Cover to Reduce Heating Costs for Community Pool?

[Shocking]

Our community pool is heated, with annual propane costs ~$5K even though we only run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. One cost control option that has been proposed is covering the pool at night. My first reaction as CPO was that I have to fool with the cover every morning and evening -- something I don't want to do. But if the cost savings were big enough I'd have to relent my selfish attitude. Has anyone dealt with pool covers in a public pool context? What are the hidden gotchas? If this were a private pool it would be a simpler decision....

Thanks!!

 

[Richard320]

When I lived in a condo, we had a blue bubble cover on the community pool. It was in three sections, and people just towed in off and left it strewn across the deck and the adjacent planters. Every leaf and blade of grass on the cover ended up in the pool, every time. But people were pretty good about putting it back on.

 

[Shocking]

Oh, man! What a mess! I figured I'd be using a roller to retract a one-piece cover, so perhaps it might not be so messy. But I also wondered about liability. What if someone breaks in there after dark and gets trapped under the cover? Stuff like that....

 

[ps0303]

Yep you have to worry about your liability with a cover in palce. Even though they shouldn't be there if it happened they would sue you for sure.

There are commercially available covers that have sturdy reels for removing the cover so you would want to look into that.