It's a fact - most swimming pools are never at optimal swimming temperatures, and while much of the time the cold shock of the water can be an exciting part of the fun, it's also great to have the option to warm things up a little. This is where swimming pool heat pumps come in - they're an opportunity to invest in your home while adding to the fun of family memories, as the kids will never want to leave the healthy fun of the water behind.

First off, though, let's be clear that the proposition of heating an entire pool needn't be as drastically power-consuming as it sounds. Heat pumps for swimming pools aren't equipped with heating elements to make their own heat. Instead, as the swimming pool's water gets dragged through the pump, the heat pump's fan draws in surrounding air into a chamber with an evaporator coil, which is hollowed out to contain some kind of liquid refrigerant. When this refrigerant substance absorbs the warm air it becomes a much warmer gas, which is then channeled to pass through a compressor chamber. When the gas get compressed, the particles in it get closer together (remember high school physics?) and so the gas gets even hotter.

The now hotter agent passes through a condenser, which transfers the heat of the gas to the relatively cool pool water circulating through the other end of the heater, returning to the pool where it increases the overall warmth of the pool, even as the gas returns to liquid form and goes back to the evaporator for its next cycle.

Now what all this science winds up meaning to you is that while a swimming pool heat pump might cost a bit more to install when you initially buy it, it's less likely to be affected by shifts in the weather or the absence of sunlight than solar-paneling solutions, and will be more energy efficient than the majority of heating pump systems out there - the simple fact is that, since they've been around for so much longer than other forms of inground pool heater technology, they've matured in their design and are now better thought out and put together.

Of course, the way that I've described heat pumps for swimming pools above is a gross oversimplification designed to illustrate the details of the process for the layperson. The real-life complexity of a swimming pool heat pump means that you really don't want anyone but a fully qualified pool professional (yes, believe me, there are such things) working with them. Think about it - any device reliant on hot gas is simply not going to be safely adjusted by amateur hands. Ask your family and friends if they've needed to hire such a person in the past, and if there's anyone that they can recommend. Proper installation will optimize the functionality of the heat pump, and ultimately save you a good sum of money on your electric bills.

The second uppermost concern is whether, even if you can afford to front the initials costs of installation, you're really ready for the financial burden of such a heating system. You may need to regiment how long your swimming pool heat pump is on each day to ensure your children don't saddle you with a debt you can't pay at month's end.