LED pool lighting, Sand Filtration, Salt water Chlorine generating system

March 2020 - LED Hayward light still works 12 years later and used an average of 4 hours daily, though it is dimmer than when new, time to think about a replacement.

Pentair pump - this is our 2nd, 1st went after about 4 years when the power went out then came back at about 70 volts and stayed that way for some time.  As the electricity savings is the cost of pump for a year we have probably saved about $11,000 in 12 years. We run 24 hours a day at low speed which seems to fend off beach corrosion the best. Also Epoxy coated our 2nd unit before installation as the 1st one was experiencing some exterior corrosion.

Pool Pilot salt water Chlorine Generation system - failed within a year - it did not stand up to the coastal salt air environment, or perhaps to my maintenance person. We reverted to using Stabilized Chlorine powder checked a couple times daily. Sometimes using the tablets for time release if we are going to be delayed in checking. We fill this beach side pool with water from a deeper well that provides about 4000 parts per million salt so the idea would have been splendid had it been reliable. I understand there is a machine that creates chlorine and the sodium water separate for cleaning in large event centers, it would be nice if one of these systems came out for dual use.

July 2008 - Night photo of pool with LED Hayward 50 watt light. This may seem an extravagance having a light that can provide a number of colors but it is using about 1/8 th the watts of a regular pool light, it looks good and enhances pool safety for night time use, I recommend it .

We also used a Pentair high efficiency permanent magnet, programmable variable speed pool pump and 30 inch Hayward sand filter along with 2 inch lines. In addition we used a Pool Pilot Salt water Chlorine generation system. Water for the pool comes from a deeper well that is salty with about 8000 parts per million of salt, we only need 3000 parts to operate the pool but this allows for considerable rain water accumulation before we need to pump more salt water in. The variable speed pump truly saves money and is quiet, currently its set for 20 gallons per minute and runs continuously at 145 watts per hour or 3.48 KW per day, which is providing 1.5 turns of water per day for this 20,000 gallon pool. Electricity at a pricey 28 cents Kilowatt is .97 cents a day for the pumping or $355.00 per year. By contrast a small 1/2 horse pump would require about .37 kilowatt an hour of electricity, if ran 24 hours a day for commercial use thats $2.48 day or $907.56 year

For heavier use we can use timed overrides to boost filtration. Backwash is set to recommended 98 gallons per minute for this filter. Even at 98 gallons per minute the noise level on pump is low enough one doesn't need to raise their voice, this may be helped by our decision to use 2 inch lines which reduces flow restrictions. In addition we used 2 of 45 degree elbows at each turn instead of right angle 90 degree elbows, providing a less restrictive flow. We also made sure to prime all joints with PVC primer when gluing, I am happy to say we started up with a leak free system.

I found running the pump at low speed seems to do a better job of trapping particles than running at high speed. During setup the pool pump was left off long enough for the water to start to go green, however by shocking with chlorine then running pump continuous the water cleared up overnight. I think continuous operation at low levels is superior to start and stop methods.

In Mexico we've had troubles finding pool Stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid) but they sell Chlorine with this added so we started our pool off with stabilized Chlorine and then have let the Pool pilot continue to keep the Chlorine level. In future we will special order the Stabilizer from a supplier.