• Home
• Create Account
• About
• Login

Summary

If you are lucky enough to own a swimming pool, running it will consume a lot of electricity. The heavy-duty pumps that circulate the water for filtering and drive the pool cleaner are very power-hungry.

Here are some things to pay attention to:

• Keep a balance between chemical use, manual cleaning, automatic cleaning and filtration.
• Run the main pool pump for the right time based on your pool size (water volume).
• Run the pool cleaner for less time than the main pool pump.
• Install a two-speed or variable-speed main water pump, and run the pump on low speed most of the time. Reserve the high speed for the time you run the pool cleaner.

There are interactive calculators below to help you optimize the run-time of your pool pumps. But first, let's get into why running a pool is so expensive.

Swimming Pool Backgrounder

Keep a balance between chemical use, manual cleaning, and filtration

Here are the priorities:

• Your primary task is to keep the water in your pool in good chemical balance. It's not too difficult to do and avoids extra work and expenses correcting issues later.
• Your next job is to ensure the pool pumps run for the correct duration and that you regularly clean your filter.
• Finally, brush your pool regularly to lift the buildup of algae and other dirt from surfaces.

How Pool Cleaning Works

• How does your pool get dirty?
  • Leaves, dust, soil, and other garden litter get blown into your pool.
  • Think of your pool as a large communal bath. Swimmers will bring dirt, sunscreen, lotion, and body fluids into your pool. Consider taking a short shower before you swim. Note: A 1-minute shower removes most of the dirt, sweat, and oils on your body that use up the pool chemicals needed to kill germs.
• How do skimmers work?
  • Floating debris is moved by the circulation of the water and collected in the skimmer baskets.
• How do pool cleaners work?
  • Items which sink will collect at the bottom of your pool to be picked up by the pool cleaner. The pool cleaner uses brushes or water flow to push items into the leaf bag.
  • Many pool cleaners have a sweeper hose with a tail scrubber, which will lift algae and other particles into the water to be filtered out.
• How does water filtration work?
  • All things that go in your pool will leave a residue, dissolved or suspended in the water. The pool filter catches small suspended particles as the water circulates through it.
• What do pool chemicals do?
  • Chlorine kills germs, and it also kills algae.
  • Muriatic acid reduces total alkalinity and adjusts the pH of the water.

How Chemical Balance Works

• What is water chemical balance?
  • To maintain the water in your pool, test for Total Alkalinity, Free Chlorine and pH using a simple testing kit.
  • Total alkalinity measures the alkaline buffers in your pool that help stop pH changes. It should be between 80 and 120 parts per million.
  • You should keep Free Chlorine levels high enough to kill germs. The CDC suggests 1–10 parts per million (ppm or mg/L) for pools and 3-10 parts per million for hot tubs.
  • pH level should be between 7.2 and 8. This range reduces skin and eye irritation for swimmers. In addition, a pH in this range is best for disinfectants (Chlorine or Bromine) to kill germs.
• How can we reduce algae?
  • Regular sweeping of your pool removes algae buildup on surfaces and enables free chlorine to treat the algae.
  • Regularly but temporarily increasing the Free Chlorine level (also known as "shocking") kills algae.
• How much do pool chemicals cost?
  • The basic chemicals you need to maintain your pool are less expensive than some of the products sold as remedies once things are out of control.
  • Invest in chlorine powder, tablets and muriatic acid and use them regularly to stay on top of your water balance and avoid expensive issues later.

Running Cost Optimization

Swimming Pool Running Cost

• Main pump run-time.
  • The main pump does the majority of the work required to make sure all the water (volume) in the pool passes through the filter regularly to remove particles (including algae).
  • It must be run when the pool cleaner (booster pump) is running. It doesn't need to run 24-7, just long enough to circulate all the water in the pool through the filter daily.
  • It must run beyond the time the pool cleaner runs to filter the water after the cleaner has stirred up the debris in the pool.
• Booster (pool cleaner) pump run-time.
  • The booster pump provides additional water pressure to a pipe connected directly to the pool cleaner.
  • The pool cleaner's job is to vacuum up leaves, scrub algae from surfaces and stir up debris to filter it out.
  • The booster pump should run long enough for the pool cleaner to visit all the pool's surfaces (walls and floor) daily.
  • Note: The booster pump requires the main pump to feed it water at pressure. Therefore, the main pump must run whenever the booster pump runs.
• Install a two-speed main pump.
  • The description above highlights that the main pump performs two tasks: filtering the water and feeding the booster pump. These two tasks are distinct and can run for different amounts of time.
  • A more efficient solution is to have a two-speed main pump. This type of pump can run at high speed (high pressure) when the booster pump runs and at low speed (low pressure) when filtering water.
• Modern pump controller.
  • Most pump controllers installed are mechanical timers. These have been historically cheaper and simpler to operate.
  • Electronic pump controllers are available, which provide additional features. Some features can save money on pump running costs, e.g. by operating a two-speed pump or adjusting pump run times seasonally.

Pool Calculator

Try our free Pool Calculator to optimize your pool setup.

Articles and Analysis

• In depth, thoughtful, and data driven.

Comparing Property Tax Bills

Comparing Pool Running Costs

Comparing Kids Allowance

Pool Running Cost Calculator

Comparing Natural Gas Bills

Comparing Electric Bills

Comparing Water Bills

• We are always working on improving our articles and analysis, the polls below help us stay focused on what is important to you.

About www.OurBigData.org

We are people who share our data for our benefit. Information shared is analyzed anonymously to refine our articles and summaries and help inform us all.

We are funded by donations from people just like you who benefit from the articles and information summaries we provide free of charge. We want to keep this service free of advertising to avoid distracting everyone from the articles and information provided. Please consider donating:

Lastly, and most importantly, we are committed to keeping gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical ability, and beliefs out of our data analysis. We will not ask for, infer, or store this information. Such facets of personal identity are too complex for even the most advanced analytical techniques to model. Therefore, conclusions derived from models using such parameters are likely wrong.