Hypothetical question??? Cooling my pool water.

[Mesamav]

I'm in Mesa Arizona. Obviously it's hot here during the summer and a pool is a must if you ask me. I've been very successful at doing lots of things with my pool so far. Converting to BBB, making some solar heaters, etc.
Well, it's mid summer and my water temps are 90+ or so. Just a little to warm. Still swimmable but if I had a choice, I'd love to see the water temp around 85 or so. I was wondering if I could cool the water and I couldn't think of a workable way to do this.
A few days ago I installed an evaporative cooler in my house and it works GREAT. The water in the bottom tank in that is in the low 70's so I was wondering if I can use that water and circulate it thru my pool. The pump in the evap cooler says it's a 500 gph pump but lets say it puts out 200 gallons per hour at 70 degrees. Would that be enough to cool the pool water a few degrees????
I'm guessing I'd have to add another small pump to bring the water from the pool to the cooler and a line to bring the cooled water to the pool so I'm thinking it wouldn't be a tough thing to do.
What are your thoughts on this idea????????

 

[JohnT]

I'm not sure, but I'd imagine that water is very, very high in calcium.

 

[jblizzle]

One simple thing to try would be running your solar heaters at night ... that can actually cool the water (if the air temp gets below your pool temp). Or add a fountain and the evaporation will cool the water.

Remember that the water in an evap cooler gets to be VERY high in CH since it is the evaporation that cools the air. That is why some evap coolers periodically pump out the water and start with fresh ... so the CH does not get too high and start to scale up the pads.

 

[Mesamav]

I'm not sure, but I'd imagine that water is very, very high in calcium.

I've thought of that but if I'm recirculating the pool water rather than just letting the water to sit in the cooler tank, I'm thinking that the calcium build up would be greatly minimized.
My fill water is a little below 200 ppm so if that water went through the cooler, the calcium would be higher but since it wouldn't be recirculated all the time (just a few days through the summer when it's sizzling) then I might be ok.
I have a sand filter that I add a little DE to so that the water is clearer so I'm backwashing a lot. I think since I backwash a lot, I'd be able to keep the calcium in check if I did this sparingly but I wouldn't know for sure until I put it into practice.
Would there be enough cooling water to bring the water temps down a few degrees?????

 

[Mesamav]

One simple thing to try would be running your solar heaters at night ... that can actually cool the water (if the air temp gets below your pool temp). Or add a fountain and the evaporation will cool the water.

Remember that the water in an evap cooler gets to be VERY high in CH since it is the evaporation that cools the air. That is why some evap coolers periodically pump out the water and start with fresh ... so the CH does not get too high and start to scale up the pads.

I can't cool the water with the solar heater, at least right now. The low temps at night have been in the high 80's and even into the low 90's at times. I'm actually surprised my water isn't warmer than it is.
If we had a few nights in the low 80's, the heaters cool the pool very well but not at these temps unfortunately.

 

[duraleigh]

In your low humidity environment, you can probably cool the water too much rather quickly by simply hooking up some PVC pipe and attaching it to your return as in this pic. [attachment=0:1a3lqdcn]poolcooler.jpg[/attachment:1a3lqdcn]There are several variations on the forum...search "pool cooler"

 

[Mesamav]

In your low humidity environment, you can probably cool the water too much rather quickly by simply hooking up some PVC pipe and attaching it to your return as in this pic. [attachment=0:y5dk74iu]poolcooler.jpg[/attachment:y5dk74iu]There are several variations on the forum...search "pool cooler"

My pool has some sprayers built in already. I used them for two nights and they didn't seem to make much difference

 

[stev32k]

In your low humidity environment, you can probably cool the water too much rather quickly by simply hooking up some PVC pipe and attaching it to your return as in this pic. [attachment=0:2pmokzws]poolcooler.jpg[/attachment:2pmokzws]There are several variations on the forum...search "pool cooler"

My pool has some sprayers built in already. I used them for two nights and they didn't seem to make much difference

Use them during the day when it's hot to get more evaporation and more cooling. You may have to make up more water, but it will cool your pool off.

 

[Mesamav]

In your low humidity environment, you can probably cool the water too much rather quickly by simply hooking up some PVC pipe and attaching it to your return as in this pic. [attachment=0:3oz4ubxu]poolcooler.jpg[/attachment:3oz4ubxu]There are several variations on the forum...search "pool cooler"

My pool has some sprayers built in already. I used them for two nights and they didn't seem to make much difference

Use them during the day when it's hot to get more evaporation and more cooling. You may have to make up more water, but it will cool your pool off.

I'm just thinking if I'm going to have evaporation anyway and hence higher CH, wouldn't the evap cooler thing be more efficient???? Just sayin'

 

[duraleigh]

Plain and simple, these coolers work. Mine reduces my temp by a good 6 degrees in this humid climate.... You could probably get close to 10 degrees in your climate if you chose to run it long enough.

The evaporation is minimal....I can't detect any significant water loss and the cost is close to zero.

As I said, if you search the forum you will find many other success stories.

 

[Mesamav]

I'll check it out. If I could get 3 or 4 degrees, I'd be happy.

 

[257WbyMag]

The more water surface area that you are able to expose to the air, the more cooling you will get. Some sprayers is good but more sprayers is better, or so to speak. Waterfalls help too.

 

[chem geek]

During the day, the cooling comes mostly from evaporation where the small surface area of the sprayed droplets has them partially evaporate significantly cooling the drops which then go back into the pool. Increasing the amount of wind blown across the pool would help as well. 1/4" of evaporation in a 4.5 foot average depth pool would lower the temperature by 4.9ºF. At night, additional cooling comes conduction/convection of heat from the warm drops to the cooler air.

 

[Mesamav]

I turned on the solar heaters and the sprayers I have in my pool and let them run for about 4 hours last night. Cooled my 24K gallon pool about 6 degrees. It got down to a chilly 85 last night and with all that, I was able to cool the pool down to 86 from 91 so I'm pretty happy with that at this point.
It's supposed to be close to 110 here for the next week or so. I hope I can keep the temps down enough doing the solar heaters at night. Love diving into the pool on a sizzling day.

 

[bigdav160]

When we owned a home/pool in Oro Valley, AZ we wished we had the OP's problem. Daytime temps could reach 115º but I don't think the pool ever got much over 80º.

There was that much evaporation removing the heat.

I had to add a solar water heater and solar cover just to make it comfortable for my Texas blood.