What is an Eco-Friendly Pool?
If you’re an environmentally conscious pool owner, you’ve come to the right place! What is an eco-friendly pool, and how can you convert your pool into one? There are so many ways to reduce your environmental impact with just a few simple changes in your pool. In this post, we’ll look at a few products you can use to conserve water, reduce energy requirements, and improve your pool’s chemical usage.
Conserve Water
During the peak summer months, swimming pools can lose 2–3 inches of water per week to evaporation. Hotter, dryer climates may lose even more. Between evaporation, splash-out, and regularly cleaning the pool filter, the gallons of water lost add up quickly. The good news is that there are many ways to conserve water in your pool. Many of these water conservation tools also offer some amount of energy conservation, as well.
Solar Covers: Solar covers are extremely versatile eco-friendly pool accessories that serve a few different purposes. Not only do they reduce evaporation up to 50%, conserving water, heat energy, and chemicals. They also absorb heat from the sun and transfer it into the water. A solar cover can increase water temperatures by as much as 10–15ºF on their own.
BONUS TIP: A solar cover reel makes it much easier to handle a solar cover.
Leslie’s Cover Weekly: An alternative to solar covers, a liquid pool cover forms a chemical barrier on the surface of the pool to reduce evaporation, the leading cause of water and heat loss in a pool. It can also help prevent chemical loss.
Leslie’s Pleatco Ultra Filter Cartridges: These revolutionary filter cartridges offer superior filtration and debris capacity. This allows longer periods between cleaning (reduced water use), less frequent replacement (reduced waste), and greater water flow (reduced energy consumption).
Cartridge Filters: Unlike DE and sand filters, cartridge filters don't require backwashing to clean the filter. A quality cartridge filter can reduce pool water waste by as much as 92%. This is a significant savings for any eco-friendly pool.
Conserve Energy
Your pool uses energy in different ways. The pool’s circulation system — and the things attached to it — uses the most energy. There’s the pool pump that drives everything. Then there’s your pool cleaner, and if needed, the booster pump to run it. In some cases, there might also be a heater to keep the water warm. With the right equipment and accessories, you can greatly reduce your monthly utility bill. You'll also help the environment in the process. It's a win-win!
Variable Speed Pumps: Compared to single speed pool pumps, a variable speed pump can reduce your pool’s energy consumption by as much as 80%. Variable speed pumps allow you to fine tune the settings and maximize your savings according to your pool’s unique needs. They are, by far, one of the most impactful pieces of eco-friendly pool equipment you can have.
Robotic Pool Cleaners: Robotic pool cleaners are the most economical automatic pool cleaners available. They don’t add pressure on your pool’s circulation system, which helps reduce pool energy consumption compared to other pool cleaner types. These cleaners cost just pennies per day to operate. Robotic cleaners also allow longer periods between cleaning your pool filter, which helps conserve water.
Solar Panels: A natural solution to pool heat, solar panels use energy from the sun to warm the water as it slowly passes through the panel's system of tubes. It's most often used as a standalone heat source for above ground pools. However, it can also be used to supplement an existing pool heater in any pool, further reducing energy demand.
Conserve Pool Chemicals
Chemicals are an important part of maintaining a clean and healthy swimming pool. Whether you’re boosting sanitizer efficiency or reducing the need for certain chemicals, there are various ways to conserve chemicals in your pool.
Leslie’s Perfect Weekly: This 3-in-1 pool maintenance chemical offers several eco-friendly benefits, including chemical, water, and energy conservation. The combination of SMARTZyme and PHOSfree technologies boost sanitizing efficiency, while COVERfree technology creates a surface barrier to reduce water and heat loss due to evaporation.
Minerals: Mineral systems, such as PoolRx and Nature2 Minerals, reduce the need for sanitizer in your pool. In addition, minerals make it easier to balance pH levels in pool water, and give the water a softer feel.
Salt Chlorination System: Salt chlorinators produce a reliable, low-level supply of pure chlorine. Because of this, saltwater pools don’t have a harsh chlorine odor, don’t fade swimsuits, and there’s no eye irritation from excess chloramines in the water.
UV & UVO3 Sanitizers: These types of sanitizers eliminate harmful microorganisms and organic contaminants in pool water with rays of natural UV light. Some UV sanitizers also use ozone to supplement their sanitation power. Natural sanitation solutions greatly reduce the need for sanitation chemicals.
Combining Eco-Friendly Benefits
As you’ve probably noticed, some eco-friendly products offer more than just one type of conservation. Some even offer a combination of all three, providing water, energy, and chemical savings in one. There are so many ways to help the environment, and one of the easiest places to start is right in your backyard.
Not sure where to start? Curious about the best eco-friendly solutions for your pool? We can help! For more environmentally conscious pool ideas, take a look at our recent blog post, Go Green, Save Green. In this post, we talk about the many ways eco-friendly pool products can help save you money. You can also stop by or call your local Leslie’s store to learn more about our eco-friendly pool solutions. To know you're looking at a high-quality eco-friendly pool product, just look for the ECO icon!