Pool water a little cold?

It is getting to the time that time of year, when the days are getting pretty hot, but the water in the pool has not kept up. You are hot and need some relief and step into the pool. With every step down,  your arms get closer to your body and you stand there debating the final step. We all do it, standing there thinking, wow that water is colder than I thought it would be. But it doesn’t have to be, sure you can buy fancy expensive pool water heaters, but that is just one more thing to go wrong or use energy. There is a way however, to keep the pool considerably warmer and have the added bonus of keeping leaves and other things out of the pool as well. We all know the sun warms our pools. Pools gain heat from the sun, absorbing 75%–85% of the solar energy striking the pool surface. A pool cover will decrease the solar gain contribution to some extent, depending on what type you use. A transparent bubble cover may reduce pool solar energy absorption by 5%–15%. But what you lose in absorption you gain back in lack of evaporation and then some. Sun absorption is also an important consideration when building a pool, where is the sun going to be? Will it be obstructed or at a low angle behind a high wall for example.

Swimming pools lose energy in a variety of ways, but evaporation is the main source of energy loss. Evaporating water requires tremendous amounts of energy. It only takes 1 Btu (British thermal unit) to raise 1 pound of water 1 degree, but each pound of 80ºF water that evaporates takes a  1,048 Btu of heat out of the pool and that is a lot of heat loss. If you are at the beach in the Yucatan you usually have a nice constant breeze. However, every square centimetre of your pool’s surface gives up heat  to the wind by evaporation. The stronger the wind, the greater the heat loss. Evaporation alone accounts for 60% of the heat loss from your pool. Another 30% of the loss radiates into the air from the water surface and 10% goes into the ground. So by simply putting on an inexpensive pool cover, you can reduce heat loss by close to 90 percent.

Pool covers are light and easy to handle for your average pool. They keep the pool cleaner, they certainly keep it warmer and they also retain pool chemicals longer. So next time you are up to your knees in your pool thinking this water is freezing, call us to get a pool cover.