SWG operationg cost?

[DerekS]

So, are there any numbers out there for:

salt vs. bleach usage?

electricity usage for the SWG?

pros/cons?

I am trying to understand what I will be in for ($) if we convert to a SWG as we swam in one at a hotel this weekend and oh my it was nice.

 

[JasonLion]

The great majority of any difference you noticed was probably because there was salt in the water. You can add salt without having a SWG and get some or all of the same nice water feel.

For residential use, a SWG usually ends up costing more than using bleach (or trichlor). The vast majority of the cost is the up front cost of buying the unit, and then the cost of replacing the cell every 5 years or so. Salt costs depend on the size of your pool, but are minimal, under $50 for most pools the first year, and much less than that each subsequent year. Electrical usage is very low, nothing compared to the pump.

 

[Guest]

then again, it's really hard to put a price on the convenience and with the rising costs of all forms of chlorine in the past few years...

Let's put it this way. I would never go back to manually chlorinating or even using peristatic pumps or the liqidator since I do NOT need to handle chlorine at all!

 

[No P in my ool]

SWG is the best pool convenience there is. Once you get it set you can skip a day or two from testing and not feel guilty!

 

[teppy]

i know this may sound pretty bad right now in this economy, but considering the fact that pool ownership is a luxury, i would not care how much it costs to run a SWG at this point(within reason of course). i was so tired of fooling with clorox that i could not put a price on my SWG. Its so nice and i would not want to go back.

 

[Strannik]

The great majority of any difference you noticed was probably because there was salt in the water. You can add salt without having a SWG and get some or all of the same nice water feel.

For residential use, a SWG usually ends up costing more than using bleach (or trichlor). The vast majority of the cost is the up front cost of buying the unit, and then the cost of replacing the cell every 5 years or so. Salt costs depend on the size of your pool, but are minimal, under $50 for most pools the first year, and much less than that each subsequent year. Electrical usage is very low, nothing compared to the pump.

i'll disagree with you here
it only ends up being expensive on pools with very small chlorine consumption and/or if you buy higher end models with bells and whistles

any of the models in the middle price range, and especially in the lower will end up cheaper

we already had this discussion which prompted me to develop the calculator in my signature to prove my point

 

[DerekS]

The great majority of any difference you noticed was probably because there was salt in the water. You can add salt without having a SWG and get some or all of the same nice water feel.

For residential use, a SWG usually ends up costing more than using bleach (or trichlor). The vast majority of the cost is the up front cost of buying the unit, and then the cost of replacing the cell every 5 years or so. Salt costs depend on the size of your pool, but are minimal, under $50 for most pools the first year, and much less than that each subsequent year. Electrical usage is very low, nothing compared to the pump.

i'll disagree with you here
it only ends up being expensive on pools with very small chlorine consumption and/or if you buy higher end models with bells and whistles

any of the models in the middle price range, and especially in the lower will end up cheaper

we already had this discussion which prompted me to develop the calculator in my signature to prove my point

Awsome - just what I am looking for - I am going to have to check out that calc "off-time"...

 

[JasonLion]

You should also read the topic that inspired the calculator and see some of the costs that it does not include in it's calculation.

 

[DerekS]

You should also read the topic that inspired the calculator and see some of the costs that it does not include in it's calculation.

hoo boy good read

 

[DBfan187]

Yeah SWG will end up costing you more or or breaking even when you factor in everything.

 

[Strannik]

not always
in majority of cases the opposite will be true

 

[New2Me]

Back in September of last year I ran some numbers on my SWG set-up, link is here-
http://www.troublefreepool.com/actual-swg-vs-bleach-cost-eye-popping-t9338.html

As a quick update, I am still using this Intex unit, I even mounted it in a more permanent manner-
http://www.troublefreepool.com/post108100.html#p108100

Having a high CYA is key to using this set-up, I reduced the run time from six hours to four by raising the CYA from 60 to 80. I also have 50 ppm borates, and have not had algae since putting it in - either last year, or this year(liner and water were new in May.)

Aside from adding a quart or two of muriatic acid once a week, it is as close to "set it and forget it" as a Trouble Free Pool can be, IMHO.

 

[silcozot]

Factor in my time @$$ pr hr. and the SWG WINS BIG TIME!! never tried the bleach way and maybe I'm now biased, we live 10 miles from town so just getting the stuff home would cost me time and fuel. I can spend more time poolside

 

[lovingHDTV]

I have used trichlor pucks, chlorine and now have and SWG. My pool uses a lot of chlorine because I have three very large trees nearby, on is actually over half the pool. This means I get a lot of debris dropped into the pool from the trees. Yes I hate the first week of March when the live oaks drop nearly 4 bushels of leaves into my pool in about a 10 day period.

I was using at least 174oz jug of chlorine everyday. This got to be quite the pain to keep up, and I was always getting algae outbreaks which took even more chlorine to kill off. The trichlor caused my to have high CYA because I ran so much of it through the pool.

