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Use A Pool Fence To Reduce Cleaning Needs

If you have a pool, you need a pool fence, as it is the law basically everywhere.

However, with some careful thought, you can add more features to save on pool work at the same time.

A pool fence adds:

1. Security: to keep younger and non-swimmers safe from falling in. It may also be helpful in keeping family pets on the right side as well.
2. Privacy: If your yard is open to view from the street or neighbors, then with the right design I can increase your privacy considerably. Meaning no matter how you look, you can enjoy your pool.
3. Being Lawful: Depending on where you reside, local laws may mandate you need a pool fence to meet local standards. Do check to be sure.
4. Convenience: Depending on needs, a pool fence may offer a better way to protect the pool, when a cover is not possible or difficult to install and use.
5. Insurance savings: your insurance company may offer a discount depending on your policy or may even require a fence. Check it out.
6. Critter protection:  If you need to bring the fence to ground level and keep all these pesty critters away from your large water hole. A solid 5 ft high fence will keep most jumping animals at bay also.
7. Reduction in pool cleaning needs: If a solid fence from ground level to 5 – 6 ft high (glass) then not only will critters and animals be kept out, but it will also reduce low-level dust, sand, and leaves being blown into your pool. This will save on cleaning time and costs. Of course, overhanging trees are still able to drop their residues.

Turn the night into money saving activities

So easy to set up and save you money. Start tonight.

You can save money at night by running your pool pump on off peak electricity. Just note whether your pump will disturb you or your neighbors sleep though. If need be, acquire a soundproof cover to ensure everyone gets a good nights sleep, while your pool pump and filtration system does it thing.

Another approach is to look at a variable speed pump.

So instead of say operating your pump 6 hours in every 24 to turn over the pool water once, a variable speed pump runs longer, but at lower speed and consumes less electricity. One example compared a normal pump of 2000 watts running 6.3 hrs per day and consuming 12.6 kWh, per 24 hours. A variable speed pump running 19 hours on 116 Watts consumed only 2.2 kWh’s per 24-hour period.  A saving of 10.4 kWh. So, this maybe another way to save, run longer but at lower speed. The variable speed pump will cost more initially but runs quieter and over a year will probably pay for itself. Go, check them out.

You can Save by turning off water features too

If you have water features (waterfalls, deck jects and even fountains) these add ambiance, but they also come at some cost. So, when not using your pool, best to turn them off.

Waterfalls will be cooling your pool water as well, meaning more heating is required.

All of them generate more evaporation and thus added costs for water and chemical replacement will be needed.

If they are part of the ambient sound, you enjoy, look at putting on a time switch or daylight sensor to reduce the power usage.

If you have a larger waterfall, maybe there is a possibility to turn off this ( when the pool not being used)  but create a mini one in the same area to maintain the sound ambiance, with less running costs.

Thinking outside the box can save you money, but maintain most of what you desire.

Save  Money and Effort With A Pool Cover

If you want a BIG return on a small investment, then a pool cover is the place to start. Why?
When your pool is covered, you are going to benefit by:

1. Reduced energy costs.
2. Reduced water replacement costs.
3. Reduced Chlorine treatment costs.
4. Less cleaning needed, (costs)
5. Safety will be enhanced with potential savings there too.

How Do I Save Energy Costs?
Simply put, a cover will reduce the heat transfer at night out of your pool, meaning it retains more heat and will thus need less heating. This will be most noticeable in cooler climates and at the beginning and end of the swimming season, when you require heating to extend the swimming season. Your pool heater will be working much less and save you energy costs, more so now as prices are high. You can enhance this feature by making use of a solar pool cover.
So how effective is a solar blanket?
It will enhance your swimming experience to varying degrees depending on a few factors. As an idea if your pool gets 6 hours of direct sunshine then you can look forward to a rise in temperature of 10 – 15 deg F. Very handy.
And at night it will keep the pool warmer as well, by restricting the amount of heat loss.
A university study found that for an outside pool a saving of over 30% was achieved on pool heating costs.
So go and get a pool cover and start saving now.

What To Do About Water Evaporation?
Water evaporates from your pool and the hotter and windier the conditions the faster this occurs. And lower atmospheric humidity, only adds to water loss.
Water charges can be high and to have to top up your pool every few days soon adds up to significant costs. And not only this, but the added water, depending on where it comes from, may upset the established chemical balance in your pool also. Meaning more costs.
So, a pool blanket will reduce this as well. Want to know by how much? Cal Poly Studies on many different pool banket type covers established that with any of solid track covers, foam covers, bubble covers you can expect a 90+ % saving in water evaporation rates. A big deal if you in a dry, expensive water location.
Stop Your Chlorine Loss.
All things being equal, in your pool, the largest degrader of the effectiveness of your pool chlorine is UV light from the sun. An easy way to prevent or significantly reduce this is with a pool blanket. So, you will need to add less chlorine reducing both time and money spent. If you have a saltwater pool, then your chlorinator will work less saving energy costs also.

