Save the water!

I was just reading the blog written by Wendy Purser and it made me think of something I have been contemplating recently. Using reclaimed rain water to use for topping up of the pool or spa. Many parts of the country have been using reclaimed water for irrigation and other uses that would typically waste the precious water we need. Some states have gone so far as to restrict the construction or top up of swimming pools, instead of fighting the governments, why not start saving and using the water that nature gives us to solve this problem.A homeowner can use a container that holds 50 gallons at the end of a downspout from the roof to containers that are custom built sized in excess of 30,000 gallons buried in the ground. No mater what size is used it is that much less that is required from the areas concerned by drought.This seems to be a proactive approach that benifits everyone.Justin

Replies

Bryan Goh April 7, 2009 at 11:39pm

In Australia pool rebates have been provided to pool owners to purchase pool covers, which has been very successful. With most of Australia experiencing drought conditions many Australian suppliers have come up with ingenious water saving devices such as liquid pool blankets, rain water diverters, floating skimmers, larger cartridge filters.

My company Waterco has released a centrifugal pre filtration device (MultiCyclone) which minimises backwash wash frequency and filter maintenance by removing up to 80% of the dirt load before reaching the filter and requires minimal water to service.

Another suggestion is to connect a rainwater diverter to the pool, install an auto water leveller and a larger skimmer to allow for a larger water variance. Your pool increases it water storage capacity and therefore requires less top ups.
Justin Gregoli January 13, 2009 at 7:30am

In this month's issue of Watershapes there is an article about water reclamation. If any one is interested in this angle you should check it out. They are using a custom built on site tank system. Take a look and see what you think.
Justin
Monique Nelson January 6, 2009 at 4:16pm

Steve,
while I certainly see your points about hot summers, I have to bring up a few alternate opinions regarding Automatic pool covers. Liquid Solar Pool Covers. A liquid cover answers all of your grievances: the pool is open 24/7 while being covered at the same time, there is no detraction from the aesthetic beauty of the pool, you don't have to haul a plastic cover on and off or pay thousands for an automatic cover, and they will work with any shape or size of pool. I hope this gives you some food for thought...
Justin Gregoli December 11, 2008 at 11:26am

I agree in essence with all your points, especially the automatic cover (for safety, energy savings, chemical savings and water evaperation reduction). I still hold that water reclamation is needed in our mind set. If the customer does have a irrigation system then having a reclamation tank only makes sense and to feed the evaporation rate in the pool with it as well as the irrigation needs solves more than one concern. Even with a cover there is going to be evaporation, albeit much less, and this would solve that end of it rather than topping of with a hose from the public supply.
The key is trying to join forces with the landscape industry to create the mindset as a combined resolution rather then theirs and ours. These mergers of sorts benefit everyone including the customers.
Steve Ravizza December 7, 2008 at 10:46am

Rex,

I agree with your recommendations, with the following caveat on #1:

In cooler climates, pool covers are the perfect solution. In the summer in our hot AZ climate, covers heat pools that are already too warm (or prevent heat loss at night) to the point of discomfort - even if it is just a simple sheet of plastic. If a solar cover is used, we turn the pool into a huge hot tub. The warmer water increases the sanitizer load, so the typical homeowner or once-per-week service tech have to be on their toes to keep the pool from going green. For our cooler months, that of course is not an issue.

Also, unless an automatic "Cover Pools" type of cover is installed, pool covers tend to keep swimmers out of the pool. The process of manually removing and reinstalling the cover is too big of a pain in the backside, especially on a freeform pool. Plus, they detract from the beauty of a pool. If you've paid to have a gorgeous pool installed, you probably don't want to cover it.

While I was building pools in Northern California (late 80's - early 90's), a solar cover had to be provided on every job in order to pass the final inspection. I would guess that the percentage of homeowners that actually used them was in the single digits.

I am acutely aware of the drought conditions in our arid Southwest, and go out of my way to limit water use. I do understand the importance and benefits of covers, but by now you may have guessed that, yes - I am not a fan of covers.
Justin Gregoli December 6, 2008 at 8:36am

David,
I like the brown hippie comment!
I think it would need to be sold as having all the benifits of water reclamation AND to top off the pool. If the consumer is in an area of water conservation (as many states are) then they would see the value. I saw one homeowner in the Atlanta area install a built on site tank that will hold in upwards of 15,000 gallons and using a well pump for irrigation and flushing toilets and the like. This unit cost over $15,000 and he never thought of using fit or the pool, at least in a direct way, he was going to fill the pool via the garden hose, which would of course would have come from the tank.
I also would love find a cheaper way and I am on the lookout all the time but for now we should be at least discussing with the customer and go with the flow (so to speak).
Justin
David Bauer December 5, 2008 at 2:21pm

I've actually sold some of our lift station and septic tanks for rainwater recovery for irrigation purposes. One problem is that with the smallest tanks (300-500 gallons) you are looking at an installed price of a system being $1500-2500 and up (of course these come with a small irrigation pump). The water is trapped from the downspouts into distribution boxes in the lawn to funnel to the tanks. I don't know if a cheaper syphon could be developed (?) instead of using a pump for delivery to the pool, I've never sold it for that purpose. The question is, would the homeowner pay for that? Would they want that much money tagged onto the price of a pool? At what price does the green hippie turn brown, so to speak?