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Electricity costs of house with.pool


elisabeth

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We're looking at buying a house with a.pool. I've never had a pool so had.no idea what you have to do to maintain it. When I saw past electric bills I almost backed out straight away since.running the pool pump shoots the house.into high usage. Our realtor says you have to run the pump 4-5 hours per day and his bills are similar.  Water aerobics has been great for my health but i pool membership would be much less.

Other than installing whole house solar, are there ways to keep electric costs down?  Have people had sucess metering the pool separately?  I'm told.we.can ask but I can't see any reason why the electric company would agree.  Any advice appreciated.

 

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No good alternatives other than solar. DAC is there for a reason...so you subsidize poor folks in the first and second tiers of CFE rates. After having our own pools for many years using a public pool just didn't work for us.  Let the shaming begin, LOL. We just bit the bullet and paid.

YMMV

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This may sound silly, but there are a lot of people doing this - buy a tropical weight, 3mm wetsuit. You can also buy boots and gloves. This will keep you warm in 65f and above water temperatures. I also have a jogging belt for deep water workout. There is a wide range of qualities and prices, still far less money than paying electrical, over time anyways. There are only two or three months a year you can use an unheated pool.

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A good pool or hot tub pump will offer two speeds. One barely circulating at night using low power, another high speed when the pool is in use and needs full filtration. The best pool heater is basic solar water heater, which feeds into an energy efficient, but expensive heat pump. Have always preferred pools and excercise in the water is the very best. They even use pools to exercise top racing horses.

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1 hour ago, lakeside7 said:

Maybe  a second  meter to run the pool pump

The DAC is not helping "poor folk" we subsidizing the people  who are illegally  conected

Can't argue with that, but...what I said was the original intention. The Robin Hood solution.

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Before I made a decision on the house I would get a solar quote. You might be surprised how reasonable it might be. I've seen installations with a 3-5 year payback if one is in DAC....after that your electricity will almost be free. Don't compare to NOB solar pricing.

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I'd recommend that every homeowner consider solar, not just those with pools.  Mostly to utilize renewable energy, but partly to send a screw-you to CFE.

Solar panels remain a bargain here in both panel cost and installation, plus the payback scheme is far better.  The US has become anti home solar as the utility industry has become one of the biggest and most influential lobbying groups, both federally and in individual states.  I simultaneously priced costs here and at a former home in FL and the financial differences were astronomical. 

Get a few estimates; we did and went with STI.  You can reach them via a member on this board, @Go Solar

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If you want the pool, Bisbee Gal's suggestion is the best way. If you don't want the pool and can't imagine using it on a regular basis, then don't buy the house. They cost money to be maintained properly and, if you're not using it and enjoying it, you will come to resent it. imho.

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One other reality about a pool. There will come a time when you take your water in to be correctly tested by the pool chemicals place that you will be told you need to drain the pool and start with fresh water. "What, you can't sell me some chemicals to burn out whatever it is?" "No". "Why not, what's the problem"? Depending on the tact of the person you're dealing with, at some point you'll realize you're being told there's too much urine in your water and you need to start over. Remember, not you or any of your guests would ever pee in the pool. Must be some neighborhood young people using it when you're not home, LOL.

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I hae a pool on a separate meter and it cost around 120 pesos a months except when we forget to cut off hte pump .. We neer got into DAC on the pool alone.

The house is solar but the pool is too far to be on the solar so we hae it on a separate meter (we have two legal lots, so 2 addresses)

Unless you like to swim a lot, a pool is a total wate of money.. I would loe to sell the house so we do not have a pol but my husband likes the property.. Unless you are an avid swimmer and can have the pool on a solar system and take care of the pool or hire someone to do it.. skip the pool...

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We have had a pool here for over 11 years. They are money pits, plain and simple. Replacing pool solar panels, replace decking, pool lights, turbo-cells for salt water, new control box for chlorinator, on and on. I am ok with it as I had a much larger pool NOB for over 16 years. Stuff wears out faster here, especially those that have exposure to electricity and how it varies in voltage here. 

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5 hours ago, elisabeth said:

We're looking at buying a house with a.pool. I've never had a pool so had.no idea what you have to do to maintain it. When I saw past electric bills I almost backed out straight away since.running the pool pump shoots the house.into high usage. Our realtor says you have to run the pump 4-5 hours per day and his bills are similar.  Water aerobics has been great for my health but i pool membership would be much less.

Other than installing whole house solar, are there ways to keep electric costs down?  Have people had sucess metering the pool separately?  I'm told.we.can ask but I can't see any reason why the electric company would agree.  Any advice appreciated.

 

If you ever wanted a pool and will actually use it, this is the place. Cost to maintain a pool here is less than half of Florida. I pay less than $50 USD per month including chemicals in Ajijic.

