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Swimming Pool Covers

Swimming pool covers are important because they help pools retain heat and help them stay free of leaves and other airborne debris. Swimming pools are huge users of energy. Even the energy required to heat your small backyard pool can add a lot to your energy bill. That's why it is important to use pool covers to help minimize the heat loss. Not only can the proper covers (more on how to select a pool cover below) reduce the size of your heating bill, but in doing so, they make you more environmentally responsible.

How Pools Lose Heat

Swimming pools can lose heat in a number of ways, but the biggest cause of energy loss is evaporation. The process by which water evaporates uses a large amount of energy. To heat water by 1 degree, it takes only 1 BTU per pound of water. However, for each pound of water that evaporates from a 80F pool, you lose 1048 BTU's of heat.

How Pool Covers Help

To put it simply, pool covers reduce evaporation. By covering your pool when it's not being used, you will significantly reduce the amount of energy required to keep your pool heated. It is possible to save more than %50 on your heating bill.

Which Pool Covers are Best?

To reduce evaporation, you really only need a large plastic sheet as this forms a water-proof barrier. However, this is not the best option for a number of reasons. For one, it's not easy to put on, take off, and store such a device. Also, a plastic sheet can tear easily and does not hold up well under the elements such as sun and wind. All in all, this is not the best choice and could not be expected to endure from season to season.

Fortunately, the Internet makes shopping for pool covers easy. All within an hour or two of browsing, you can see the number of materials, sizes, and colors of covers available, plus the various retraction and storage devices that can make putting the cover on and off a simple matter.

Solar pool covers are among the more popular and lower cost options out there. They are also called bubble covers, and are reminiscent of bubble wrap packing material, except they are made of a more durable, higher grade plastic with UV inhibitors.

Even if you have a pool cover already, it might be time to look for a new one as technology is bringing increased ease of use and maintenance to today's pool covers.

You can get electric-powered covers that open and close at the push of a button. They glide across recessed tracks located under the pool's coping, then roll up into a housing at one end of the pool. Costs for these electric pool covers averages about $6,000-$10,000 depending on the shape and size of your pool.

Safety covers are also an option. These work the same way, but cost quite a bit more. For your money, you get a pool cover that can support the weight of a number of people. Not sure if the cover you are checking out is a safety cover? Check the ASTM rating. If there is no rating, don't assume that pool cover is safe for anyone to stand on.

You've heard of smart homes and home automation, right? Well, today, you can have that sort of technology applied to your swimming pool, hot tub, and yes, even the covers. A plug-and-play control panel runs around $1,000 and can control up to 32 pool features such as electric-powered pool covers, water features, heaters, pumps, lights, and jets.

Also see: Hot Tub & Spa Covers Information

Sources:
Pool & Spa Planner
Swimming Pool Covers

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