You Mean Less Cleaning Also.
Yes we do! Your pool is open to the world and everything passing by can drop in. From nuisance leaves, twigs, seeds and cones. Then there is windblown dirt, dust, sand and spores. The vegetation material will decompose and usually provide a great nitrogen base for algae to take hold in every nook and cranny. Before you know it, your pool is green and developing the hanging gardens of Babylon!
Leaves on the bottom will mean more cleaning of the leaf collector in your automatic pool cleaner, more work.
Leaves that don’t drop to bottom, will tend to block your skimmer basket and be a mess to remove every day. Such blockages reduce pump efficiency and add to the costs of running it.
Oh, and what about bird life pooping into your pool to accelerate the greening?
Lastly the added organic load in your pool, means your pool chlorine is used up faster trying to maintain safe and healthy pool.
Want to save on these costs and hassles, go with a pool blanket. It’s easy

Improving Pool Safety

Depending on the on the type of pool cover you can significantly enhance pool safety when the pool is not in use. The automatic pool covers offer the best protection against accidental pool entry. A mesh type will be second choice, but unless you have a “bubble” cover underneath, it will not offer any advantages re chlorine, evaporation and leaf dropping savings.
A floating “bubble” type banket is not in of itself a safety cover, against accidental pool entry.

Save Money With Solar Pool Heating

Let The Sun Save YOU Money

Want to extend your swimming and fun season?  Well yes I want to heat my pool, but what’s the best way?

You can use gas or electricity to heat you pool. These can be expensive and so to save money, you need to turn down the temperature.  You can make sure you have and use a solar blanket to reduce heat loss also. But at the end of the day the warmer the pool and the longer you want to keep it swimmable, the more money you will be burning up. Until that’s solar heating is used.

If you want to significantly reduce your heating energy bill, solar offers a very easy way to do so. The install cost of solar is very competitive with either gas or heat pump installs, but it has the added factor of being essentially free thereafter. No rising energy costs to contend with.

Even in a cooler climate you will get useful energy for pool heating well into the fall. (Do look at the location and direction of the solar collector device installation and any shading trees. These all can impact of the efficiency of the install).

So how much extra warmth can I expect?  As general rule you can look to gaining an extra 8 -12 degrees F, over an unheated pool. Of course, there will be heat loss at night (use a solar blanket to minimise) and on cloudy days also.

And how much solar collector do I need?

Generally, about 50% of the pool surface area. So, a typical 30 x 15 ft pool has 400 sq ft, so you will need 200 sq ft of solar collector. You can have more solar collector.

Id like more details, where do I go? Click here

https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/solar-swimming-pool-heaters#:~:text=You%20can%20significantly%20reduce%20swimming,solar%20energy%20in%20some%20climates.

• Smart Pool’s S601 Pool Solar Heater. It is no wonder that the S601 Pool Solar Heater is ranked first in our list of the best 2022 solar pool heaters. …
• Fafco Solar Powered Heating System. …
• Game 4721-BB Curve Solar Pool Heater. …
• SunHeater S120U Universal Solar Pool Heater.

Robotic pool vacuums

Save With Automatic Pool Cleaners

Okay so you have your pool and you have been self-cleaning your pool to save money.  Starting very enthusiastically and slowly it becomes a daily chore, then a weekly hassle and finally only as needed, if then. The trouble is your pool is taking longer to clean as your enthusiasm wains and the pool water balance becomes more complex and the chemicals needed increase. I slow spiral into a black or green hole.

But all is not lost, there are robotic pool vacuums to rescue you and your pool.

These generally remove more dirt and debris from your pool than other cleaning methods. If you use them, it will save you the need to engage a professional pool service – cleaning company as well.

And it will save you time and energy as for most pools the job is done in 3 hours.

How to Select The Right One

There is a considerable range of such cleaners so check with your local pool shops for ideas and recommendations. 

Selecting the right unit for your pool will take a little knowledge and understanding. Knowing the pool surface is the first step (fiberglass, tiles, paint etc, meaning smooth and slick) select a soft super grip PVA type bush.

For more textured surfaces, (plaster, Marcite, Pebble Tec etc) look for a cleaner that has wheeled or universal PVC brushes works best.

And don’t afraid to seek feed back from neighbors with similar pools to yours and what they use and find works best.

Then you need to figure out you are wanting; just the floors, or walls too and swim outs and so forth to be cleaned. So, you can sit back and watch them do all the work!

Lastly you may already know areas in your pool which seem to collect stuff and its important they get to these areas and do a good job.

Some types can get stuck behind steps, in sharp radius inside corners, and on swim outs and ledges. So be clear in your pools’ needs, before selecting the right unit.

A few other aspects to be aware of:

• Suction power, ideally 70 GPM or above
• Micron Value, the lower the better for the filter, as removes the smallest particles.
• Power Wash, can be helpful if your pool suffers from sand or fine silt blowing in
• Warranty, you want it to last so a well designed and constructed unit will have a decent warranty. 2 – 5 years. Keep away from cheap and flimsy no matter the price.