VFR

The OP has a deposito that has been tiled.
No electric worth talking about.
Is not there more often than not.
Not unusual in the campo so like many will simply add a gallon of sulfumate now and again & run a pump via a generator when needed.

Or have I missed something ?

chawkins99

They have (up to) 3kw of solar. That should be enough to run a small pump for a couple of hours a day. I have a variable speed pump which at low speeds uses a couple of hundred watts.

FranE

VFR - we are actually there 6 months of the year, split between 2 x 3 month periods. It's just that I didn't think we'd need/use it in eg March or November. (And probably irrelevent, but it's not a tiled deposito - it's a purpose built pool). And yes, we could run a pump a few hours a day - and we have a generator as well just in case.


But re this: "Not unusual in the campo so like many will simply add a gallon of sulfumate now and again & run a pump via a generator when needed." That's pretty much what we were told by a (permanent resident) neighbour. All bar 2 of our neighbours are Spanish who only use their campo houses at weekends, or for a week or so two or three times a year. (Although he didn't say "a gallon of sulfamate", he said "chuck in some chemicals" which was a bit too vague for our liking!).


Thanks for your comments, and to Chawkins. Much appreciated.

angiescarr

https://suministrosdelsol.com/es/9-bombeo-solar

FranE

Thanks angiescarr. Good idea I think. During the sort of weather when we would use the pool our electricity usage (including a fan running all day!) doesn't deplete the solar batteries at all.


If I could just get past the "green" issues .... I save every drop of re-usable water - for floor cleaning, the garden plants, anything I possibly can. The thought of all that water going to waste is still a problem for me. I calculate that 18,000 litres is about 6 months of our normal useage. Excluding the washing machine which has a separate tank, we fill the main 1000 litre tank about every 10 days, so that would be one whole year's normal domestic consumption just to use a pool for a month or so twice a year. Also, the main tank takes about 40 minutes to fill, so filling the pool would mean running the pump generator for 12 hours! That, actually, is hubby's main concern, as it is fairly noisy. Still undecided !!!

Fred James

We are obviously not very green - including watering the garden, we use over 20000 litres a week in summer!

tuhler

I think what all these are really saying is ..forget it...just put yourself under a hose

petitefrancaise

Go to troublefreepool.com and ask questions there.

It's my go-to resource for pool issues.

Doesn't anyone here realise that the chlorine gets used up and that if the OP were to discharge the water into neighbouring field or whatever then he simply needs to wait until the measurement goes to zero. To give you some idea, my pool is 26k gallons and during the summer here with a stabiliser level at optimum (60ppm cya) for my region my pool gets through 3ppm of chlorine a day. I keep it at about 5ppm for optimum sanitation.

I also thought about a solar powered system for my pool - you could do with a variable speed pump, current costs here in the USA are $1k. You keep it running on low all day and costs about 50cents in electricity (less than 1 kwh of electrical consumption).

FranE

I'm feeling a little better about both "green" issues now (thanks petitefrancaise).


We lives about 25 metres outside the municipal boundary which is why we are off grid and with our own cesspit etc. (all of which suits us just fine). Our house sits in our own patch of natural woodland, with olives, carobs, pines, agave, nisperos, prickly pear and wild flowers - plus 3 small orange trees and one apricot tree presumably planted by our predecessors. The washing machine outlet goes to the orange tree patch. The apricot and nisperos have to look after themselves, and both are productive. In March I planted 3 bougainvillea to give a bit of colour in one remote bit of ground. I kept them alive until early June with recycled water and hopefully they are drought tolerant now (I'll find out in September!).


The nearest urbanisation is about a 20 minute walk away. The houses on the urbanisation have trailing hosepipes all over their gardens and are usually positively awash with all the water they use for their lawns, hedges and shrub beds.


So - even with the pool, I'm thinking we could still call ourselves fairly "green" ? I'm swinging back in favour of the pool !!

petitefrancaise

You know you don't need to empty it.

I have never emptied my pool (apart from when the old pool needed a new liner). You can buy winterisation stuff to put in that will stop algae etc. Temperature of the water needs to be below 15C for that to work.

My pool running costs are $25 a month, not including topping up water due to evaporation or the electricity. I buy household bleach (chlorine), muriatic acid (pH adjustments) and DE for the filter. That's it.

Seriously look on that forum I told you about, it 's brilliant.

FranE

I will! Thanks again petitefrancaise.

tuhler

Or just set up a complex of hoses and run under them

Maybe1day

We empty ours, 20000 litres for the winter, no hassle except to pump out the rain water when it really comes down. The water here has so much calcium and the problems with leaves etc make it worthwhile labour wise and It is certainly cheaper than the chemicals and running the 1.5Kw pump for several hours a day. If it was bigger say 50000 litres then I would have kept the water. I tend to think that fresh water each season is a better option and our pool when operating is always sparkling and inviting.