Saving money on a pool

[aussie9]

Grab a solar blanket for the pool. We use ours 9 months of the year and the water rarely drops below 23.


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[bazt]

Grab a solar blanket for the pool. We use ours 9 months of the year and the water rarely drops below 23.

23. Bloody hell. My missus wont get into ours unless it's hot enough to cook prawns 

[aussie9]

Mines The same.  When it hits 30 she reckons it's just nice



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[nab]

Our current house came with a pool. When we first bought it 4 years ago we had grand plans to fill it in and make a fancy backyard. After the first summer that pool was staying! We are in it everyday during summer and the kids love it. I think that's the clincher, if you have kids the pool will be used all the time.

Nothing better than coming home after a hard days work in summer and stripping down, diving in and just loving it!

Having friends over for weekends BBQs is fantastic. Occasionally the dog gets a dip but she scratches you as she swims...

Excluding power, it cost about $25/month to keep it going. Get some solar panels on the roof and that should make up for the pump power usage.

[danbo81]

Ok so another question we do have solar panels although not sure how big the previous owner has the pump set on 10pm till 4am would I be better of running during the day while the solar is at its best

[Robbo]

Ok so another question we do have solar panels although not sure how big the previous owner has the pump set on 10pm till 4am would I be better of running during the day while the solar is at its best

It doesn't matter as you are being credited for the power generated by your solar panels during the daytime and using the power by running the pool at the times you are when the tarrif rates are the cheapest.
The only down side is that you will have to vacuum your pool and backwash your filter after 10pm at night.
That is, unless you can run a lead out to your pump during the daytime. This is a pain for the pool service guys.

[Ratbag]

Gidday Dan

According to the nice tech bloke at Davey, one should run the pump enough to change the water once every 24 hours. The pump on ours can manage to do that in slightly less than 4 hours, so I run it for 4 hours a day, with a little less in winter (3 hours).

IME, pool shops must get a cut from the electricity companies, because they all say to run the filtration pump 8-10 hours a day, regardless of the size of the pool and the size of the pumps - which is why I rang Davey up in the first place ...

The salt chlorinator controller gets turned up to 100% in summer, and back to 50% for the other 8-9 months of the year. Our pool is heated by a solar heater, which has a separate pump. On average, I chuck about 6x 20 kg bags of salt into ours each year, sometimes a bit more. Pool salt is far cheaper at Bunnings than at your local pool shop ... I buy a litre of copper and organic algaecide and chuck that in about once a year as well. If it is a concrete pool, it is important to keep the calcium levels right, otherwise the calcium in the concrete will leach out into the pool water, usually destroying the tiling at the same time ... .

Our pool is small (45,000 litres) and both pumps are well and truly over rated size wise for a pool of this size, as is the solar water heater. Bloody needs to be in Melbourne!

Hope this is some help.

[danbo81]

Thanks ratbag


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[WilSurf]

In our previous house we had solar panels (1.5kW) and a salt water pool.
We loved both.
Because we got $0.48 return for every kW we exported and had the 4 tariff thing, we had the pool running during the night wen the electricity was cheaper.
Maintenance was very easy. Have the water checked every now and then, fill up with what ever they recommend and you are set.
Running times in summer (Perth) was 7 hours plus when we were in the pool.
In winter it was running 2 hours a day. We had it checked after winter and it was perfect. We had it one winter when the water was like a green soup, but after a bit of extra clorine all was well.
I loved it when just before you are going to sleep in summer to dive in, cool down. The temp in summer (with a pool blanket) was over 30. Great temp.

[Ratbag]

You're welcome, Dan.

I grew up in Brissy, spent the first 26 years of my life there. Will be coming up there sometime in late October to early November to stay with my bro and his wife for 4-6 weeks.

If I still lived there, I would live in the pool between Oct-Mar. Either there, or in front of an air-con! People reckon that one acclimatises. I never did. Yet my brother is perfectly happy living there, and my nephew has far fewer skin problems than he ever had in Melbourne. We're all different ...  .

[chetty]

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