The Energy Costs Associated With Owning a Pool

[TerryBolea]

[AZDude]

As someone who lives in a place, that without an available swimming pool, would be intolerable for 5 months of the year... I will add that having a neighborhood swimming pool is the way to go. Shared costs, no personal maintenance required, and the cost is usually something like $20 a month in extra HOA dues plus the occasional annoying neighbor.

[RocketSurgeon]

When they say pool, do they mean indoor hot tub? Or are full size heated pools actually thing now? I guess it wouldn't be too surprising if it were.

[Psychstache]

When they say pool, do they mean indoor hot tub? Or are full size heated pools actually thing now? I guess it wouldn't be too surprising if it were.

You can get pumps with heating or cooling systems built in to control the temperature. When our pool equipment died last summer, I looked into a cooling system for some of our 110+ degree days to make the pool more refreshing. I thought it would be a small premium like the hearing systems are (extra 10-15% normal price). Nope. Cooling system made the price close to 4x normal pump. Had to pass. Hears going for a milder summer this year (ie, nothing over 105) 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[AZDude]

At my old home, on those really hot days I would turn the filter on, run the aerator(which sprays water into the air), and jump in the pool wearing a big straw hat. Kind of a non-mustachian waste of energy, but there are some days where you have to take extreme measures.

You can also get a shade umbrella and base for like $80 new or much less used. Also a good idea to mix the water up right when you get in, so the warm water at the top and cool water on the bottom mix together.

[acroy]

Love my pool!
But would not own one in Seattle :)

[clarkfan1979]

Aren't homes with pools typically bigger than homes without pools? Pools use energy and I'm sure there is a lot of waste out there. However, some people who love pools can get away with it on the cheap. Solar heaters are very popular in Florida.

[Kapiira]

When I had a pool, I found that it accounted for a significant portion of my Tucson electricity bill during the summer.  And it didn't have a heater (not that it would have needed it).  There are energy efficient pool pumps that can result in huge electricity savings.  Also, properly managing pool chemistry can make it possible to run the filter for fewer hours.  Managing the phosphate levels in my pool helped tremendously. 

Every once in a while I try to convince Mr. Electricity (http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/) that this is a topic worthy of his attention.  No luck yet.

[warmastoast]

This is something close to my heart... Austin heat would be unbearable without a pool.  I keep a very close eye on pool chemistry,  I use just household bleach and muriatic acid (both cheap as chips) and I run the filter (a single speed one not an energy efficient one yet) for only 4 hours a day - seems to be the sweet spot for keeping the water clear.  My energy cost is 10kwh a day based on my electricity readings. $1.15 a day in electricity,  $5 a week for bleach and muriatic acid.  Water bill is not too bad, this year I have prepped my garden to not need watering apart from maybe a couple of bits of lawn which I am tempted to allow to die down in the summer.