Summers in Australia can be immensely draining, particularly in the northern part of the country, where the soaring temperatures and high humidity levels make the summers uncomfortable at best. One of the ways you can keep the discomfort down is to get a swimming pool installed, just like so many Australians have. According to estimates, there are over 1.2 million residential swimming pools in the country. However, despite the relief that swimming pools provide, they can be quite expensive to maintain and may set you back by thousands of dollars every year. In the first part of this post, we’ll break all swimming pool-related costs down and tell you how much you can expect to spend to run your pool without running into any problems. In the second part, we’ll shed some light on certain steps that you can take to keep the costs down without compromising on your comfort.
The Factors That Contribute To The Costs
On average, households with swimming pools can expect to spend almost 49% more on electricity than households without pools. Here are some of the factors that contribute to the costs:
On average, households with swimming pools can expect to spend almost 49% more on electricity than households without pools. Here are some of the factors that contribute to the costs:
Pool filter pump: As you keep using your pool, dirt, dust, and debris will gradually build up in the water, making it more impure with each passing day. Taking a dip in waters that are full of these undesirable elements may present several significant health hazards, which is why pool filter pumps have become mandatory.
While these pumps can keep your pool clear of impurities, the more you use them, the more you can expect to shell out in terms of your electricity bill. On average, an hour’s use of a pool filter pump can add somewhere between 26 and 53 cents, but it all depends on the wattage of the pump. If you’re using a 1kW pool filter pump, your monthly expenses arising from its use can amount to over $100 per month during the summer months and around $80 during winters.
The best way to keep pool filter pump-related costs down is to invest in a high energy star-rated pump. Even though such pumps are expensive, the long-term savings you’ll make using them would outweigh your initial investment. It’s estimated that high energy star-rated pumps can help you save almost $500 every year.
Gas pool heating: Gas heating systems are the major contributors to costs associated with running swimming pools and depending on the energy-efficiency of the system you are using for your pool, you could end up adding $4 – $17 every hour to your electricity bill.
Despite the expenses associated with the use of gas heating systems, they are the most popular heating solutions for residential swimming pools across Australia as they are incredibly effective in heating the length, breadth, and depth of a swimming pool.
Some of the additional factors that may influence how much your gas heating system affects your electricity bill include:
1. How much heating is required depending on individual tastes and preferences of yourself and your family members.
2. Heating costs during winter are significantly more than they are during the summers as it takes much longer for the gas heating system to get the water temperature up to the desired level.
3. The dimension of your swimming pool. The greater the length, breadth, and depth of your swimming pool, the more time a gas heating system will take to heat it, which will cause electricity costs to go up significantly.
To keep costs down, many Australian families are shifting from gas heating systems to solar pool heaters and we’ll talk more about them in the second part of the post.
Chlorinators: Until a few years ago, chlorinating a pool meant adding chlorine to the water, but with the introduction and subsequent rise in popularity levels of chlorinators, the meaning of chlorination has significantly changed.
Chlorinators feature pumps of their own that help distribute chlorine evenly throughout the pool, which helps maintain the quality of pool water evenly by killing off potentially harmful bacteria. Even though chlorinators don’t add as much to electricity bills as gas heating systems do, on an average, you can still expect to pay up to 7 cents for every hour’s use.
Water evaporation: A really hot day can cause the water in your swimming pool to evaporate and to fill the pool up to the brim again, you’re going to have to contend with higher water bills. Evaporation also takes away a lot of the heat from the water, so even if there is not a lot of it, you may still have to pump more water into the pool and run your heater, which means an increase in both water and electricity bills.
How much water evaporates from your pool is also dependent on certain factors like:
Swimming pools with larger surface areas experience more water evaporation.
1. Pools in windy places face faster rates of evaporation.
2. Places with hot and dry climates cause water to evaporate faster than places with hot and humid climates (humidity aids pools in retaining water).
3. The number of people that are simultaneously using the pool. More people in the pool at the same time can result in faster evaporation rates.
How to keep the swimming pool costs low
Regular maintenance of pool filter pumps: With time, the filters of pool filter pumps become clogged, and once clogged, the pumps have to work harder than ever before to filter out the impurities from swimming pools. The harder they have to work, the more energy they need, contributing significantly to high electricity bills.
To maintain your pool filter pump, you should call on an experienced and reputed team of pool maintenance professionals who can perform repairs to ensure that your pool filter pump is in good shape and the levels of all the important chemicals in your swimming pool are balanced.
Ignoring your pool filter pump’s maintenance needs may result in the pump breaking down and in such a situation, you’d have no other option but to purchase a brand new pump, which will only make costs go up and up.
Solar pool heaters: Solar pool heaters, on average, are almost a hundred times more efficient than gas heaters. However, there are certain disadvantages to using solar heaters as well such as:
1. Initial installation costs related to a solar heater are much higher than what you would have to spend on a gas heater.
2. Solar heaters take much longer than gas heaters to heat water, which can be an inconvenience for households with large swimming pools.
3. Solar heaters will not work well on cloudy and rainy days and can’t be used during the evenings.
Pool covers: Pool covers can help in significantly cutting down costs that arise due to water evaporation. Of course, pool covers for large swimming pools tend to be expensive, but once you purchase one and use it, you can reduce evaporation rates by a whopping 97%, resulting in more than 50% energy savings.
