Hi everyone, I am new to the form and this is my FIRST post here. While I am a very new pool owner, I consider myself quite handy; grew up on a farm, so we pretty much did EVERYTHING ourselves.
Anyhow, I have several questions that I am hoping some of you fine folk will be able to help answer/guide me in making the right decisions. The home I recently purchased has an approximatly 21,000 gal gunite pool + spa. I would like to focus this year on changing out the dated and inefficient equipment.
Currently I have:
- Single speed 1.5hp pump that I would like to swap out for a variable speed. Electricity is expensive in CA!
- Sta-rite sand filter which I would like to swap for a cartridge to help alleviate/eliminate the waste water from backwashing. Water is scarce in CA!
- Hayward 400k btu heater
I would like to keep the heater as it doesn't get used often enough to look for something that may be more efficient and at this time I do not have any solar for the pool, though at some point I might.
I do not have any water features that _need_ a high-end pump right now and while my wife doesn't have much interest in the investment, I would like to at some point within the next few years to turn the pool into more of an oasis.
As far as automation is concerned, I am a tech geek, so something that has a web interface would be great (iPhone compatible web interface or app), an API would be fantastic, but there also needs to be an easy physical interface for my wife, kids, and relatives. So a physical "spa" button would be ideal...something that with just a single click will move the valves appropriately, fire up the heater, and start the pump at the defined rpm range.
Any help would be great!
Anyhow, I have several questions that I am hoping some of you fine folk will be able to help answer/guide me in making the right decisions. The home I recently purchased has an approximatly 21,000 gal gunite pool + spa. I would like to focus this year on changing out the dated and inefficient equipment.
Currently I have:
- Single speed 1.5hp pump that I would like to swap out for a variable speed. Electricity is expensive in CA!
- Sta-rite sand filter which I would like to swap for a cartridge to help alleviate/eliminate the waste water from backwashing. Water is scarce in CA!
- Hayward 400k btu heater
I would like to keep the heater as it doesn't get used often enough to look for something that may be more efficient and at this time I do not have any solar for the pool, though at some point I might.
I do not have any water features that _need_ a high-end pump right now and while my wife doesn't have much interest in the investment, I would like to at some point within the next few years to turn the pool into more of an oasis.
As far as automation is concerned, I am a tech geek, so something that has a web interface would be great (iPhone compatible web interface or app), an API would be fantastic, but there also needs to be an easy physical interface for my wife, kids, and relatives. So a physical "spa" button would be ideal...something that with just a single click will move the valves appropriately, fire up the heater, and start the pump at the defined rpm range.
Any help would be great!