THE Swimming Pool Resource Blog

Eco-Friendly Swimming Pools: Tips to Manage, Maintain

March 15th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Speaking of eco-friendly swimming pools, this is a great story from the Orlando Sentinel (FL) on green standards for pools. No, not algae - we’re talking about managing your pool in an environmentally sound and sustainable way. The Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC), a nonprofit organization, has published a Green Home Standard Reference Guide (note: PDF link requires Adobe Reader or equivalent) that recommends standards for green home building in Florida and is a resource for builders and consumers. The first two pages of the guide recommend steps for eco-friendly swimming pool management.

Not surprisingly, the FGBC would prefer you didn’t have a pool or spa at all due to water evaporation, energy use and chemical use concerns. However, if you want an eco-friendly swimming pool, or want to maintain and manage your existing pool in a more eco-sensitive way, there are four steps you can take to minimize the environmental impacts:

Install a sanitation system that reduces/eliminates chlorine use. The constant use of chlorine liquid or tablets to sanitize and shock the pool is of primary concern. Chlorine degrades and evaporates quickly from the water, necessitating weekly replenishment. FGBC recommends using salt water pool systems, ionization or UV sanitation systems to reduce or eliminate the amounts of liquid or tablet chlorine used.

Eco-friendly swimming pools use pool covers. Swimming pool covers keep the pool cleaner, reducing chemical and filter maintenance costs. A pool cover also reduces the amount of water and chlorine lost to evaporation. And, covers help prevent heat loss, keeping your pool water comfortably warm, miminizing pool heater usage and possibly extending your swimming season. FGBC recommends “transparent or lightly translucent [pool] covers” which allow the sun to warm the water. Opaque pool covers are specifically recommended for Florida pools to minimize heat loss at night.

Use a more efficient swimming pool pump. FGBC estimates that a pool pump accounts for as much as 20% of a home’s electrical use. To reduce this energy expense, they recommend using a pump no larger that 1/2 hp (horsepower) per 10,000 gallons of pool water, paired with an oversized cartridge filter and 2″ diameter PVC pipes instead of the standard 1 1/2″. For example, I have a 30,000 gallon pool and I need to replace my pump - it took a nasty shock during our last electrical storm (ugh!). So according to this, seems I’d look to replace my ailing pump with a new 1 1/2 hp model.

It’s recommended to put the pump on a timer and run it no more than 6 hours per day in summer, three hours in winter. Six hours is pretty long; unless you’ve got hordes swimming round the clock, you shouldn’t need nearly that. I set my timer for four hours in summer; and the water’s beautiful. You might also consider putting the pump on solar power.

Use a solar pool heating system. This would lessen electricity and gas dependence, and is definitely eco-friendly.

With water shortages, drought and water contamination in the news, we need to look for ways to responsibly and sensitively manage our swimming pools. While I can’t implement all of the FGBC’s recommendations (solar power is out - too many trees) I’m happy to know my salt water swimming pool is considered green. The pool cover is coming. The pool pump is a must; and I’ll measure my pipes. Having an eco-friendly swimming pool is not without expense; but if taking these steps can help the environment I think it’s worth the price.