa of around 1,500 litres, it is still a fraction of the size of most swimming pools. When you consider the volume of water required to fill the pipes to and from the roof and the collector itself, the water level in the swim spa would be greatly reduced when the pump is operating.

This does not entirely rule out solar but in this situation, installing the pipes to the house was also problematic and the unreliable nature of solar heating year round all combined to make solar an impractical solution for this installation.

Electric Heating

Electric heating generally falls into one of two categories heating elements and heat pumps.

Often spas use a heating element to warm the water, much like a household kettle. They are relatively simple but consume a significant amount of electricity, particularly when heating larger volumes of water.

Although heat pumps also run on electricity, rather than generating heat directly they transfer heat from the surrounding air into the water. Like air conditioning but in reverse, air is drawn through a evaporator coil and the refigerant inside absorbs the heat the refigerant is then compressed to make it even hotter and it passes through a heat exchanger where this heat is transferred into the water. Because of this heat pumps use considerably less electricity than a conventional electric element.

Most heat pumps require a dedicated electrical circuit and they all need water connections to an external water pump so depending on the property’s layout these services may also need to be installed underground making access an important consideration during the planning stage.

Why This Swim Spa Changes the Approach

Many people think of a swim spa as simply a larger spa, but from a heating perspective this one sits somewhere between a conventional spa and a small swimming pool.

A standard portable spa might hold around 1,500 litres of water, whereas this swim spa holds approximately 9,200 litres.

That larger water volume means:

• More energy is required to initially heat the water.
• Running costs become much more important over the life of the heater.
• Choosing an efficient heating system can make a substantial difference to ongoing ownership costs.

For this customer, the swim spa was used primarily once or twice a week during the colder months, often in the evening. They wanted to maintain enjoyable water temperatures without the high operating costs they had endured relying on an electric heating element to heat such a large volume of water.

Finding the Right Solution

While the electric heating element performed adequately, the running costs eventually prompted the owner to look into a more economic alternative.

After assessing the property, discussing how the swim spa was used and considering the available installation options, we performed a heating calculation and recommended the Neptune NXH11 heat pump. This was sized to allow heating of the water year round, which was achieveble with a smaller unit due to the lower water volume.

At the time of installation, the Neptune NXH11 represented one of the most efficient heat pumps available. As with most technology, heat pumps continue to evolve rapidly, with manufacturers regularly improving efficiency, performance and control features. For that reason, we always recommend the most suitable model available at the time rather than relying on a particular brand or model year.

Our planning process also identified considerations the customer hadn’t anticipated, “mainly around the location of the heat pump with the ventilation requirements”.

Heat pumps require adequate airflow to operate efficiently, so selecting the correct location is just as important as selecting the unit itself.

The Result

A neat and efficient heating setup.

After using the new heat pump throughout the cooler months of this year, the customer reported that heating performance was better than their previous heater and they’ve noticed a significant reduction in their energy costs.

Although the Neptune heat pump includes app control the customer mentioned that he prefers to simply set the desired temperature and leave the system to do its job. We integrated control into the spa’s existing digital panel so it operated the same as his previous electric element and means the client doesn’t have to use yet another app just to heat his spa.

Planning Makes All the Difference

One of the biggest takeaways from this project is that selecting a heater isn’t simply about comparing products.

The type of pool or spa, its water volume, the property’s layout, available services and how the owner intends to use it all influence which heating options are the most practical.

By taking the time to assess these factors before installation, we were able to recommend a solution that suited both the swim spa and the customer’s lifestyle, delivering the comfort they wanted while dramatically reducing ongoing running costs.

If you’re considering upgrading your pool or spa heating, contact My Pool Shop Melbourne today so you can be confident in your decision like this valued customers. We’re here to take the stress out of pool care, “because everybody deserves a safe and healthy pool”.