First of all, I'm, not a regular poster but have greatly benefitted from the group knowledge here. Now I want to give back.
I live in a rented house in the town of Jarabacoa, 1800' ASL in the tropical central mountains of the Dominican Republic. We are routinely 7°F cooler than most of the island.
I have lived in a rental house for my motorcycle tour company with a larger--for here--and poorly constructed and engineered pool. It's a free-form shape, about 20,000g, with all pool equipment in a room (get this) below the water level. I have a 24" square hatch to go down to work with the valves, etc. It sucks. Additionally, our water is supplied directly from a river unfiltered, so if the river is muddy, the water coming into the cistern is also muddy...and eventually ends up in the pool. I posted my filtration woes before, and if it weren't for 1µ filter bags, the pool would never clear up. The bags, modified and attached to the returns with 1/2" SS hose clamps work perfectly, and I thank TFP for the suggestions. I also put water into the pool through a filter bag in a skimmer. The pool leaks, but I'm not going to bust up the slab here to fix it, so I disconnected two returns on a separate line.
We can only use our current pool from mid-April to late September because the pool water drops below 78°F and gets as low as 74°F mid-winter.
Now we have pulled the trigger and are building a new house. Groundbreaking was a month ago, and my "job" now is going to the site and watching the house being built---the Dominican way, which is nothing like in the first world. I am documenting the progress on a youtube channel for those interested.
The house is a unique C-shaped design based on modern Mediterranean hacienda design, with the focus on an enclosed courtyard with 12'x24', 10,000g pool. Thanks to what I've learned here, I've helped the architect/builder (my "cuñado" or brother-in-law Francis Santillan, equally gifted as an engineer and artist) design the pool and systems. We intend to use the pool year-round.
I have spec'd the following:
-Depth from 3.5' to 5.5'
-One skimmer, one main drain, four returns.
-SmartFlo 1.5hp variable-speed pump
-TJ16 PreFilter
-CJ2750 cartridge filter
-Core 35 salt chlorinator
-5 panel, 4'x10' solar panels mounted on a WSW exposed roof area, with control valve
-Efficient solar blanket with Pool Boy battery-powered automatic reel
-Separate indoor "wet room" for pool plumbing, pumps, valves and indoor water pumps and pressure tanks (we don't have street water pressure.)
I have the equipment that came in the package from Circupool, and actually bypassed the current sand filter and installed the cartridge pre-filter here. And what a difference!
Last Monday Francis and the "maestro"---the title of the construction supervisor---laid out the markings for the foundation, and 8 Haitians are digging the foundation trenches. You can see the pool rectangle in this drone shot:
Things are different here. Pools are rare as are pool builders. Technology is old school. And where technology is higher, the vendors really gouge you. For example, I had a respected solar pool heater company bid US$8000 for a 192sf system. I can import all the equipment and supplies I need and have the engineers install it for around US$3000.
I chose solar for mainly financial reasons. A 150k BTU propane heater (no natural gas here, just propane) costs US$2500 + $450 a month for six months in gas. A 125k BTU heat pump comes in at US$3500 and $200 a month in electricity (we pay around $0.195 per kwh from the first kwh when the house consumes above 700kwh/mo., so power gets really spendy really fast.) So besides being cleaner and environmentally friendly, it's also substantially less expensive.
I'll keep updates on construction progress for those interested in semi-Third World home building, and get more intense when the actual pool construction begins.
For a reference of the pool location & "wet room" (cuarto maquinas), here is the first floor plan. The back roof is where the solar panels will be installed, so there will be a 60'-80' underground plumbing run from panels to wet room:
I live in a rented house in the town of Jarabacoa, 1800' ASL in the tropical central mountains of the Dominican Republic. We are routinely 7°F cooler than most of the island.
I have lived in a rental house for my motorcycle tour company with a larger--for here--and poorly constructed and engineered pool. It's a free-form shape, about 20,000g, with all pool equipment in a room (get this) below the water level. I have a 24" square hatch to go down to work with the valves, etc. It sucks. Additionally, our water is supplied directly from a river unfiltered, so if the river is muddy, the water coming into the cistern is also muddy...and eventually ends up in the pool. I posted my filtration woes before, and if it weren't for 1µ filter bags, the pool would never clear up. The bags, modified and attached to the returns with 1/2" SS hose clamps work perfectly, and I thank TFP for the suggestions. I also put water into the pool through a filter bag in a skimmer. The pool leaks, but I'm not going to bust up the slab here to fix it, so I disconnected two returns on a separate line.
We can only use our current pool from mid-April to late September because the pool water drops below 78°F and gets as low as 74°F mid-winter.
Now we have pulled the trigger and are building a new house. Groundbreaking was a month ago, and my "job" now is going to the site and watching the house being built---the Dominican way, which is nothing like in the first world. I am documenting the progress on a youtube channel for those interested.
The house is a unique C-shaped design based on modern Mediterranean hacienda design, with the focus on an enclosed courtyard with 12'x24', 10,000g pool. Thanks to what I've learned here, I've helped the architect/builder (my "cuñado" or brother-in-law Francis Santillan, equally gifted as an engineer and artist) design the pool and systems. We intend to use the pool year-round.
I have spec'd the following:
-Depth from 3.5' to 5.5'
-One skimmer, one main drain, four returns.
-SmartFlo 1.5hp variable-speed pump
-TJ16 PreFilter
-CJ2750 cartridge filter
-Core 35 salt chlorinator
-5 panel, 4'x10' solar panels mounted on a WSW exposed roof area, with control valve
-Efficient solar blanket with Pool Boy battery-powered automatic reel
-Separate indoor "wet room" for pool plumbing, pumps, valves and indoor water pumps and pressure tanks (we don't have street water pressure.)
I have the equipment that came in the package from Circupool, and actually bypassed the current sand filter and installed the cartridge pre-filter here. And what a difference!
Last Monday Francis and the "maestro"---the title of the construction supervisor---laid out the markings for the foundation, and 8 Haitians are digging the foundation trenches. You can see the pool rectangle in this drone shot:
Things are different here. Pools are rare as are pool builders. Technology is old school. And where technology is higher, the vendors really gouge you. For example, I had a respected solar pool heater company bid US$8000 for a 192sf system. I can import all the equipment and supplies I need and have the engineers install it for around US$3000.
I chose solar for mainly financial reasons. A 150k BTU propane heater (no natural gas here, just propane) costs US$2500 + $450 a month for six months in gas. A 125k BTU heat pump comes in at US$3500 and $200 a month in electricity (we pay around $0.195 per kwh from the first kwh when the house consumes above 700kwh/mo., so power gets really spendy really fast.) So besides being cleaner and environmentally friendly, it's also substantially less expensive.
I'll keep updates on construction progress for those interested in semi-Third World home building, and get more intense when the actual pool construction begins.
For a reference of the pool location & "wet room" (cuarto maquinas), here is the first floor plan. The back roof is where the solar panels will be installed, so there will be a 60'-80' underground plumbing run from panels to wet room:
Last edited:
