ok, after much research, i still need help knowing which UV system to purchase/install

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

Jenmachen

Silver Supporter
Jul 10, 2017
78
West Monroe, LA
I am pretty good at researching things, but there is very little info provided for an indoor residential pool. (I'm used to being the outlier)

There are so many choices. And I cannot even seem to narrow it down to whether a low pressure or medium pressure system is needed. My pool stays pretty darn perfect, with the only exception being a consistent creeping up of my CC's. Six kids has always made our family a bit on the large size, and now I keep getting new grandkids too......the battle between me and my CC's is only getting worse. The SLAM's are getting more frequent and are taking longer to resolve the CC's. Yesterday my youngest kid had her yearly "end of the school year" pool party. This weekend, my youngest granddaughters will have their birthday party. It's never ending. (By the way, I'm not complaining about the pool usage. I love it!! Only complaining about the amount of bleach I am needing to dump in there to resolve the CC's)

So, here I am asking the pool gods, to please help me make a decision that will specifically target the CC's of an indoor residential pool. Low or Medium pressure? Which brands are the best? I'm ready to do this thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ringi
TL/DR - low pressure mercury or mercury-amalgam bulbs are your best bet.

For a residential pool turn-key system, you’re most likely only going to find low pressure UV lamps as the standard. They are safer to operate and they produce mostly UV-C radiation and lots of heat (about 30-40% of the electrical energy is converted to UV-C, the rest is longer wavelength visible, heat, and electrical loss).

What’s key is how the UV is implemented. In a standard, single pass, straight flow design, you really need a bypass plumbing configuration to control flow and ensure as much exposure as possible. This does incur a dilution effect because you’re only exposing a fraction of the water flow to the UV source. This can be a good enough setup if you plan to run the UV continuously.

A more efficient approach is to use a larger contact tank setup where the water enters the tank from the bottom and has to flow in a centrifugal fashion so it has a long contact time with the UV source. Some of these systems are setup to inject peroxide as well so that you get the added benefit of hydroxyl radical formation.

Your biggest expense is going to be bulb replacement as they only last a year or so with constant use. So whatever route you chose, make sure you have a few bulb suppliers available. Also, grab an extra quartz sheath tub as well because those lose transparency over time too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rancho Cost-a-Lotta
JoyfulNoise said:
TL/DR - low pressure mercury or mercury-amalgam bulbs are your best bet.

For a residential pool turn-key system, you’re most likely only going to find low pressure UV lamps as the standard. They are safer to operate and they produce mostly UV-C radiation and lots of heat (about 30-40% of the electrical energy is converted to UV-C, the rest is longer wavelength visible, heat, and electrical loss).

What’s key is how the UV is implemented. In a standard, single pass, straight flow design, you really need a bypass plumbing configuration to control flow and ensure as much exposure as possible. This does incur a dilution effect because you’re only exposing a fraction of the water flow to the UV source. This can be a good enough setup if you plan to run the UV continuously.

A more efficient approach is to use a larger contact tank setup where the water enters the tank from the bottom and has to flow in a centrifugal fashion so it has a long contact time with the UV source. Some of these systems are setup to inject peroxide as well so that you get the added benefit of hydroxyl radical formation.

Your biggest expense is going to be bulb replacement as they only last a year or so with constant use. So whatever route you chose, make sure you have a few bulb suppliers available. Also, grab an extra quartz sheath tub as well because those lose transparency over time too.
Click to expand...
The second scenario you suggested with a tank set up. Is there a plug-play option on the market like that? Or is that something that has to be designed? In our small town there is nobody that knows anything about UV. I guess they are pretty common wasted upsells for many areas of the country, but they are unheard of for pools here.
 
Jenmachen said:
The second scenario you suggested with a tank set up. Is there a plug-play option on the market like that? Or is that something that has to be designed? In our small town there is nobody that knows anything about UV. I guess they are pretty common wasted upsells for many areas of the country, but they are unheard of for pools here.
Click to expand...

A contact tank setup is something that has to be designed during pool build. I’ve not seen anything in the retail space on that.

I would simply go with a standard, commercially available unit and do the installation yourself or pay a handyman to do it. It’s not rocket science. Then simply run it and see how it works.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
A contact tank setup is something that has to be designed during pool build. I’ve not seen anything in the retail space on that.