Conclusion
To conclude the post, we’d like to say that maintaining a pool will invariably result in certain additional expenses. However, by taking certain steps, you can keep the additional expenses from becoming a constant source of worry and enjoy all the time you spend with your family or your family in your pool
Summers in Australia can be immensely draining, particularly in the northern part of the country, where the soaring temperatures and high humidity levels make the summers uncomfortable at best. One of the ways you can keep the discomfort down is to get a swimming pool installed, just like so many Australians have. According to estimates, there are over 1.2 million residential swimming pools in the country. However, despite the relief that swimming pools provide, they can be quite expensive to maintain and may set you back by thousands of dollars every year. In the first part of this post, we’ll break all swimming pool-related costs down and tell you how much you can expect to spend to run your pool without running into any problems. In the second part, we’ll shed some light on certain steps that you can take to keep the costs down without compromising on your comfort.
The Factors That Contribute To The Costs
On average, households with swimming pools can expect to spend almost 49% more on electricity than households without pools. Here are some of the factors that contribute to the costs:
On average, households with swimming pools can expect to spend almost 49% more on electricity than households without pools. Here are some of the factors that contribute to the costs:
Pool filter pump: As you keep using your pool, dirt, dust, and debris will gradually build up in the water, making it more impure with each passing day. Taking a dip in waters that are full of these undesirable elements may present several significant health hazards, which is why pool filter pumps have become mandatory.
While these pumps can keep your pool clear of impurities, the more you use them, the more you can expect to shell out in terms of your electricity bill. On average, an hour’s use of a pool filter pump can add somewhere between 26 and 53 cents, but it all depends on the wattage of the pump. If you’re using a 1kW pool filter pump, your monthly expenses arising from its use can amount to over $100 per month during the summer months and around $80 during winters.
The best way to keep pool filter pump-related costs down is to invest in a high energy star-rated pump. Even though such pumps are expensive, the long-term savings you’ll make using them would outweigh your initial investment. It’s estimated that high energy star-rated pumps can help you save almost $500 every year.
Gas pool heating: Gas heating systems are the major contributors to costs associated with running swimming pools and depending on the energy-efficiency of the system you are using for your pool, you could end up adding $4 – $17 every hour to your electricity bill.
Despite the expenses associated with the use of gas heating systems, they are the most popular heating solutions for residential swimming pools across Australia as they are incredibly effective in heating the length, breadth, and depth of a swimming pool.
Some of the additional factors that may influence how much your gas heating system affects your electricity bill include:
1. How much heating is required depending on individual tastes and preferences of yourself and your family members.
2. Heating costs during winter are significantly more than they are during the summers as it takes much longer for the gas heating system to get the water temperature up to the desired level.
3. The dimension of your swimming pool. The greater the length, breadth, and depth of your swimming pool, the more time a gas heating system will take to heat it, which will cause electricity costs to go up significantly.
To keep costs down, many Australian families are shifting from gas heating systems to solar pool heaters and we’ll talk more about them in the second part of the post.
Chlorinators: Until a few years ago, chlorinating a pool meant adding chlorine to the water, but with the introduction and subsequent rise in popularity levels of chlorinators, the meaning of chlorination has significantly changed.
Chlorinators feature pumps of their own that help distribute chlorine evenly throughout the pool, which helps maintain the quality of pool water evenly by killing off potentially harmful bacteria. Even though chlorinators don’t add as much to electricity bills as gas heating systems do, on an average, you can still expect to pay up to 7 cents for every hour’s use.
Water evaporation: A really hot day can cause the water in your swimming pool to evaporate and to fill the pool up to the brim again, you’re going to have to contend with higher water bills. Evaporation also takes away a lot of the heat from the water, so even if there is not a lot of it, you may still have to pump more water into the pool and run your heater, which means an increase in both water and electricity bills.
How much water evaporates from your pool is also dependent on certain factors like:
Swimming pools with larger surface areas experience more water evaporation.
1. Pools in windy places face faster rates of evaporation.
2. Places with hot and dry climates cause water to evaporate faster than places with hot and humid climates (humidity aids pools in retaining water).
3. The number of people that are simultaneously using the pool. More people in the pool at the same time can result in faster evaporation rates.
How to keep the swimming pool costs low
Regular maintenance of pool filter pumps: With time, the filters of pool filter pumps become clogged, and once clogged, the pumps have to work harder than ever before to filter out the impurities from swimming pools. The harder they have to work, the more energy they need, contributing significantly to high electricity bills.
To maintain your pool filter pump, you should call on an experienced and reputed team of pool maintenance professionals who can perform repairs to ensure that your pool filter pump is in good shape and the levels of all the important chemicals in your swimming pool are balanced.
Ignoring your pool filter pump’s maintenance needs may result in the pump breaking down and in such a situation, you’d have no other option but to purchase a brand new pump, which will only make costs go up and up.
Solar pool heaters: Solar pool heaters, on average, are almost a hundred times more efficient than gas heaters. However, there are certain disadvantages to using solar heaters as well such as:
1. Initial installation costs related to a solar heater are much higher than what you would have to spend on a gas heater.
2. Solar heaters take much longer than gas heaters to heat water, which can be an inconvenience for households with large swimming pools.
3. Solar heaters will not work well on cloudy and rainy days and can’t be used during the evenings.
Pool covers: Pool covers can help in significantly cutting down costs that arise due to water evaporation. Of course, pool covers for large swimming pools tend to be expensive, but once you purchase one and use it, you can reduce evaporation rates by a whopping 97%, resulting in more than 50% energy savings.
Conclusion
To conclude the post, we’d like to say that maintaining a pool will invariably result in certain additional expenses. However, by taking certain steps, you can keep the additional expenses from becoming a constant source of worry and enjoy all the time you spend with your family or your family in your pool
