Running cost of 6 x3 metres swimming pool - Page 2

Chlorine (salt water) is not good for plants

Chlorine loses its effectiveness in the sun. By the time it gets to your plants, presuming you haven’t topped up the chlorine just before cleaning/backwashing,  there is hardly any chlorine there. On the other hand plants suffer if the water has a high salt content. Should you opt for a salt-water pool you will need to bear this in mind.

I have been doing this for years and haven’t lost a plant yet. 

Janice

could not agree more

There are some great responses on here Jennifer. Something we would have benefitted from this last year.

Our electricity bill (we live here full time) is 78 euro (was 65 before we ran the pool pump for longer) which includes TV, water heater in the house, lighting etc AND pool. We cook on gas though - by choice. The pool pump cycles the water around between midnight to 7a.m.summer time. Now, as others posted... 3-4 hours per night on Iberdrola's lower cost period. Check with them which tariff you are on, apparently we were on a higher one to start with. It makes a difference. 'Plan Noche' works for us.

A pool of your / our size probably works out at 94 cubic metres or 94,000 litres, or a little less. The trick is to calculate how fast your pump will cycle that. Ideally it will be 1 complete cycle in 1 night. It may be written on it. (Litres / hour).

We are fortunate to have an agricultural water supply to top the pool up, so not the multi-'00 euro total refresh charge via a tanker. 

That costs 45 euro twice a year but a lot (of ag. water via a different flow pipe) is also diverted for the orchards. We treat the pool with the 5 x tablets and use dip sticks to check the PH and chlorine. Tubs cost 25 euro (Mercadona won btw) and we go through 2-3 a year. Other supermarkets sell them, so do the bodegas around here so shop around.. They also contain a flotillant which makes stuff sink to the bottom and therefore makes it easier to hoover. 

For good results we drop the tablets into the sink traps, not throw them into the pool, for faster action.

p.s. a tip - don't leave the tubs out in the sun - handy for the pool sure, but noxious when you take the lid off due to the heat / condensation changes. Takes 2 hours to recover ;-/

We used to have a pool person at 15 euros per week but do it ourselves now.

Shocking a pool is probably best Googling, it is just a chemical but don't get the stuff on your feet! My electrician told me about it and my jaw prob went slightly slack on conjecture...until I understood what he meant lol

Best wishes, sure pools are not cheap and some people have said 'the most expensive garden ornament'...but we love ours.

D&J