If you’ve been following the conversation around California’s Title 24 changes, you already know the headline. As of January 1, 2026, gas heaters can no longer serve as the primary heating source for new pool builds, major renovations, or equipment replacements across the state.
The new standard calls for heat pumps, solar thermal systems, or approved renewable alternatives. For a lot of pool builders, that meant scrambling.
For Adams Pool Solutions, it meant picking the right partner.
We chose Madimack, a global pool equipment manufacturer with more than a decade of experience building inverter-driven heat pumps in markets like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Japan.
This wasn’t a decision we made overnight. When you’ve spent over 70 years building pools across California, Las Vegas, and Utah, you learn that the equipment behind the wall matters as much as the tile on the waterline. A pool heat pump has to run quietly, heat efficiently, and hold up through years of daily use. Madimack checked every box.
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What Title 24 Actually Means for Your Pool Project
The short version: if your permit application lands on or after January 1, 2026, your pool’s primary heating system needs to be a heat pump, solar thermal setup, or another approved renewable source. Gas heaters aren’t banned outright, but they can only play a backup role. The California Energy Commission put these standards in place to push the industry toward lower energy consumption and cleaner heating technology.
There are a few things worth knowing.
If you already have a gas heater and it fails, you can replace it with another gas heater. That counts as a repair, and the new rules don’t apply. The mandate targets new construction and projects where heating is being added for the first time.
Outdoor pools and spas with a heat pump or gas heater also now require a pool cover, and new control systems need to be capable of communicating with the electrical grid for demand response.
None of this should scare you. The technology exists, works well, and in many cases will cost you less to operate over the life of your pool than a traditional gas system ever would.
How a Pool Heat Pump Changes the Way You Use Your Pool
A heat pump pool heater doesn’t just satisfy a code requirement. It changes the math on how often your pool gets used.
A gas heater fires up fast but burns through fuel. A well-sized heat pump pulls ambient heat from the air and transfers it into your water at a fraction of the operating cost. The result is a pool you can keep at a comfortable temperature from early spring through late fall, and in places like Southern California and Las Vegas, that can stretch close to year-round.
Efficient heating is the single biggest factor in how often a pool gets used. We’ve seen that play out firsthand.
On a recent project in Southern California, the homeowner wanted a pool they could use comfortably without constantly thinking about how the system was running. We installed a full Madimack equipment pad, and the feedback confirmed what we expected. Quiet operation, consistent temperature, and the kind of low-maintenance experience that keeps people in the water instead of fiddling with settings.
What the “Perfect Pad” Looks Like in Practice
One of the reasons we went with Madimack is their approach to the pool equipment pad as a system, not a collection of individual parts. They call it the Perfect Pad. The heat pump, variable-speed pump, sanitation system, and controls are all designed to work together and optimize energy use as a unit. That kind of integration matters because a swimming pool heat pump that runs efficiently on its own can still waste energy if the pump pushing water through it is oversized or the controls aren’t coordinating run times properly.
With Madimack’s inverter-driven technology, the heat pump adjusts its output based on conditions rather than cycling on and off at full power. That translates to quieter operation, lower electricity bills, and less wear on the equipment over time. For our crews, it also means cleaner installations and fewer callbacks, because the components are engineered to talk to each other from the start.
Why This Matters Beyond California
Title 24 is a California regulation, but the trend toward energy-efficient pool heating is moving fast across the country. Heat pump adoption has been growing in markets like Las Vegas, where we build and renovate pools year-round, and in Utah, where extended seasons are a priority for homeowners investing in outdoor living. Madimack’s track record in international markets gave us confidence that this technology performs in a wide range of climates, not just the mild, sunny conditions where heat pumps have traditionally been most popular.
If you’re planning a new pool build or a significant renovation in any of the markets we serve, heat pump technology is worth looking at regardless of whether your local code requires it. The operating cost savings are real, the equipment runs quietly, and the ability to maintain a comfortable water temperature across more months of the year adds measurable value to your investment.
What to Ask Your Builder About Pool Heating
Whether you’re working with us or shopping around, a few questions will tell you a lot about how seriously a builder takes the equipment side of your project. Ask what brand of heat pump they install and why. Ask whether the pump, heater, and controls are designed to work as an integrated system or pieced together from different manufacturers. Ask about inverter technology versus single-speed compressors. And ask what the expected operating cost difference looks like between a gas setup and a heat pump over five and ten years.
A builder who can answer those questions with specifics, backed by real project experience, is one who takes the long-term performance of your pool as seriously as the tile and plaster. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to, and it’s exactly why we brought Madimack into the fold. If you’re ready to talk about your next project, reach out to our team and we’ll walk you through what this partnership means for your build.
