Cooling the pool

[anonapersona]

We are now into the hot part of the year. The pool is at something like 90 degrees now. Still refreshing when it is 97 or 103 outside but I'd like it cooler.

I noticed on a local Weather bug site has a link to the graphs of all the collected data, looks like minute by minute. While we had been having cool temps in the evening, back in May when I set this time schedule up, that is not longer the case. The air temp does not get below 85 until midnight on average. It stays below 85 until maybe 9 or 10 AM, then it rapidly climbs to 98 or better.

Back in May when I set up the current schedule, it cooled down by 4 PM and so I ran most of the filter time after 4 PM and then again in the morning before 11 AM while it was still cool-ish. And I ran the waterfall at 7 AM and 8 PM, when it was a bit cooler and when I could enjoy seeing it. Now 8 PM temps are still about 93 degrees, just too hot.

So, I am going to reset my filter times to run primarily overnight, between midnight and 10 AM when air temps are below 85, then one hour every 4 hours just to get chlorine circulated into the spa. By September things will start to cool off again, mid September. But what I was doing did pretty well until this last week or so when the nights got so warm.

I'll give it a few days and see if that makes anything any better.

Now, is midnight 12 AM or 12 PM?

 

[duraleigh]

Hey, AP,

Do you have a fountain/evaporator?

 

[anonapersona]

No, I have a rock waterfall that is quite huge and faces due southwest and so of course it picks up A LOT of heat in the sun. The spillover from the spa also seems to introduce more heat; the water that spills over is noticeably hotter than the pool is, probably since it is on the SW side of the pool, elevated and surrounded by rock with no shade at all. So, both of those tend to add heat if they run during the hot hours.

As for adding a real fountain, with our high humidity when temps are 100 plus heat index is at 107, I can't imagine that exposing water to that temp is going to cool anything at all. I'm afraid it would wreck havoc on my water parameters with the evaporation and adding of high TA fill water, and the pH effect of the aeration on top of that.

I think this will probably help a lot. Pool temp is 91 when I looked at 2 PM. I'll try to remember to check it tomorrow to see if it is any better after one overnight cycle.

 

[duraleigh]

As for adding a real fountain, with our high humidity when temps are 100 plus heat index is at 107, I can't imagine that exposing water to that temp is going to cool anything at all.

It works. The water falling from my evaporator is always 2-3 degrees cooler after the evaporative process works on it.......regardless of outside air temp. It takes about 48 hours of constant running but I can take 4 degrees off the temp of the pool.

My pH rises hardly at all and, suprisingly, the water loss is negligible. It's hard to believe just how effective a good opne can be until you experience it. Artattackat has some photos of his and that is a GREAT design. Notice he has a LOT of "nozzles" that result in more of a spray than most fountains and note that he puts a lot of pressure to it to elevate the blast and provide even more misting. I think he indicated he can drop 6-8 degrees in 24 hours.

Not trying to convince you of something you don't want to do but don't resist it because it might not work......it will. I keep our pool at 84 degrees during the hottest part of the summer without much problem.[attachment=0:3b34dhf9]poolcooler.jpg[/attachment:3b34dhf9]

 

[crabboy]

I made a simple fountain that plugs into my Polaris socket. I just bought an extra socket from the pool store and plumbed a simple section of PVC with a 90 degree bend and a 6 inch section with about 10 holes in it. This came after about 10 attempts at different designs, I found one that gets the water pretty high while keeping it in the pool. The water gets about 20+ feet in the air. The trick is at that height a slight breeze can push it around quite a bit.

I don't get the volume I want out of the Polaris socket, but it's worth it for me for the convenience. I don't want to be messing with my return sockets.

The water under the fountain comes down quite cool, one day out of curiosity, using a raft as a giant funnel I captured some water falling down and it was about 81 degrees, while the pool water was 90. The finer droplets are cooler than the larger ones, but they are much harder to control (keep in the pool). I don't have a giant Olympic sized swimming pool like Dave, so I have to aim with precision. And given my limited volume from the the socket, I have to run it a bit longer, but given the time, it does make a big difference.

 

[Brentr]

I find that our deck jets feel much cooler than the sheer descent. Not sure why that is, none the less we like our pool at 90 degrees.

 

[anonapersona]

Follow up... The thermometer at the pool equipment pad read 102 degrees at 2 PM. The pool was 90.

All that time spent resetting the Aqualink to have circulation only during the hours when ambient temp is less that 85 accomplished nothing, only 1 degree change in the pool temperature. The heat gain occurs at the swimout and the spa where dark brown stones were used. I decided that shade would help and so I ordered a second umbrella from Overstock.com to match the first one I got but they said that item is all gone now.

In this heat we have lots of evaporation losses so I have decided to add water to the pool while I am swimming if it needs cooling. That works well enough and keeps me from wandering off and leaving the water on.

It was very interesting swimming today. The circulation had been off since 10 AM, and there were distinct hot and cool bands in the pool as I began. Slightly warm in the shallow end, then hot and cool bands by the spa and swimout. Not unpleasant, just interesting. Once it was all stirred up it was comfortable enough.

I don't want to get a fountain set up, that sounds like work. POP is the answer I think. Just a few weeks and it will start to cool down a bit again; 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks. August in Texas is like February in those northern states: take it easy, read your seed catalogs and plan for better weather. Too hot for outdoor stuff, so I will begin to recover the patio cushions to match the one new umbrella. Maybe I can find a smaller umbrella in that same color, for the spa and swimout area.

 

[anonapersona]

OK, now I am convinced.

I went to visit a friend who has a pool and saw a fountain in action. Her pool was warm, sort of shallow and no shade at all. they had a tiny fountain that someone had bought that screwed into a return and had an 8" long bar where the water sprayed up. Didn't spray very high but I could see that it really would cool the pool if you ran it long enough. Her Polaris would run into it and get caught, so the location was poor for her pool, but I do know that it can work, regardless of the air temp it seems.

So, is this sort of thing better to make or should I try to buy one? It seems that her's was bought, but if I knew the connections to look for it should be easy to make.

 

[duraleigh]

Hey, AP,

Probably the hardest thing is to get the eyeball out of your pool return. If I remember correctly, it's a 2-part removal. The eyeball unscrews pretty easily but then there is a back part with no obviously apparent way to unscrew it.

If you look into the return, you will see 2 slots 180 degrees from one another on the inside of the return pipe. You can purchase a cheap "key" (from the pool store) that fits into those two slots and allows you to unscrew the second part of the eyeball fitting.

Once that's done, a standard 1.5" threaded PVC pipe will screw into the remaining threads (in the pool wall) and you will be off and running. You can design the evaporator any way you like. I don't have a camera today but can get one and post a picture of mine for starter ideas. Others may have a photo already available.

Aside from a couple of days when I fell behind, the hottest my pool water has been is 86 this summer.