snikpoh

If the pool is really dirty, then you would hoover to waste. Otherwise, you hoover via the filter.

In either case, you are trying to hoover the dirt off the bottom of the pool and not the actual water.

Note that hoovering to waste will empty the pool a little (depends how long it takes of course). Hoovering via the filter maintains the water level as it goes back into the pool.

Neptuno

I was born there, couldn't 't afford a property in that county now.
Personally, I think it's preferable to here!

missile

Obviously, electric cost depends on rating of and how long you run the pump and what tariff you are on.

Is your budget really that tight?

Fred James

It depends on the size of the pool and how long you run it for.

If it is a decent sized pool it will have a 1.5kw pump. If you run it for 8 hours a day, as some do, that will use 12 units of electricity at an average cost of 15 cents a unit making a total of €1.80 a day or over €50 a month.

Run it for 1.5 hours a day on an off peak supply and that drops to less than €5 a month.

missile

To be pedantic, the size of the pool makes no difference, it is only the rating of the pump. <LOL>

Fred James

True, but a properly designed pool should have a pump of sufficient capacity to suit the size of the pool.

Some do, some don't.

NickH01

Would the size of the pool not dictate how long the pump needed to run in order to filter all the water?. Please, I am no expert - don't even have a pool yet! But the bigger the pool the greater the volume of water to filter.

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Fred James

If you choose to accept the guidance for commercial pools there are well established guidelines for how often the water has to be "turned over" and there are formulae to calculate the pump size to achieve this.

Hovever, as I said earlier, I personally choose to ignore the guidelines as we use the pool for less than half an hour a day and these guidelines are meaningless in this context.

The filter in a pool is vastly overrated. It does nothing to make the water safer to swim in and just removes large particles which should not be in a domestic pool anyway. It serves a useful effect for removing the crud on the bottom when you vacuum it and it stirs up the water to help move the chemicals around - that's about it.

lyric030250

I'm in a similar situation to Fred in that my water is cheap so I vac to waste, however this is the only way I can turn off the return and therefore see what I am doing. What am I missing?

Keithtoon

Hola, no missile not a tight budget approvx £350 a week to live on. Heard some folk say a pool is an expense you dont need... But when you dream about living in Spain "i dream villa n pool" just doing my prep as advised by all the folk on here.
Fred thank you good info in costs of running pool. Next post might be of how do i surround my villa n pool in palm trees..... Costs and time to do this and care to have healthy palms (sometimes i am not busy enough)
I love this board....
Keithtoon

Keep dreaming.....

missile

All of the private pools I have seen have the same size pump, i.e. far larger than needed to circulate the water. I would suggest the determining factor is that it needs to be powerful enough to facilitate effective hovering of the pool to remove the red dust and other debris.

The cost of building, maintaining and running a pool is an expensive luxury that I could live without but love to have.

Fred James

That's a good point. If you have a powerful pump, the returning water creates movement on the surface which can make it more difficult to see the bottom of the pool. It's the same if you try and clean the pool on a windy day.

missile

Have you tried adjusting the direction of the jets?

billgates

I think I read somewhere that the guide for pump size is to completely turn over the water in an eight hour period.
Apparently most installations way-over spec the pump which means it just costs more to buy the pump and more to actually run it. Yes, you can run it for a shorter time period and I suppose you have to balance this with the actual time the pool is in use.

In Fred's case he only uses his pool for an hour or so each day, therefore a big 1.5kw pump, whilst being costly to buy and run, can be on just for the time the pool is being used and still do a good enough job of turning over the water.

A pool that is in use for several hours a day would want the pump running for that period so maybe go for a lower power pump to keep the cost down. A 0.5kw pump costs less to buy and only a third of the cost in electricity, but wouldn't take three times as long to turn over the same volume of water.

There are loads of websites on pool maintenance and what equipment to get for your sized pool.