outdoor extension for a 12ft swimming pool filter from inside house...

just seen the price of the eco heat pumps... ouch!
Mine is only 12' diameter x 2' deep, so i was optimistic on the solar combination.
However, i would like my kids to be warm. And suppose its an investment.
 
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We went for the big size because my friend has a degenerative spine injury and hydrotherapy helps the pain. This is the one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bestway-Hy...&sr=8-6&keywords=Bestway+16'+steel+wall+pools

It was costing us around £60-£70 to travel to Colchester for an hours swim amongst hundreds of screaming children/teenagers, so, doing the maths we decided it would be more economical in the long run to go for our own. In all we have spent around £2,500 but it means we can use it every day/night if we want to, (and we usually do! Lol). As we are both avid swimmers anyway it is something we felt worthwhile investing in.
 
Ok. I'll get a sparky. And yeah I'll look into a heater too (I was hoping that a solar cover would be enough?)
The cost is starting to mount up though

Solar covers are a marketed in such a way that they make you believe they will heat the water up free of charge if its a hot sunny day. In reality you will find that a solar cover will increase the temperature of the top centimetre of the waters surface by 1 or 2 degrees over the course of a useable sun shine day (10-15:00 in direct sun) with the circulation off, which once you start the circulation will equate to no noticeable increase in temperature of the total water at all. The same goes for if the circulation is running all day.

Our pool had a solar cover and it now serves a new purpose of lining a rubbish dump somewhere in Nottinghamshire. It wasn't cheap either!!


A heater is a must. As somebody already commented - water below 28 degrees feels drastically unpleasant to the body!
 
I knew someone once who bought a hose with a large outdoor pool. Very pleased with it he was - he'd always wanted a house with a pool.

He was a little less pleased with the high-pitched whine from his gas meter when he fired up the 400,000 BTU/h heater at the start of the swimming season.
 
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Agree with that B-A-S

Best thing to do is to heat it up once and then keep it there. Makes it a little bit more bearable on the old energy bill.
 
...from a decent heater. For this you will need a separate supply from the main CU which should only be installed by a qualified electrician.

If heat pumps for swimming pools are supposed to be hardwired does that mean that i cannot disconnect them from the supply for winter and put away?
or move the heat pump to another location/house?
Does it also mean that an electrician must connect it and disconnect it every time?
 
A heater is a must. As somebody already commented - water below 28 degrees feels drastically unpleasant to the body!

Have we all become wimps? When I were a lad the local outdoor swimming pool could go down to 60˚F, or 16˚C. It was cold but I survived. Even the not quite so local indoor pool only managed 74˚F, or 26˚C.
 
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...from a decent heater. For this you will need a separate supply from the main CU which should only be installed by a qualified electrician.

If heat pumps for swimming pools are supposed to be hardwired does that mean that i cannot disconnect them from the supply for winter and put away?
or move the heat pump to another location/house?
Does it also mean that an electrician must connect it and disconnect it every time?

Mine is hard wired to an outdoor socket with RCD, housed in a waterproof garden box. I simply plug the filter and heater into this, (no extension leads as stated), then in the winter I can simply disconnect the mains, shut off the flow to and from the pool and move the heater and filter to an area where they won't be subject to freezing temperatures.
 
If heat pumps for swimming pools are supposed to be hardwired does that mean that i cannot disconnect them from the supply for winter and put away?
Yes.

It's a permanently installed piece of equipment, bolted down to a concrete pad and connected to fixed wiring.
You can drain the water out of it over the winter to prevent frost damage.

Everything about swimming pools is expensive. Heating them, running the filtering system, buying chemicals and testing kits to ensure the water doesn't turn into toxic waste.
The initial price to buy the thing is insignificant to the ongoing operating costs.
 
A heater is a must. As somebody already commented - water below 28 degrees feels drastically unpleasant to the body!

Have we all become wimps? When I were a lad the local outdoor swimming pool could go down to 60˚F, or 16˚C. It was cold but I survived. Even the not quite so local indoor pool only managed 74˚F, or 26˚C.

Having a pool at home is for enjoyment and pleasure yes?

We may be able to "survive" in colder water but why have something expensive just to "survive" when you can enjoy it at a slightly higher temperature?

It's like having a hot tub but running it with cold water because we are "tough" and can survive!
 
My problem is that I live in rented accommodation so I don't like the idea of it being fixed in any way. And costs are a problem.
£390 for an eco 3 heater, £130 for an upgraded pool pump, 18p per hr running costs (almost £5 day / £600 per season).

So I'm thinking of trying 2 big solar panels - like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Panels-Space...&sr=1-11&keywords=solar+panel+pool+heater#Ask

Combined with a solar cover on only 2ft deep pool - it should be enough to play around in, even if its just used as large paddling pool with slide attached etc.
 
My problem is that I live in rented accommodation so I don't like the idea of it being fixed in any way. And costs are a problem.
£390 for an eco 3 heater, £130 for an upgraded pool pump, 18p per hr running costs (almost £5 day / £600 per season).

So I'm thinking of trying 2 big solar panels - like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Panels-Space...&sr=1-11&keywords=solar+panel+pool+heater#Ask

Combined with a solar cover on only 2ft deep pool - it should be enough to play around in, even if its just used as large paddling pool with slide attached etc.

Do you have economy seven?

Our spa has a fairly large electric inline heater which is 6kw. It heats up from 12:30am to 07:30am on economy seven for 5p per unit (30p an hour) so it costs us about £2.10 to heat it from mains water incoming temperature (about 18 degrees at the moment) to full 40 degrees temperature. Then, the thermostat takes over the control and only turns the heater on for a total of about 2 hours between 07:30am and 12:30am as it is only topping up lost heat.

Works out at about £5 for the first 24 hours of it being turned on and around £2.90 per day after that depending on how warm it is outside.

The economy seven is the key to keeping costs down with a spa/pool/hot tub... You do the "from cold" heating during the off peak periods.

Our pool on the other hand takes a lot longer to heat because the capacity is huge, but the principle is the same and I tend to heat that only during economy seven and don't run the heater during the day at all. It maintains a decent 27-28 degrees throughout the day.
 
One things for sure though, having a pool or spa is not a cheap thing it is a luxury.

Chemicals are also a factor in cost as you tend to forget how expensive the cost of chemicals required to keep the same body of water in a useable and safe spec for a long period of time (as you would not want to be changing the water every time you use it!)

You will need sanitiser (chlorine or bromine), calcium carbonate for hardness, sodium bicarbonate for alkalinity, soda ash and dry acid to maintain the correct PH, cyanuric acid for sanitiser stability with UV exposure and non chlorine or bromine shock to kill bacteria without increasing the level of sanitiser to too high and unsafe levels. Cost of chemicals is about £30 per month but the initial purchase price is going to be about £100.
 
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