wrote:
On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:38:19 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:



I had a friend who lived on Long Island who installed a propane heater
for his pool and then regretted it as he watched his tank being filled
weekly.
When we put our pool in here in MA, I went for an electric heater.
It's big (150,000 BTU heat pump) but we only use it to initially get
the water temp up in the spring and then later in the fall to extend
the pool use a bit. Most of the time it is off.

I have a 330 KBTU propane heater on our pool and I think we have only
used it 3 times. You can see the gauge move on a 150 gallon tank and
the pool does not really get that warm if it is cold outside..

I sue my solar collectors in the spring and fall but if it is getting
much below 75 at night, the pool will be too cold for us to get in it.
I switch the solars over to the spa in the winter. It stays toasty for
free.

When they were putting the pool in, the electrical contractor was
trying to sell us a whole house, propane powered generator. He said
we could tie it into the 100 gallon tank we have for the garage
heater. He ran all the wiring for it but, after thinking about it,
I elected to hold off on it. That was 7 years ago. The number of
times we have been without power for any extended period of time in
the last 7 years just doesn't justify the cost of a huge generator
like that, plus it would also go through propane fast.

I just got a propane kit for my little 5.5KVA generator. That will be
enough to keep the fridges going, run the mini split in the bedroom
and pump our water.
That propane tank will run it for quite a while.

I have not filled the tank for a while. I am not sure what the price
is. It was about $2.70 the last time I did it. I will top it off
before summer.

I live in an upscale area. We have natural gas, delivered via underground
lines. Most we have been without power in 33 years is about 12 hours when
the underground transformer blew. Underground utilities here.