- Nov 19, 2012
- 1
Hello dear friends from TFP!
I'm Ivan Garcia, an ex-IT consultant with expertise in datacenter design from Barcelona, who needed a change after spending too much time working & living -kinda- in Boston and NYC. Three months ago I started a property maintenance business for a development in the jungle in Tulum, MX. Jungle means lots of monkeys, birds, snakes, spiders and craaazy insects and bugs. And very, very humid. Pure nature, completely isolated from the modern world (except for the satellite internet connectivity).
The development consists of 200 lots of 5-acres each, but owners are only allowed to clear 5%, helping avoiding this beautiful jungle to disappear. All lots are sold, and it is expected to have around 150 houses in the next 4-5 years. At the moment, there's 8 houses completed, and 10 more to be completed in the next 6 months.
All the houses are 100% off-the-grid, meaning they have to generate their own electricity (solar energy is a must), collect and purify their own water (although there's few trucks that can deliver water from town if it's necessary. 4000 litres=600 pesos/50 bucks) and wastewater treatment (following EPA regulations as a reference. We have cenotes here!). GREEN at its best. Most of my clients are wealthy people who are very environmentally conscious, but still demand the (almost) same comfort levels as if they were living in the city, which is very tricky to deal with.
Renewable energy systems...easy to me. I have expertise on that. But pools... that has been a challenge! I've never imagined how tricky and complex a pool could be.
I've been learning based on "cause of error" method, as I had little idea on how you maintain a pool. Initially I hired a local business to maintain the pools, but they did nothing except cleaning filters, pouring tons of chlorine every week and reducing PH, as the owners only come 2-3 months a year. So I fired them and decided to learn about pools and do it by myself. I can say that by now I know the basics about the subject but still, everytime I read something in this forum, I can see I don't know s**t, but I'm getting there
All the pools use chlorine, and it's been very hard to find the way to maintaing each of them, as they are build with different materials and have different sizes (10000 l to 70000l), algae grows a lot here, and the pumps they use are solar pumps. They use DC, as they are connected to a solar panel, so that means that NO SUN=NO PUMP, and during rainy season, that's really really tricky.
I'm working with different constructors and the HOA of the development to find a way to build chlorine-free pools (or almost free), as everytime I have to backwash the filter, all this chlorine goes to the jungle (it's the only water that it's not being treated), and this is not cool at all. Now there's only 7 pools, but with 150 pools, that will be unsustainable.
So, if anybody is still reading at this point... any ideas??? I like the idea of ozone, and although you have to still use some chlorine, it seems you reduce about 80% of its usage, plus ozonizers doesn't use more that 200 watts, for what I've seen. I don't know... Any comments, ideas, suggestions will be greatly appreciated! ANYTHING!!!
And if any pool professional from the US is thinking about changing the city for the jungle, just let me know. I have plenty of work here but I will only let true professionals do it or I'll do it by myself. Mayans are still not ready for infinity pools
Thanks a lot, guys. Congrats to TFP. Such a great source of information! Keep goin'!
I'm Ivan Garcia, an ex-IT consultant with expertise in datacenter design from Barcelona, who needed a change after spending too much time working & living -kinda- in Boston and NYC. Three months ago I started a property maintenance business for a development in the jungle in Tulum, MX. Jungle means lots of monkeys, birds, snakes, spiders and craaazy insects and bugs. And very, very humid. Pure nature, completely isolated from the modern world (except for the satellite internet connectivity).
The development consists of 200 lots of 5-acres each, but owners are only allowed to clear 5%, helping avoiding this beautiful jungle to disappear. All lots are sold, and it is expected to have around 150 houses in the next 4-5 years. At the moment, there's 8 houses completed, and 10 more to be completed in the next 6 months.
All the houses are 100% off-the-grid, meaning they have to generate their own electricity (solar energy is a must), collect and purify their own water (although there's few trucks that can deliver water from town if it's necessary. 4000 litres=600 pesos/50 bucks) and wastewater treatment (following EPA regulations as a reference. We have cenotes here!). GREEN at its best. Most of my clients are wealthy people who are very environmentally conscious, but still demand the (almost) same comfort levels as if they were living in the city, which is very tricky to deal with.
Renewable energy systems...easy to me. I have expertise on that. But pools... that has been a challenge! I've never imagined how tricky and complex a pool could be.
I've been learning based on "cause of error" method, as I had little idea on how you maintain a pool. Initially I hired a local business to maintain the pools, but they did nothing except cleaning filters, pouring tons of chlorine every week and reducing PH, as the owners only come 2-3 months a year. So I fired them and decided to learn about pools and do it by myself. I can say that by now I know the basics about the subject but still, everytime I read something in this forum, I can see I don't know s**t, but I'm getting there
All the pools use chlorine, and it's been very hard to find the way to maintaing each of them, as they are build with different materials and have different sizes (10000 l to 70000l), algae grows a lot here, and the pumps they use are solar pumps. They use DC, as they are connected to a solar panel, so that means that NO SUN=NO PUMP, and during rainy season, that's really really tricky.
I'm working with different constructors and the HOA of the development to find a way to build chlorine-free pools (or almost free), as everytime I have to backwash the filter, all this chlorine goes to the jungle (it's the only water that it's not being treated), and this is not cool at all. Now there's only 7 pools, but with 150 pools, that will be unsustainable.
So, if anybody is still reading at this point... any ideas??? I like the idea of ozone, and although you have to still use some chlorine, it seems you reduce about 80% of its usage, plus ozonizers doesn't use more that 200 watts, for what I've seen. I don't know... Any comments, ideas, suggestions will be greatly appreciated! ANYTHING!!!
And if any pool professional from the US is thinking about changing the city for the jungle, just let me know. I have plenty of work here but I will only let true professionals do it or I'll do it by myself. Mayans are still not ready for infinity pools
Thanks a lot, guys. Congrats to TFP. Such a great source of information! Keep goin'!