My pool is actually used daily from Mid March to mid November after that pool is too cold to use unless you are Canadian. I do run my pump more than just filtering in order to get needed solar into the pool, 4 to 5 hours a day to keep the pool at 87°.  In December Jan and Feb I can clean and filter with only 3.5 hours a day. I do not have a two speed pump which would be nice and more economical. I have 8 solar pool panels that cost me about $158 per panel 4'x8' with 1000 btu per sqft. But the cold nights drop it to 80° right now. 

Either swimming or exercising is the best exercise you will get. After back surgery they recommended walking in pool 30 min a day as it was impossible to fall and injure oneself. I have kept it up for 10 years. 

sent PM

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9 hours ago, elisabeth said:

We're looking at buying a house with a.pool. I've never had a pool so had.no idea what you have to do to maintain it. When I saw past electric bills I almost backed out straight away since.running the pool pump shoots the house.into high usage. Our realtor says you have to run the pump 4-5 hours per day and his bills are similar.  Water aerobics has been great for my health but i pool membership would be much less.

Other than installing whole house solar, are there ways to keep electric costs down?  Have people had sucess metering the pool separately?  I'm told.we.can ask but I can't see any reason why the electric company would agree.  Any advice appreciated.

 

I had the same problem so I put my casita and pool on a separate meter from the house meter. The total bill for the two meters dropped to under 900 pesos every 2 months. I used solar panels to heat the pool. Pools are a lot of work but they are so nice to have.

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My pool here costs much less than my pools did in Florida and California. I have a salt water system so only chemical is acid for ph. My catalyst cell gets cleaned every 3 months and is over 5 years old. I have panels to heat and use between March & November. I have solar electric so I am at minimum. Need to run the pump 3 hours Nov-April & 4 1/2 hours the rest of the year.

Someone talked in an earlier post about changing the water...BUNK also the filter sand needing change BUNK. After 45+ years of pool ownership I have learned a lot

The question is how much would you use the pool and is that cost worth it to you.

Mine is

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22 hours ago, Xena said:

Maintaining pools down here can be difficult and expensive. If you do not have any pool  experience this is going to be a tough place to start learning. 

Chemicals are quite expensive but the mostly good weather makes maintaining a pool easy.  We have solar panels that keep us out of DAC and water solar panels to heat the pool.  In conjunction with a cover a pool here is swimmable 10+ months per year and in a warm winter, 12 months.

We use our pool a great deal.

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Wlizabeth, ask the realestate agent to provide you with a couple of electrical bills from the house you are thinking of buying, that should tell you what they spendon electricity. Chemicals for pools are not cheap.. What do they have now,a heater , how much gaz do they use.. Get a solar company to come and tell you if solar is possible on that property, for exemple solar was possible for the house but way too much for the pool and the pool was far away and there was no room to put the solar inless I wanted to look at panels and but a bunch of trees..

People on this board can tell you what they spend on mantenance and chemicals..

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we are half way through our third year with our first pool. We have yet to pay one centavo in electric. My wife likes the pool at 90 degrees, True you have to run the pump 4-5 hours even if you are not using the pool. We are healthier and stronger. We have solar electric, pool heat, and hot water. I have a gas poolheater to give away, all you have to do is remove it without damaging my property. Our gardener gets and extra 500p/ month for pool care + chemicals.

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10 minutes ago, HarryB said:

we are half way through our third year with our first pool. We have yet to pay one centavo in electric. My wife likes the pool at 90 degrees, True you have to run the pump 4-5 hours even if you are not using the pool. We are healthier and stronger. We have solar electric, pool heat, and hot water. I have a gas poolheater to give away, all you have to do is remove it without damaging my property. Our gardener gets and extra 500p/ month for pool care + chemicals.

You are buying the chemicals and paying him 500 pesos per month for labor?  How often does he clean the pool?  What are your chemicals costing?

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23 hours ago, elisabeth said:

Any advice appreciated.

Send me an email or PM, happy to help you in the best way with no cost or obligation.   Multiple posters on this thread are long term very satisfied clients for both pool heating and solar energy.

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And a general reco to go with a salt cloro pool system, vs chemicals.     These units work well, automatically, and save a lot of both cost and hassle.     And almost all users also like the small amount of salt in the water, as a bonus.

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Thanks to all for great responses!  I just love that everything was on topic and not snarky.

I wish we didn't love the house and location, but we do! We've looked at everything in our price range in San Antonio or Riberas that seems remotely suitable my husband needs a painting studio) and this house it he only one that ticks all the boxes for him.  So, pool or not, this is THE house if I think we can afford the pool expenses, which I didn't foresee.

I checked into water aerobics costs and at most it would be about half the cost of the house's recent electric bills (I realize there's no way to separate out pool pump costs).

The options I see are:

wet suit while we try to get the casita and pool metered separately from the house (but the wetsuit won't affect the cost of running the pump)

See if separate meter for the casita will hold costs down I think only if we can put either the pool or the laundry on the casita bill)

Solar just for the pool, both heater and pump

Whole house solar

Again, many thanks to all.  Elisabeth

 

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