I would simply go with a standard, commercially available unit and do the installation yourself or pay a handyman to do it. It’s not rocket science. Then simply run it and see how it works.
Click to expand...
gotcha. yes, i have a handyman that works with me on stuff like this. thanks!

still looking for any advice on brands/makers. if anyone has some insight.
 
www.c-m-p.com

DEL AOP 50 - CMP

DEL’s ozone systems provide clean, clear, and safe water for your pool, as well as a significant reduction in chemcial use. Featuring DEL’s exclusive Advanced Plasma Gap (APG) technology, our ozone systems provide modern technology, high performance, and unsurpassed life expectancy. DEL AOP 25...
www.c-m-p.com www.c-m-p.com
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
wireform said:
www.c-m-p.com

DEL AOP 50 - CMP

DEL’s ozone systems provide clean, clear, and safe water for your pool, as well as a significant reduction in chemcial use. Featuring DEL’s exclusive Advanced Plasma Gap (APG) technology, our ozone systems provide modern technology, high performance, and unsurpassed life expectancy. DEL AOP 25...
www.c-m-p.com www.c-m-p.com
Click to expand...
ozone? ok. why ozone over uv? i've never seen ozone recommended on this site, but i've never really looked into it either.
 
Jenmachen said:
ozone? ok. why ozone over uv? i've never seen ozone recommended on this site, but i've never really looked into it either.
Click to expand...
Look more closely at the link you will see this also does the UV job. What I left out was I've seen the DEL AOP 50 working in conjunction with the Del MDV system which is supposed to do something with the ozone produced before it prior to being spilled back into the pool.
 
Paramount also makes a straight UV system, the UltraUV. They are customizable with the number of bulbs (1,2, or 3). They’re fairly simple to setup and install.
 
There's many different ways to do oxidation processes - straight ozone injection, UV light, peroxide with a catalyst (typically iron chloride), UV + peroxide or MPS, etc., etc. UV light is oftentimes used to generate ozone gas in a tube which is then injected into a water stream using a Venturi adapter. Corona discharge (CD) is another method for generating ozone. CD is typically cheaper to implement but both methods suffer from poor efficiency because they use air-sourced oxygen to generate ozone. Unfortunately, air is mostly nitrogen and it often contains a lot of water vapor which is a poison to the ozone generation process. Real commercial ozone generators use concentrated oxygen streams that are free of CO2 and water vapor.

All AOP's will suffer from chemical inefficiencies because recreational water typically has very high bicarbonate levels (the main component of the measured TA) and bicarbonate is another scavenger of oxidative radicals.

I would stick with a simple UV setup and see how it works for you. Ozone in an indoor pool setting is not really a good idea unless you have a contact tank and a way of off gassing the ozone through a carbon filter to avoid respiratory issues.
 
Jenmachen said:
ozone? ok. why ozone over uv? i've never seen ozone recommended on this site, but i've never really looked into it either.
Click to expand...

Indoor pools have many more CC issues then outdoor pools. Ozone systems mostly solve problems that low usage (eg home) outdoor pools don't get. Some combination of ozone and UV is the standard solution for CC problems in UK indoor pools.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
There's many different ways to do oxidation processes - straight ozone injection, UV light, peroxide with a catalyst (typically iron chloride), UV + peroxide or MPS, etc., etc. UV light is oftentimes used to generate ozone gas in a tube which is then injected into a water stream using a Venturi adapter. Corona discharge (CD) is another method for generating ozone. CD is typically cheaper to implement but both methods suffer from poor efficiency because they use air-sourced oxygen to generate ozone. Unfortunately, air is mostly nitrogen and it often contains a lot of water vapor which is a poison to the ozone generation process. Real commercial ozone generators use concentrated oxygen streams that are free of CO2 and water vapor.

All AOP's will suffer from chemical inefficiencies because recreational water typically has very high bicarbonate levels (the main component of the measured TA) and bicarbonate is another scavenger of oxidative radicals.

I would stick with a simple UV setup and see how it works for you. Ozone in an indoor pool setting is not really a good idea unless you have a contact tank and a way of off gassing the ozone through a carbon filter to avoid respiratory issues.
Click to expand...
gotcha, and i think i've read something like that before, which confirmed that ozone is not ideal for me. thanks
 
  • Like
Reactions: JoyfulNoise

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply