I have been studying water evaporation recently, which points me to consider how accurate of bucket test.
One of of the key contributors to pool evaporation is the temp difference between pool water surface and air. Let's assume water temp at night is 80F and the temp is 60F. This will create decent evaporation and the surface temp will go down. However the pool has large supply of warm water, and the surface will keep at 80F. Meanwhile the bucket has limited capacity. So you might end up seeing larger evaporation in pool.
At day time, bucket water gets heated up quicker than pool, so this will increase the evaporation in bucket. You might see more water loss in bucket.
Unless you put bucket immersed into the pool, I started to question how accurate bucket test is. For sure it will give you directional guidance if the leak is significant. But for some small leak saying less than 1/4 in a day, bucket test may provide false positive answer, especially during the night with big temp delta.
am I correct here?
One of of the key contributors to pool evaporation is the temp difference between pool water surface and air. Let's assume water temp at night is 80F and the temp is 60F. This will create decent evaporation and the surface temp will go down. However the pool has large supply of warm water, and the surface will keep at 80F. Meanwhile the bucket has limited capacity. So you might end up seeing larger evaporation in pool.
At day time, bucket water gets heated up quicker than pool, so this will increase the evaporation in bucket. You might see more water loss in bucket.
Unless you put bucket immersed into the pool, I started to question how accurate bucket test is. For sure it will give you directional guidance if the leak is significant. But for some small leak saying less than 1/4 in a day, bucket test may provide false positive answer, especially during the night with big temp delta.
am I correct here?