Effective Pool Cooling for Hot Climates

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rhawke

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Nov 27, 2017
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Houston, TX
Living in Houston where my pool in August usually was 93-94F, I had tried all the aerating ideas from this pool cooling page and none yielded more than maybe 1F reduction.
Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

This year, because we wanted to reduce sun exposure for our baby in the pool, I bought 3 offset umbrellas (each square 10x10ft) for $200 each from Amazon which cover about 2/3 of the pool surface. (to weigh the umbrellas down I bought a bunch of 16x16 pavers from Home Depot)

Amazing side effect: The pool temperature has been 86-87F this entire summer! The pool finally feels refreshing in August!

Could one of the Admins add "Shading" to this page?

Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

2021-08-11 07_14_31-Photo - Google Photos.png
 
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rhawke said:
Amazing side effect: The pool temperature has been 86-87F this entire summer! The pool finally feels refreshing in August!
Click to expand...
Wow…that is a huge difference from the 93F you reported from last summer. I have the same problem in Phoenix with full sun for my pool from late morning and on…I have been debating/planning to add some sun sails above my pool for a few years. This is another potential “pro” for considering that project in addition to shading for burns (grandkids) and less chlorine usage. Thanks for the report!
 
Congrats on the temp reduction! I considered doing something similar, but our pool is more free form and didn’t lend itself to a configuration like yours. I tried shade sails, but unless the sun was directly overhead, they didn’t do much, if anything, with temp reduction. It didn’t help that I was trying a DIY installation, securing the sails to trees. Every time a thunderstorm started brewing, I was scrambling to take them down for fear of having a tree snapped into my pool. Then add in that our pool is a diving pool, with the final nail in the coffin being that my wife hated them. I finally ended up with a chiller and it was the best thing I’ve done for my pool. Current water temp is 77° and will probably get to around 80° at the most, with air temps at 100°. Perfect!
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jonpcar said:
Wow…that is a huge difference from the 93F you reported from last summer. I have the same problem in Phoenix with full sun for my pool from late morning and on…I have been debating/planning to add some sun sails above my pool for a few years. This is another potential “pro” for considering that project in addition to shading for burns (grandkids) and less chlorine usage. Thanks for the report!
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The downside of the sun sail is that you cannot remove it easily. Those umbrellas are taken down in seconds which is crucial in stormy weather or after a few rainy days where the pool got too cold for our little one.
fyi these are the ones I got. They appear quite sturdy and the fabric is completely opaque.

Amazon.com : Blissun 10 x 10 ft Offset Umbrella, Hanging Patio Umbrella with 360° Rotation, Outdoor Cantilever Market Umbrella with Easy Tilt for Garden, Backyard, Patio, Pool, Navy Blue : Garden & Outdoor

Amazon.com : Blissun 10 x 10 ft Offset Umbrella, Hanging Patio Umbrella with 360° Rotation, Outdoor Cantilever Market Umbrella with Easy Tilt for Garden, Backyard, Patio, Pool, Navy Blue : Garden & Outdoor
www.amazon.com
 
Wow! I really like that row of umbrellas. Just curious...which way is west in the picture. We're in old Katy. Back of our house, and the pool of course, is west. We have a cantilevered umbrella over the spa, and it's like yours--that is, you can pull the side down as the sun drops, and that helps. Unfortunately the west side of the pool is a wall and no place to secure a stand. Your setup has me thinking, though. The one break we have from the afternoon sun is that our house backs up to the side of a 2-story house.

I also have less heat in the pool than last year. In our case, though, it's mostly from the fairly frequent afternoon thunder showers. Plus warm water is not a problem when your spouse prefers 92 degrees! Believe it or not, after Saturday's rain shower, the temp dropped, and Monday afternoon, I had to use the heater to warm the water in the spa. Between the pool heater and 50+ hours of our standby generator running during the Big Freeze, we're on Centerpoint's favorite customer list, I'm sure!
 
BowserB said:
Wow! I really like that row of umbrellas. Just curious...which way is west in the picture. We're in old Katy. Back of our house, and the pool of course, is west. We have a cantilevered umbrella over the spa, and it's like yours--that is, you can pull the side down as the sun drops, and that helps. Unfortunately the west side of the pool is a wall and no place to secure a stand. Your setup has me thinking, though. The one break we have from the afternoon sun is that our house backs up to the side of a 2-story house.

I also have less heat in the pool than last year. In our case, though, it's mostly from the fairly frequent afternoon thunder showers. Plus warm water is not a problem when your spouse prefers 92 degrees! Believe it or not, after Saturday's rain shower, the temp dropped, and Monday afternoon, I had to use the heater to warm the water in the spa. Between the pool heater and 50+ hours of our standby generator running during the Big Freeze, we're on Centerpoint's favorite customer list, I'm sure!
Click to expand...

The umbrellas are on the south side of the pool. In the morning the shade is mostly on the side of where the picture is taken from, at noon the shade is right underneath the umbrellas and in the late afternoon, the shade is mostly in the shallow end by the Spa.

You are lucky with those frequent afternoon showers. Since July 19 it has rained only once on August 5 at our house in Meyerland.
 
