Pool ...how can I save money/energy on it?

rivka

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We moved into our house 11 years ago with small pool. Kids were little then and we used it often. Now it seems like a money pit pond. We only go in a bit over the summer, but have to maintain and run pump all year, esp in summer.
What can I do to save money on this that does not involve just filling it in!
Are there any kinds of temporary decks/ pool cover/seals? I have not been able to find any solar pool pumps that are not super expensive.
 

Lovechooks

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Could you turn it into a pond and whack some ducks in it?
 

punkin

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This year we plan on putting our pool pump on a timer - 12 hours on, 12 hours off.
 

FarmerChick

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rivka said:
We moved into our house 11 years ago with small pool. Kids were little then and we used it often. Now it seems like a money pit pond. We only go in a bit over the summer, but have to maintain and run pump all year, esp in summer.
What can I do to save money on this that does not involve just filling it in!
Are there any kinds of temporary decks/ pool cover/seals? I have not been able to find any solar pool pumps that are not super expensive.
Hard decision but honestly if you don't use it much, get rid of it. If above ground you could sell it in the paper. People come and take down and take away....good deal there! :)

I have a small above ground. YUP, money pit....cause you must use chemicals and filter to keep clean and vacuum etc. if you EVER do want to use it.......so what I do to keep cost down is over the years I know how long the filter must run......I do keep chemicals up to date in it to make sure I don't have extra work if it gets cloudy or goes green. HMMMM....save money, :th

I guess I really don't in a way cause I need it clean thru the summer for when we do use it.....hmmm.....kinda like the luxury you want but hate to spend the money. I know!!!
 

Javamama

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We have a solar cover for ours that does a great job of keeping the water warm and clean. We only use ours from June thru mid September though so it's not that expensive to run. It was a trade off for us. We knew that with animals we wouldn't be taking vacations, and forget about public pools, ugh.
But if we didn't use it much, yeah I'd get rid of it. I'm guessing yours is an in-ground?
 

miss_thenorth

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We have our pump on a timer--every other hour for 12 hours--off at night. When we swim in it, the pump goes off. Solar blanket to keep heat in.

Check your chemicals daily--maintenance is the key here. Becasue if you don't, and it goes green--its alot more work and more money.

the way we justify our pool (aside from the fact that it came with the house), is that 1- since on a farm, no vacations, 2-since on a farm, when you get all sweaty, instead of going in and taking mulitple showers, we just dip in the pool, and 3- it saves us ALOT on air condiditoning--we spend most of our time outside, so to cool off, we go in the pool as opposed to in an air conditioned house. (b/c of this, we dont run our air much)
 

Beekissed

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If inground you could turn it into a food source by stocking it with fish, frogs, etc. and letting it go "native". I've never heard of anyone doing it on purpose but I've seen plenty that got that way from neglect and then someone decided to add some fish and go with the flow. :lol:
 

modern_pioneer

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Taken from journal earlier this week;

Last year when we purchased our pool we also purchased a solar cover. Well it does help to warm the pool, not at the 15 degree mark the OEM promises.

So I made my own solar heater from pvc water lines, which worked, but not enough.

Over winter, stored outside, they broke. With no materials on hand to make a new one, I decided to purchase a ready made one which measures 4 x 20 feet.

Taking off, putting on the solar cover was always a task, so I purchased a reel. I hadn't put the solar cover on yet this year because I had ordered the reel and was waiting to get it to rig it up.

With just the solar heater, the pool would warm up in the evening to 76 degrees, in the mornings though it would be back to 72 degrees.

After adding the solar cover two days ago, the water temp has slowly warmed up to a nice 79 degrees.

Dale has a natural gas heater on his pool, the install and heater was 2k plus his monthly gas bill in the summer is over 200 dollars, in the winter its in the 80 dollar area.

I paid a total of 600 dollars for everything, the solar cover will last 6-8 years, the solar heater will last ten plus years.

ETA: I also put a timer on my pump, it runs 9 hours a day. With a solar cover it will cut down your chemical cost by more that half, so the small investment will pay for itself this year/season.

I would say heating my pool with solar power is the cheapest way. Both the cover and heater can and will be recycled.
 

rivka

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I should have been more detailed..sorry about that...
It is an in ground pool. I pay to have the chem work done weekly as I was spending more on trying to get it right than just having it done.

My costs are the running the pool pump. I even have an energy efficient one.
I guess what I am really asking,, is there a way to cover a pool without having to run pump, yet it not turn into an algea pit.
 
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