Indoor Pool - In living area... Tips?

[jsw]

I just recently purchased a house that has an indoor pool that is open to living areas. The house was architected to have the pool inside. There is a humidity control next to the thermostat. The pool is plumbed for a solar water heater on the roof (which needs to be replaced). The pool room has a nice new water heater, a hayward pump and filter. I don't know the exact models off the top of my head right now.

Anyway, I was very interested in going chlorine free somehow, but the more I read on here the more I realize that isn't possible.

The pool is only used occasionally at this point and I'm interested in using the BBB method, but what are the ideal levels for a pool like this? I believe UV would be helpful on pool like this for chloramines... is that correct? What else do I need to know? And for you experts, would you do anything differently if this were yours?

I've been trying to get some reasonable quotes for a retractable load bearing pool cover (anyone know of any?).

Edit: and how about ideal temperature gradients between the water and the house?

 

[chem geek]

That's a beautiful pool, but being indoors in a living space presents challenges.

If you are going to be keeping the pool warm, you're going to have problems with humidity/moisture being right in a living space, even if you use a dehumidifier. You might consider having an automatic electric pool cover to limit the amount of evaporation and resulting humidity -- you can always open the cover when you want to use or see the pool. If the water is kept more at room temperature, then this won't be much of a problem, but then you would be unlikely to swim in it unless you like swimming in cooler water. If you heat it to therapy pool temps of 88-90, then you'll get a lot of humidity unless you use a pool cover. I have an electric safety cover from Pool Covers, Inc., but there are other companies that make covers as well.

You can use 4 ppm FC with 20 ppm CYA for the indoor pool which has the same active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) as 0.2 ppm FC with no CYA. That should keep some of the chlorine outgassing to a minimum and also minimize nitrogen trichloride. As for general control of chloramines, a UV system can be very effective for that.

If you can, find out what the previous owner did to handle humidity and what sort of sanitation system was used and any other issues. For such a unique situation, there's nothing like actual prior experience to know what to expect.

 

[jsw]

Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot to go on from the previous owners. I know they used chlorine, and that's about it. The company that built the pool is coming out to the house in a couple weeks to go over things.

There actually is a electric pool cover right now, but it's not load bearing. For the load bearing, I contacted wutgroup and they quoted $200k for one! That's crazy... I've been pricing aluminum I-Beams to see if an engineer friend and I can design something. In a dream world I'd have something like this: http://www.hydrofloors.be/en/movable-floors.php

The pool runs at 68 degrees right now, pumps on from 12AM to 4AM. Definitely not a comfortable swim temperature, but the pool can be heated to warmer temps in under 4 hours. You can't even tell there is a pool in the house humidity-wise when ran like this. The was designed with appropriate cross-ventilation for the pool as well.

Thanks for the advice on the chemistry. That's honestly what I am most worried about with the potential gases/etc that a pool can produce.

 

[waste]

Welcome to TFP!!

You can't get better advice than what Chemgeek gives on issues like this!

If you want to bounce a few ideas on the I beam cover off us, we always like a challenge

68* is WAY too cold for indoor swimming - i hope we can help you be able to have the pool warmer, without soaking the house.

Be careful if you drink a little too much

 

[chem geek]

I misunderstood when you were asking about load-bearing covers. Pool Covers, Inc. is obviously a soft cover and though you can walk in it if you have to, it's not for permanent load bearing. You're looking more for something similar to what is found in some pool gyms where the cover is a flooring itself. Others will have to make suggestions for that -- I've never seen that in a residential situation.