For pool owners, summer is the best time of the year. Friends and family are over your place all the time for a dip and all the effort of keeping your pool nice and clean is justified and worth it! Summer also marks the time of the year where your pool pump is working over time and with that, the electricity bill begins to rise.
There are strategies and upgrades you can make to your pool and home setup so you can significantly reduce the cost of running your pool.
Solar, solar, solar
Solar panels are installed on your roof and generate free electricity during the sunlight hours to power everything from your kettle to, you guessed it, your pool pump. Solar panels do work best in conjunction with batteries to ensure you have free electricity during the night time hours however for most pool owners, you run the pool during the day so you can completely offset that cost.
Homeowners who can use solar energy when it’s produced, such as pool owners, can see the biggest benefit and recoup the cost of solar panels quickest. That is, there is an upfront cost to installing solar panels but for those that are staying in their home for atleast 3+ years, solar panels will become an asset that saves you thousands of dollars over the next decade or more.
Adjust your maintenance schedule
The second way to reduce your pump’s big energy footprint is to make it use less energy when operating. You can usually set your pump’s filtering cycle to be less frequent or to run for a shorter time, such as once a day for an hour – consult your pump’s manual or manufacturer to find out the minimum running time that will still keep your pool clean.
Your pool pump does most of the work to keep things clean, but you can definitely help it along; regularly emptying your pool skimmer basket (and often a secondary basket inside the filter), as well as using a net to remove sizeable debris, will ensure unimpeded water flow through your pump meaning it uses less energy. It’ll also reduce the risk of your pump getting clogged up or damaged, which would otherwise mean more costs for you to get it fixed.
A variable speed pump
A variable speed pump can cost twice to buy as much as a fixed speed pump, but half as much to run over the life of the pump, saving pool owners far more than the difference in the purchase price.
If you’re looking to build a pool, we’ll be sure to discuss with you all the options available to keep your running costs down but ensuring the pool stays clean and used! Feel free to contact us today to discuss your new pool.
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