As we approach Labor Day weekend, in addition to looking forward to BBQ, the pool and celebrating the people I adore, I will admit I am also very much looking forward to the cooler temperatures that appear to be on the horizon here in Texas. Which brings me back to the pool and whether we are asking the right questions. I suggest that we modify the soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet from “To be or not to be” to “To heat, or not to heat” as that is the question that we should be asking.
Prior to moving to Texas, I worked in California in the Silicon Valley area. The summers were relatively mild (only a couple of weeks of temperatures into the nineties) which meant that the communities who had pools needed to heat them. Consistently, I would see natural gas usage spike in May (heating the pool up for Memorial Day) and then see gas consumption drop after Labor Day. I liked that. Made sense.
Then, later in my career, I noticed that the gas expense began increasing in the winter at a certain property. The year over year consumption was triple. I did a site visit, frankly a little worried I would find a significant gas leak or a large piece of equipment about to fail. It was a chilly December afternoon. As I got out of my car and surveyed the beauty of the property, I noticed steam rising from the pool. Found it! Even if you have solar to assist in heating the pool, your gas meter will spin with enthusiasm to enable the pool heater to maintain its set temperature during cold weather.
Which brings us back to the question “To heat or not to heat.” The argument is frequently made that there are benefits, from resident satisfaction to marketing appeal, that result from heating pools in the winter. If your properties are weighing the pros and cons, make sure you quantify the cost of winter pool heating which, depending on the location, depth, and insulation of the pool along with the set temperature, could run you additional thousands in heating costs.
Which has more value to your marketing efforts? Thousands of dollars of listings and ads or the ability for a potential resident to stick their hand in the pool in January and say “Oh! It’s warm”? Which is going to improve your resident retention more, additional thousands in resident events, community rewards and pet treats or pool heating for the handful of residents who are going to swim in February? The point is, in some instances heating the pool in winter will have value that exceeds its cost and in some instances it will not. I just hope we ask the question as we make our decision on pool heating in the winter and think collectively about the total spend of our property and the value of heating our pools.
