SWIMMING POOl HOLE IN THE GROUND YOU POUR MONEY INTO. LOL

MC - Thanks.

NoCanDo - 11 years

John, remember to size your surge protector for the maximum amps (watts) plus a safety factor of at least 25 percent.

Geez! THis thread is inducing a migraine in old Dawg. I never knew swimming pool pumps were so complicated. We´ve lived in our present Lakeside house for a little over eleven years and have a more-or-less standard size pool built a number of years ago by some previous owner. I would guess the pool is from 15 to 20 years old. In the eleven years we have been here we have replaced the pump once a few years ago but I don´t remember when and don´t have any idea which brand pump we use today and we have no surge protector. The pump is separately metered because a previous owner used to rent the place out years ago. We have no propane or solar heating for the pool so use the pump only to maintain water quality. Our gardener is our pool guy and runs the pump every morning he is herefor about two hours five days a week. The pump costs us about the equivalent of $5USD a month in electricity to run.

Recently we employed eSun Energy in Ajijic to imstall solar electric panels on our roof to provide supplemental electric power to our home and substantially reduce our bi-monthly CFE electrical bills to very small amounts and to get us off of DAC permanently. At the time we installed the roof solar panels on our home we sought an estimate on whether or not it was feasible to solar heat the pool with separate panels adjacent to the pool across our garden from the house and decided, since we are next to the lake in the village flats and have several shade trees that the swimming pool solar heat was an impractical idea. Plus, if we had solar heat for the pool we would have to run the pump much more often to heat the pool and, thus substantially increase out electrical costs on the pool meter.

About eight years ago we also stopped using propane to heat the pool after the propane heater failed and we were faced with the expense of replacing it so for the past eight years we have simply not heated the pool which we use to either swim laps or entertain local kids by throwing swimming picnic parties occasionally. We have found that when we swim laps, we are only cold for the first couple of laps and then everything is fine and, what the hell, kids playing in a swimming pool don´t feel cold the way we old folks do so why waste the money making the water warm.

We would have never constructed a swimming pool on our property, especially in this superb moderate climate that is so cool most of the year and bought this property despite the fact that there was already a pool here because we fell in love with the property´s splendid mature garden. We would fill in the pool but that project would be expensive and not worth the hassle. We considered converting it to a large koi pond and water garden but are so close to the lake that we are almost certain we would attract predator water fowl who would feast on our babies. We are veteran koi fiends from Northern California so we know about predator water fowl but we also know there is no koi dormant season here as it never really gets cold enough fro a seasonal break so - too much work in that project.

My advice to anyone planning to build here is to skip the notion of a money-sucking swimming pool altogether in this marvelous cool climate ten months out of each year and, for your exercise alternatively; go for long walks on the beaches with pooch amigos. It´s free and your pump is less likely to give out at least for a while.

Now for some of us, hopefully we will never have to live without a pool again. The muscles and joints are just not what they use to be. Aging is not for the frail.

"Go for long walks on the beach with pooch amigos.It's free and your pump is less likely to give out at least for a while."
That's classic Dawg.

I wish someone would edit a/o condense Dawg's posts as they are good, but lengthy, for us short attention span viewers.

slainte39:

A couple of weeks back, one of the members in an accusatory manner asked if anyone read past the 2nd sentence of any post. Was ironic when that same member got caught not reading a full post and then asked a rather simple question when the answer was in the post. Point being, even with the Dawg's often lengthy posts, there is an opportunity to learn something new. Pays to keep that brain working instead of cutting it off as you will find that window getting smaller and smaller.

I might add that one can give their brain an even greater workout if they go looking for the hidden or double meanings in what the Dawg spouts!