Swimming pools provide a great way to exercise and beat the summer heat. Building and maintaining a pool, however, also means relatively high costs added to your household's budget. There are several ways that you can reduce operating and maintenance costs, lower water consumption, and conserve heat if you heat your pool.
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Many people heat their pools to extend the swimming season and/or to keep it at a temperature that they are personally comfortable with. This lets them enjoy the full value from their pool. Solar pool heaters are an option to heat the pool with "clean" energy from the sun, and can reduce heating costs.
Optimizing Water Filtration and Circulation Pumping A study by the Center for Energy Conservation at Florida Atlantic University shows that pool owners can save energy and maintain a comfortably heated pool by using smaller and higher efficiency pumps, and operating pumps less each day. In this study of 120 pools, some pool owners saved as much as 75 percent of their original pumping bill when they used both conservation measures (see table below).
Savings from Pump Conservation Measures
Condition
Energy Use (kWh/year)
Cost of Energy ($/year)
Energy Savings
Original
3000
240
----
Pump replacement (downsizing)
1800
140
40%
Reduced time (60%)
1200
100
60%
Combination of above
720
60
75%
Table courtesy of Home Energy magazine. These savings represent a typical pool in Florida. The average pool pump energy bill is probably higher in Florida than in many other areas of the country because of the long swimming season. While the absolute savings here will be greater there than elsewhere, the percentage savings should apply nationwide. Note that the savings for the combination of measures are not simply the sum of savings for the individual measures. When both are implemented, the energy use is 60 percent of 40 percent of the original use— percent savings.
Sizing the Pump Right When a pump wears out or can't be repaired, a pool owner typically installs a larger one, thinking that "bigger must be better." Instead, a larger pump may increase the costs of pumping and maintenance. To choose the right size pump, consult design charts that match the hydraulic characteristics of the pump to both the piping and the pool's flow characteristics. A local pool supply dealer should have access to these charts.
The Florida study shows that a 0.75 horsepower or smaller pump is generally sufficient for residential pools. Smaller pumps, which cost less, can be used if you decrease the pool circulation system's hydraulic resistance. This can be done through one or more of the following ways: substituting a large filter (rated to at least 50 percent higher than the pool's design flow rate), increasing the diameter or decreasing the length of the pipes, or replacing abrupt 90-degree elbows with 45-degree elbows or flexible pipe. These types of changes can slash up to 40 percent off the pump's use of electricity (see table above).
Circulating the Water Another way to save energy is to reduce the pump's operating time. Pool pumps often run much longer than necessary. Pool owners need to understand the reasons behind circulating the pool's water.
Circulating water keeps your pool's chemicals mixed. However, as long as the water circulates while chemicals are added, they should remain evenly mixed with minimal daily circulation. Secondly, circulating the water keeps the pool free of debris by drawing water out and through the filter. It is not necessary to recirculate the water completely every day to remove debris and clean the water. One complete circulation usually takes between 6 and 12 hours per day. But this may be longer than necessary since most debris either floats or sinks, and can be removed with a skimmer or vacuum. After about an hour, most of the pumping power is wasted by circulating clear water and does little to improve the water's quality.
Furthermore, longer circulation does not necessarily reduce the growth of algae. Instead, using chemicals in the water and scrubbing the walls are the best methods. In the Florida study, most people who reduced pumping to less than 3 hours per day were still happy with the water's quality. On average, this saved them 60 percent of their electricity bill for pumping. Combined with using a smaller size pump, pool owners saved up to 75 percent of their original electricity bill for pumping water.
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