Your Swimming Pool Carbon Footprint

By Vik C

The typical backyard swimming pool holds 16,000 to 20,000 gallons of water. Pool evaporation amounts to 3 to 7 feet of water per year. For a 15 by 30 foot pool, the range is 10,000 to 23,000 gallons per year for evaporation, plus about 25% to account for splashing. If the pool is filled once a year, it requires about 38,000 gallons of water every year. Is your pool heated with a gas pool heater? The low efficiency of gas heaters results in a high cost of operation. $1.00 worth of heat requires $1.20 or more of fuel.

So, a typical pool can really leave a huge carbon footprint. With 7,000,000 backyard pools, that really is a dent on the environment.

What Can We Do?

There are so many ways to conserve energy, water and chemicals in your pool. Leaving a minimal carbon footprint is easier than you think. The following is a list of things you can do, to do your part in trying to leave as little impact as possible on the earth.

10 Ways To Reduce The Carbon Footprint On Swimming Pools

1) Always cover your pool. Pool covers reduce evaporation, heat loss and chemical loss.
2) Reduce the size or horsepower of your pool pump.
3) Heat your pool with a solar pool heater. Or not at all.
4) Avoid horseplay and excess splashing.
5) Turn off waterfalls and water features when not in use.
6) Use a salt chlorine generator.
7) Use a cartridge filter. Cartridge filters use hundreds of gallons less than DE or sand filters
8) LED lights use much less energy that incandescent lights.
9) Use a pool cleaner that does not require electricity or a booster pump.
10) Use a good winter cover, to avoid draining the pool.

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