March 10th, 2010 | 
Author: Simple First Steps
Heating a swimming pool can be an expensive business. But you can take some easy steps to reduce those costs significantly without losing any enjoyment of your pool, and you could make a saving of 70% or more for hardly any outgoings.
First, look at your circulating pump. It might seem as if the larger the better, but this is not actually the case. A 0.75 hp pump, or even smaller, will work perfectly well for an average pool. If your pump is bigger than this, especially if it is an old one, it is sensible to get a smaller pump to replace it.
Now inspect your pipe runs. You need to reduce flow resistance and choke points. Larger diameter pipes, shorter runs and fewer bends will all reduce the load on the pump (and therefore your energy costs). You can use flexible pipe to improve flow through corners, or at least replace any 90 degree bends with 45 degree ones. Think about fitting a much larger filter as well.
By taking these steps you will manage a 40% saving in energy costs immediately.
The next step is to reduce circulation times. Often people leave their pool pumps running for as much as 12 hours per day, when only an hour or so would be sufficient. The purpose of circulating the water is to ensure the pool chemicals are mixed properly . Once that has been done the chemicals should stay suspended in the water without needing any further mixing.
Remember that debris will either sink or float, and can be removed easily by vacuuming or skimming. Algae are killed off by the chemicals, not by circulation.
Set the pump timer to operate the pump in many small periods during the day. One long pumping will waste energy, as we have seen above.
Taking all of these measures will save you about 75% of your current energy bill. But there are still more things that you can do.
Reduce Evaporation Wastage
About 95% of your pool’s warmth is lost by radiating heat and evaporating water at the surface. It is easy to see that heat is lost to the air, but any water that evaporates has also used energy when being warmed or chemically treated. Replacement water will cost all over again.
Pool covers, even though not particularly attractive, are very efficient energy preservation devices. Not only will they significantly reduce heat and evaporation losses but they will also reduce debris entering the pool.
Pool covers come in a variety of types – solar bubble, vinyl or insulated vinyl being the common varieties – and prices. They can be fitted with easy covering/uncovering mechanisms to make then easier to operate.
Ensure that your pool is covered properly at night, which is when most of the energy losses take place.
A final step would be to build a suitable fence beside the pool, to act as a windbreak and help reduce energy losses even more.
Solar Pool Heater
Solar energy is an extremely effective way to heat your pool. Solar pool heating is achieved by pumping the water through a solar heat collector, probably mounted on a nearby roof, where it is warmed and then pumped back to the pool. Since the pool already has a circulating pump it is easy to modify the system to include the solar part. This is environmentally friendly, renewable, virtually free energy, and it works beautifully.
In very hot climates it is even possible to use the solar heating system to cool the pool water, by using the collectors at night to dissipate the pool water heat.
Because fitting a solar heating system is one of the easiest projects to do yourself, even if you have no previous experience, we have a good quality instruction manual, available online, to help you. The manual has a full guarantee, comes with plenty of step-by-step instructions, and is very clearly laid out.
Well worth a look – you could save yourself a lot of money making your own solar pool heater, and enjoy your pool for a longer season wherever you live.
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