First of all, you can’t be blamed if I took you a while to take your first dip in the pool. The spring in York Region was cool and wet. In fact, you couldn’t even be blamed if you didn’t open your pool until later than usual this year. Who needs to pay for running the pool when you don’t feel like swimming?
Older pools particularly can be a little more expensive to run due to increased maintenance and energy consumption of older pumps and heaters.
The cool thing is, whether you have an existing in-ground pool or you’re planning to get a new one, by spending a little more to get newer, more energy-efficient equipment, you can end up keeping lots more money in your pocket over the life of your pool.
Take a look at just the first example below to get an idea of how much you can save from all the different ways of making your pool more eco-friendly.
Salt Chlorine Generator
First, making the switch to a salt-water pool isn’t as difficult as you think. Salt, or sodium chloride, is partly chlorine (the chloride bit). This more natural, consistent source of chlorine for the pool means you’ll probably not have to ‘shock’ it any more. It also reduces the maintenance needed because you don’t have to check chlorine levels or add chlorine.
How much money can you save by installing or switching to a salt chlorine generator? Even if you get a fairly high quality generator at $1,500, and you use about $500 in chemicals (not to mention measuring, mixing and adding them), you’ll pay off your eco investment in three years.
Automatic Systems
Unfortunately, even if you keep an eye on when you turned on the heater, you don’t always shut it off at the right time. That can mean you were heating the water longer than you needed to. With automatic pool control systems, not only does your equipment run more efficiently, you have control of your entire pool, including heat, jets, lights, even water falls, from the palm of your hand.
Energy-Efficient Equipment
This might be where you can save the most money. New, multi-speed ‘smart’ pumps can reduce electrical consumption by up to 90%. Even just making the switch to LED lighting can produce significant saving if you light your pool often.
So why not make the ‘eco-friendly’ switch. You’ll have less maintenance to do, you’ll feel great for doing what you can to save the planet, and you’ll save money too!
