If you have a southern facing roof face and its two stories or less, consider solar. If not and there is no spa attached, then a heat pump is likely your best option. If there is an attached spa, a gas heater is what will heat things the fastest. Not that with a gas heater, it will not matter what size given the way water is heated, it will use the same amount of gas whether you have a 250K BTU unit or a 400K unit. What will be different is the speed as a 400K is nearly twice as fast as a 250K unit.

Scott

We were told that the heat pump would be best. It looks like we are getting a 117,000 btu heat pump. Weatle king? Sorry..was hard to read the handwriting on the job order. We don't have a spa....sounds like we are getting a smaller one than what you are saying. Our pool is I think 12,000 gallons. So what do you think?

Heat pumps are a slow way to heat but it's quite efficient in terms of how much it will cost to bring the temp up when compared to a gas fired unit in most locals. It may cost over 2/3 less to heat the pool using a heat pump but as you noted, the number of BTUs it can inject is significantly less.

Putting a cover that stops evaporation, the #1 cause for a pool's heat loss at night, helps a lot. That may be an automatic cover, a solar cover or in low wind environments, a liquid cover (like the fish often seen at the pool store's counter).

Some places, like Southern California where the cost of electricity is significantly higher than everywhere else, a gas unit make more sense.

I suspect you are in Florida though, the #1 location for screened in pools so a heat pump will be fine. Find out how the COP number was calculated. The higher the number, the more efficient the unit. Also, some units claim they work down to the mid 40s with air temperature but bear in mind, as the air temps drop, so does the unit's efficiency. There are fewer BTUs to be drawn from cool air and as air gets cooler, the amount of humidity the air can hold drops and is frequently less. Humidity in the air helps the transfer of heat. For example, I can hold my hand in 40 degree air a long time but if I put it in 40 degree water, the heat is drawn out of my hand rapidly. While this seems extreme, the principle is exactly the same with a heat exchanger in a heat pump. Moisture in the air helps a heat pump's heat exchanger to grab more BTUs from the air. Temperature and humidity are two of the factors when computing a heat pump's COP number.

I never heard of a Weatle King brand. If you can get the exact brand name and model, that will be a great help.

Scott

I am sorry...I looked the other day and I think it was Weather King.