After evicting The Creature and cleaning up my Black Lagoon (with what I've learned from TFP, of course), I'm now thinking about pre-planning to determine what to preemptively consider deciding about the various possibilities of choosing what to do this winter...
Umm, that is, I'm trying to decide if I should cover the pool at some point, and forget about it 'til Spring, or if I should cover it only until until the leaves stop falling, and then pull the cover off so I can enjoy the crystal clear beauty of my TFP!
Anyway, I've never had a pool cover, so, as part of the thinking making deciding process, I bought one, and have it currently on the pool. I don't plan to leave it there just yet - for now I just had a couple of things I wanted to determine:
1) to see how long it would take & how difficult it would be,
2) and partly to see how big of an effect it has on FC preservation.
Well,
1) including filling water "tubes" - about an hour & not very,
2) and after one day, not bad - saved about 2ppm FC, but not what I was hoping for. *
Since opening in early July, when not used, the pool has had a daily FC loss & chlorine consumption of about 4ppm & 1/2 gal 10.5% (by weight), respectively. CYA is around 40-50ppm. Well, over the past 24 hours with the cover on (5:30pm - 5:30pm), it only lost 2ppm of Cl. So, it saved about 2ppm FC/ 1qt Cl. At about $2/gal for the Cl, that comes to a massive 50 cent savings just for one day. I figure I just have to leave the cover on for about 109 more days and it will have paid for itself!
(The pool gets full sun from about 11am to 7pm, which is also when I run the pump.)
Now for the question: is it ok / still neccessary to run the pump with the cover on? And, if so, do I leave the skimmer line open too, or close it so the pump only draws from the main drain?
And, as supplimental consideration, what about a "leaf net" on top of the solid cover (or in lieu of), for leaf/debris removal - yea/nay?
Thanks for any input/suggestions!
"Sometimes not so" Self Evident
*PS: I read in another thread where some folks had a dailly FC loss of <1ppm with covers on, and only 2-3 with no cover. I'm jealous...
Umm, that is, I'm trying to decide if I should cover the pool at some point, and forget about it 'til Spring, or if I should cover it only until until the leaves stop falling, and then pull the cover off so I can enjoy the crystal clear beauty of my TFP!
Anyway, I've never had a pool cover, so, as part of the thinking making deciding process, I bought one, and have it currently on the pool. I don't plan to leave it there just yet - for now I just had a couple of things I wanted to determine:
1) to see how long it would take & how difficult it would be,
2) and partly to see how big of an effect it has on FC preservation.
Well,
1) including filling water "tubes" - about an hour & not very,
2) and after one day, not bad - saved about 2ppm FC, but not what I was hoping for. *
Since opening in early July, when not used, the pool has had a daily FC loss & chlorine consumption of about 4ppm & 1/2 gal 10.5% (by weight), respectively. CYA is around 40-50ppm. Well, over the past 24 hours with the cover on (5:30pm - 5:30pm), it only lost 2ppm of Cl. So, it saved about 2ppm FC/ 1qt Cl. At about $2/gal for the Cl, that comes to a massive 50 cent savings just for one day. I figure I just have to leave the cover on for about 109 more days and it will have paid for itself!
(The pool gets full sun from about 11am to 7pm, which is also when I run the pump.)
Now for the question: is it ok / still neccessary to run the pump with the cover on? And, if so, do I leave the skimmer line open too, or close it so the pump only draws from the main drain?
And, as supplimental consideration, what about a "leaf net" on top of the solid cover (or in lieu of), for leaf/debris removal - yea/nay?
Thanks for any input/suggestions!
"Sometimes not so" Self Evident
*PS: I read in another thread where some folks had a dailly FC loss of <1ppm with covers on, and only 2-3 with no cover. I'm jealous...
