Insulating an inground pool

[billycalexander]

So I've just had an in ground pool installed and have yet to pour any concrete around it. I have quite a bit of rigid 4" expanded polystyrene foam roofing panels I got from a construction friend that I could put around the walls of the pool with out much work except digging out the back fill down to the poured concrete collar at the bottom of the walls to get the panels glued to the walls. I'm also planning on having a pool cover to reduce the evaporative losses which I understand are the highest source of loss. I understand foam loses its insulating value when wet but from my understanding polystyrene is waterproof?? So given the above info do you folk think it worthwhile to add this around my pool?

Billy
Lazy L In ground pool
vinyl liner
~21000 gallons
no test results yet, just ordered the tf100
Variable speed pentair pump
Sand filter 350 lb
Date of build 9-15-2012

 

[PAGirl]

I'm thinking since its an I ground the ground would be a sufficient insulator. But that's totally a guess..... On an AGP insulation would be beneficial to a slight degree, but not so sure underground.

 

[chem geek]

Read this link for some decent info on why insulation of the pool is actually worth it. Also, don't forget to wrap/box insulation around your piping to/from the pool as such piping is even less insulating than the gunite. Had I known about this, I would have done it for our pool since we heat it to 88ºF for an extended season from mid-April to mid-November or sometimes into early December. The gas heating gets expensive. I think most heat is still lost from our opaque safety cover since it is relatively thin, but putting a bubble-type cover on top of it is one more thing to roll up (and to do so manually). Nevertheless, I'm sure there's still a lot of heat loss from the pool gunite due to its large surface area and from the piping.