For me the only solution was an swg. Since installing it (3 season ago) I have not had many issues with algae. Honestly the only outbreak I had was because I inadvertently turned it off.

I ran the SWG vs Chlorine comparison and got these numbers:

1.36 gal 6% bleach per day (174 oz Bottle)
$1.86 per gallon ($2.54 per bottle)
9.9 cents/kwh
.3kw power consuption
30g/h

Results for: DIG-220 chlorinator
100% Chlorine output: 30 gram/hour
100% Chlorine usage: 309 gram/day
Chlorinator running time: 10.3 hours
Costs (over 5 year period)
Bleach cost: $4605.3875
Electricity cost: $558.28575
Equipment cost: $1000
_______________________
Total savings: $3047.10175

I know there are other costs involved with SWG as mentioned, but there are for chlorine also. I know that I've ruined at $200+ in clothing pouring chlorine (2 pairs of shoes, a pair of pants and a shirt).

But for me I'm money ahead with the SWG.

 

[DerekS]

thanks lovingHDTV - your info is interesting for a few reasons:

1. I am in Houston - similar season
2. I have several trees too.
3. I am putting in 1 182oz jug chlorine/day (like you were)
4. I have had mustard algae problems with pucks (I use them only now when we go away for the weekend)
5. Power at .11/kwh

This is my second season with this (and any) pool. Last season was pucks and fighting mustard algae, now I am BBB but like mentioned above, (1) $2.54 jug/day and have no mustard algae "so far"...

I also understand that "YMMV".

 

[JasonLion]

Results for: DIG-220 chlorinator
100% Chlorine output: 30 gram/hour
100% Chlorine usage: 309 gram/day
Chlorinator running time: 10.3 hours
Costs (over 5 year period)
Bleach cost: $4605.3875
Electricity cost: $558.28575
Equipment cost: $1000
_______________________
Total savings: $3047.10

These results can be very misleading. This calculation assumes that your chlorine usage is uniform year round. Most pools are actually open perhaps six months of the year, and use less chlorine in the spring and fall. Correcting for that, it then assumes that the cell lasts for twelve years, with is not plausible. It also fails to take the cost of acid into account (most SWG pools use more acid than other pools), or the cost of paying for the unit up front, instead of over time.

 

[lovingHDTV]

Results for: DIG-220 chlorinator
100% Chlorine output: 30 gram/hour
100% Chlorine usage: 309 gram/day
Chlorinator running time: 10.3 hours
Costs (over 5 year period)
Bleach cost: $4605.3875
Electricity cost: $558.28575
Equipment cost: $1000
_______________________
Total savings: $3047.10

These results can be very misleading. This calculation assumes that your chlorine usage is uniform year round. Most pools are actually open perhaps six months of the year, and use less chlorine in the spring and fall. Correcting for that, it then assumes that the cell lasts for twelve years, with is not plausible. It also fails to take the cost of acid into account (most SWG pools use more acid than other pools), or the cost of paying for the unit up front, instead of over time.

OK, I reran with the assumption that I use this during the 6 months of my swim season, and none during the rest of the year (cut my daily chlorine amount in half). Obviously this is incorrect as I still use chlorine during the off season but, I still show a savings over 5 years.

Additional costs apply for both methods as been discussed over and over.

Results for: DIG-220 chlorinator
100% Chlorine output: 30 gram/hour
100% Chlorine usage: 154.2 gram/day
Chlorinator running time: 5.14 hours
Costs (over 5 year period)
Bleach cost: $2298.2225
Electricity cost: $278.60085
Equipment cost: $1000
_______________________
Total savings: $1019.62165

dave

 

[lovingHDTV]

An update to my numbers. I broke out my amp meter and measured my DIG-220 with SC-48 cell at power level 2. It takes .9 amps at 220V so about 198W to run. When the cell turned off, I could not get any reading, but the display says the cell was seeing 6.3A at 29V or 182.7W so I could see the different being 16W and my amp meter only goes to the nearest tenth of an amp. So this seems to fit.

I previously guessed 300W so I was off on power costs by 33%.

 

[DerekS]

Do the cells reduce flow / pressure?

I am probably already too low for my Legend II.

 

[NCSalt]

Derek!

We converted earlier this year from standard chlorine to SWG.....the results for me personally are as follows:
1-Easy
2-Easy
3-Easy
4-Lovely water, lovely feel on skin and hair
5-Did I mention easy
6-ph has never been so stable
7-No messy chlorine taps
8-No screwed up CYA (due to stabilizers in chlorine taps)
9-I have not had to add anything to the pool since my algea dilema earlier this year (some people remember the many jugs of bleach I added)
10-Easy

I am not making this up! I am happy that we did switch and we've already saved so much in pool chems that the SWG will pay for itself.

We had it installed by the same company that originally installed our pool the cost was something around 2,100 including the Salt (we added approx. 12 bags)....since then I've added about 3 gallon jars of salt (I had to drain some water due to high CYA so in the interim I had to re-add some salt since it dropped to 2600...it's at 2900 now)

I hope this helps you!
Cheerio and Good luck!
Tanja