Pool Owners Weather the Energy Crunch
Swimming pools and Southern California are synonymous: It’s a fact as clear as chlorinated water to anyone who has ever flown over the area.
So do rolling blackouts and rising natural gas and electric rates spell the end of the backyard pool?
Hardly.
For those who have already taken the plunge--the state’s estimated 1.1 million pool owners--a host of products and incentives are available to help take the economic sting out of maintaining that inviting hole filled with 13,000 gallons of water.
And for those who have been thinking about it: The energy crunch doesn’t seem to be the deciding factor.
Swimming pool construction is booming, according to the California Spa and Pool Industry Education Council, a Sacramento-based trade group.
“It’s like higher gasoline prices,” said Jim Eldridge, sales manager for Swan Pools of Southern California, where business is up 40% over last year. “People ask the question, but they still buy the SUV with four-wheel drive.”
New pool buyers can quiz their contractors on energy-efficient pumps and pool design.
Here are some tips for those who bought back in the days of cheap energy:
* Thanks to new technology, owners of older pools now can trade in a 1.5-horsepower pump for a 0.75-horsepower model that will move more water per minute through the filter while using half the electricity of the bigger, older pump, said Gary Van Delden, general manager of Allred’s Pool Supplies, which serves Orange and Los Angeles counties.
* If you buy certain energy-saving pump and motor combinations, an additional 10% to 15% energy savings can be yours, along with rebates of $100 from Southern California Edison and $200 from San Diego Gas & Electric.
* Keep the pool at 78 degrees. For every 1 degree you raise the temperature, your costs go up 10%, energy experts say.
* For more savings, check your pool pump timer. Cutting down the time the filter runs to four or five hours a day could save 40% to 50% in energy. Just for agreeing to set your timer to run on off-peak hours, three utilities (Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric Co.) will send you $20. (The utilities hope to shave 103 megawatts from peak use, enough to power about 100,000 homes).
* The best bang for the energy buck is the solar blanket.
A blanket or cover, which resembles a giant sheet of industrial-strength bubble wrap, retains heat and adds 10 to 15 degrees to the temperature, as well. You save water and chemicals otherwise lost to evaporation, use less gas for heating and less electricity because the pool stays cleaner so the filter runs less.
Van Delden says a solar blanket for a 15-by-30-foot pool costs between $75 and $100. Solar blankets, which can be trimmed to fit free-form pools, have been on the market for about 15 years. Always popular, the blankets are even more in demand these days due to the energy crisis, he said.
Jim and Judy Parr of Orange bought one over spring break for their new in-ground pool. It’s the reason their children have been able to swim every day since then.
“We used the heater on Easter and then used the cover to keep the heat in. Since then, we’ve used the heater just once,” Judy Parr said.
The downside of the solar blanket is that you miss the aesthetically pleasing sight of all that calm, blue water.
“But at these prices,” Parr said of gas and electric rates, “I don’t think it will bother me too much.”
Though pool owners such as Parr are aware of energy costs, the issue doesn’t seem to bother prospective pool buyers willing to plunk down $20,000 to $40,000 for a pool.
“I don’t think people are thinking, ‘If I put in a pool, will I really run up my electric bill?”’ said Donald Burns of the spa and pool trade group. He said he expected a downturn in pool building permits due to rumblings about the economy and has been surprised to find the monthly numbers up in most California counties.
In Los Angeles County, for instance, 72 pool permits were issued in March, compared with 71 in March 2000, according to the Public Works Department.
Eldridge, of Swan Pools, said about half his customers express concerns about energy costs. But when told about energy-efficient motors, two-speed pumps and the trend toward shallower pools, most are satisfied and go ahead with the project, he said.
Swan doesn’t sell many solar-heated pools. It sounds like a good idea, but most people don’t live in the same house long enough to make the $5,000 to $6,000 systems pay for themselves, Eldridge said.
So what does a pool cost in terms of energy? Edison puts the cost of running a pool filter for four hours daily at $130 a year; Southern California Gas Co. estimated the tab for heating a 33-by-15-foot pool to 80 degrees at $210 a month. For a covered pool, the cost drops to $120 a month, or about $720 for a six-month heating schedule.
To get in on utility-company pool rebates and incentives, contact Edison at (800) 470-2365 or online at https://www.sce.com; PG&E; at (800) 933-9555 or https://www.pge.com; SDG&E; at (800) 411-7343 or https://www.sdge.com. Rebate reservations are required before purchase.
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Lynn O’Dell is an Orange County freelancer. She can be reached at lynnodell@aol.com.