I have two of these rolling umbrella bases with tilting umbrellas in them. They are fantastic to shade the pool and I can move them with one finger. They have never blown over in a storm. It has made all the difference in keeping our pool cool. I used to run a fountain overnight and would cool the pool down about 6 degrees overnight.
 

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otter86753 said:
I have two of these rolling umbrella bases with tilting umbrellas in them. They are fantastic to shade the pool and I can move them with one finger. They have never blown over in a storm. It has made all the difference in keeping our pool cool. I used to run a fountain overnight and would cool the pool down about 6 degrees overnight.
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I had no success at all with running 12 hours of aerators each night. I tried it for 3 nights straight and got maybe 1 degree out of it. (I wasn't even sure if it was just a coincidence).

It could be that I didn't have enough volume going through. Because the dynamic head is high from squeezing the water through the holes, the VSF pump showed only about 12 GPM.

Or maybe it didn't work because of our high night time temps and humidity. At midnight our typical temperature is still 83F with dew point of 77F. Anyway, I'm happy with the umbrella. That way I also don't have to worry about increasing the PH from all the aeration. The SWG is already enough to keep up with ...
 
We have similar temp and humidity here. I shot the water 20' - 25' feet high and that seemed to work. If I didn't shoot it that high to allow for more evaporative cooling, I didn't get the desired cooling.
 
I didn’t have success with aerators/misters, either. I’d get a slight temperature drop overnight, but during the day, water temp would climb back to 90+. My bigger issue with them was that the wind would blow the spray into surrounding landscaping, and the chlorine/salt water was killing my plants. Chiller was the solution.
 
We have a couple of umbrellas and a spray system on one of the returns and can generally keep summer temps below 88-90. I suspect that surrounding trees which keep summer sun off until about 11AM and after 5PM are the most effective. The downside is the leaf litter in Fall from the deciduous trees and Spring from the Laurel Oaks.
 
In DFW area, surrounding pool, I have quantity 6 non tilt patio umbrellas that are 11' diameter(clearance from AT HOME store for $39 dollars each) using 40 pound compost bags(Lowe's <$2 each) on each stand(stands were scrounged/free from FreeCycle & NextDoor), to add extra weight. An additional 7' diameter wood pool umbrella is in the pool by the bench, we call this THE CAFE. My pool water is usually under 90 degrees. Pool faces south with 3 aerators & fountain in hot tub. Even surrounding cement walk is cooler.
 
Pool temp in Northern VA easily get up to 95 first season I owned house. Next season added 10x10 overhang umbrella and fountain and typically is around 86 now. However freak storm came and took it out. Managed to repair but can't leave it up 24/7 like I used to. Shade is KEY however!
 
rhawke said:
Living in Houston where my pool in August usually was 93-94F, I had tried all the aerating ideas from this pool cooling page and none yielded more than maybe 1F reduction.
Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

This year, because we wanted to reduce sun exposure for our baby in the pool, I bought 3 offset umbrellas (each square 10x10ft) for $200 each from Amazon which cover about 2/3 of the pool surface. (to weigh the umbrellas down I bought a bunch of 16x16 pavers from Home Depot)

Amazing side effect: The pool temperature has been 86-87F this entire summer! The pool finally feels refreshing in August!

Could one of the Admins add "Shading" to this page?

Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

View attachment 363383
Click to expand...
We live in the St. George, UT area. We included a cover in our installation plans. We back up to a 44,000+ acre conservation area and were concerned about wind, weeds and all the new construction. We also use the cover to play the heat game, coverin' or uncoverin' overnight depending on the temperature. Even though we hit triple digit temps regularly, our pool water is seldom above 80-82. BTW, my wife thinks the umbrellas a really cool.
 
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rhawke said:
Living in Houston where my pool in August usually was 93-94F, I had tried all the aerating ideas from this pool cooling page and none yielded more than maybe 1F reduction.
Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

This year, because we wanted to reduce sun exposure for our baby in the pool, I bought 3 offset umbrellas (each square 10x10ft) for $200 each from Amazon which cover about 2/3 of the pool surface. (to weigh the umbrellas down I bought a bunch of 16x16 pavers from Home Depot)

Amazing side effect: The pool temperature has been 86-87F this entire summer! The pool finally feels refreshing in August!

Could one of the Admins add "Shading" to this page?

Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

View attachment 363383
Click to expand...
I cool my water down by putting a fountain in. The water is cooled in a short period of time and the fountain was about $40
 
rhawke said:
Living in Houston where my pool in August usually was 93-94F, I had tried all the aerating ideas from this pool cooling page and none yielded more than maybe 1F reduction.
Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

This year, because we wanted to reduce sun exposure for our baby in the pool, I bought 3 offset umbrellas (each square 10x10ft) for $200 each from Amazon which cover about 2/3 of the pool surface. (to weigh the umbrellas down I bought a bunch of 16x16 pavers from Home Depot)

Amazing side effect: The pool temperature has been 86-87F this entire summer! The pool finally feels refreshing in August!

Could one of the Admins add "Shading" to this page?

Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

View attachment 363383
Click to expand...
I do like all of the methods folks recommend for cooling down a pool. One method which is conspicuously absent is for solar heated pool owners ... just run the solar panels during the night to cool down your pool's temperature.
 

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