Think Energy Efficiency For Your Next Pool Remodeling

If it’s time to remodel your pool or if you are installing a new pool, this is an excellent opportunity to select and install components designed to increase the energy efficiency of your pool and to lower your operating costs.  You can save money on maintenance, energy costs, and your water bill by working with your pool remodeling contractor to increase the energy efficiency of your swimming pool, especially if your home is located in Florida or another area where it is kept open year round.

Using a pool cover can reduce your water bill and your energy bill.  Evaporation is the largest source of heat loss in a swimming pool.  A pool loses a huge amount of heat energy when pool water evaporates.  Using a pool cover can reduce heat energy losses by up to 70%.  In addition, less evaporation means lower water bills and lower chemical consumption.  Your pool will stay cleaner too!

Installing an energy efficient heat pump pool heater can greatly reduce your energy costs for pool heating.  Unlike a gas pool heater, a heat pump pool heater does not create heat.  Instead, it moves heat from the air to your pool water.  Heat pumps are especially suited for pool heaters because they are the most efficient at higher temperatures which is exactly when most people are using their pools.

An energy efficient pool pump operated only enough to keep the pool water clear can reduce energy usage by as much as 75%.  Most pool pumps are oversized so don’t buy a new pump based on the size of the existing pump.  Check the manufacturer’s recommendations and buy the smallest size pump for your pool.  Needlessly running the pump wastes energy and studies have shown that most pool owners run their pumps much more than necessary.

 

Weekly Spa Maintenance Tips

Whether you are a new or seasoned spa owner, it is important to keep up the maintenance on it so that it can be enjoyed at any time and so that it is always working properly. Not everyone knows the best way to maintain their spa, though, leading to a number of problems. Here are two weekly spa maintenance tips that you can carry out on your own.

  • Shock the Spa with Lithium Chlorine – About once a week, you want to shock your spa with Lithium Chlorine even if it was not used in the past week. While you don’t want to put too much shock in the spa, you want to ensure that your spa has reached the proper shock level about 10 minutes after the shock has been added. You can determine this with the chlorine reading on your spa test strips. Shock in the evening before bed since no one can enter for at least eight hours.
  • Check pH Levels – Around 24 hours after you have shocked your spa, check the pH and adjust if necessary. Ultimately, the reading should be around 7.5 or 7.6. If you need to readjust, check back every 10 minutes or so until the right reading has been achieved.

The above-mentioned steps are to be done on a weekly basis or maybe even twice per week if your spa is used heavily. If you aren’t sure how to shock your spa or check pH levels, call a pool service out to do so for you. They can even show you how! It’s always nice to have a pool service handy in case you run into any problems with your spa that you can’t figure out on your own.

Why Do I Need to Shock My Pool?

Many people don’t understand why they need to shock their pool. The answer is two words: combined chlorine. When you get in your pool, you usually have suntan oil or lotion on and maybe even cosmetics, hair spray, etc. Alternatively, sometimes swimmers urinate in the pool water. All of these contaminants react with the pool’s chlorine to create combined chlorine, which ultimately contaminates the pool water and reduces the chemicals efficiency.

Combined chlorine works as a disinfectant, but a poor one, and can cause both skin and eye irritations as well as a very unpleasant odor from the chlorine in the pool water. More often than not, this odor is often confused with there being too much chlorine in the water.

In order to destroy combined chlorine in the water, it is vital that a pool owner shock their pool on a regularly basis. This is so important because with combined chlorine elements in the pool, the water is inefficient; however, when these elements are destroyed, the water is back to maximum efficiency.

A shock treatment for your pool could include adding large quantity of chlorine in the water, which is often known as superchlorination, or by adding a non-chlorine, store-bought shock. If you aren’t sure how to shock your pool, ask your pool service to show you how or you can simply have them do it for you. If you notice anything odd about your pool and aren’t sure what to do about it, call a pool service to come out and check out the problem. It’s better to spend money calling someone out than letting your pool get dirty and ultimately damage the interior of the pool as well as its mechanical parts.

Why You Need to Hire a Pool Service

A swimming pool can be a very relaxing and refreshing treatment after a long, hard day at work. However, no one wants to maintain their pool. In many instances, it causes more of a migraine than your boss did at work that day. Therefore, a pool service professional may be just what you need.

By hiring a pool service company to handle the cleaning and maintenance of your swimming pool, you can rest assured that your pool will be regularly maintained all year. Your pool can be checked regularly for the right amount of chemicals and can be shocked whenever necessary by someone who is knowledgeable in performing such treatments. A pool service company will keep all the bugs and leaves out of your pool while ensuring that all the pool and filters remain clean at all times.

Without regular preventative maintenance on your pool, you could run into a multitude of problems. Not only can your pool become damaged, but the pool equipment – such as the pump – can become damaged and fail as well. In addition, with a pool service professional checking on your pool regularly, he can spot any irregularities or malfunctions so that they can be fixed immediately before any further damage can be done.

When it comes to keeping your pool water crystal clear and sparkling clean, the best thing you can do is hire a pool service company. A pool service professional knows exactly what needs to be done to keep your water clear, clean and ready to use. If you do not have time to handle the upkeep of your pool maintenance or just simply do not want to mess with the headache of it, give your local pool service company a call.