subject: How to cool down swimming pool water [print this page] During this especially hot summer, people with pools are enjoying them more than ever as a way to cool off and have fun. However, with many areas seeing hotter temperatures than usual this year, bringing a new problem to the attention of pool owners and those who just love to enjoy someone else's pool: how do you lower the temperature of a pool when it has become so warm that it is no longer refreshing?
Try these ideas to cool off
To get your pool feeling more like a swimming pool and less like a bathtub, there are two things that will definitely help: running your solar panels at night and installing a fountain or two. Although they may not seem like they would be certain ways to drop the temperature a few degrees, these are proven solutions to a too-hot pool.
- Solar panels. Although most people probably associate solar panels with raising the temperature of a pool, running them at night instead of during the day can actually accomplish the opposite effect. Since the panels cool off at night, running the water through them lowers the temperature of that water, allowing it to return to the pool cooler than when it left. Just remember to turn the panels off during the day, or you can end up hotter than when you started!
- Fountains. Not only do they make your pool area more attractive, but the spray of water leads to evaporation, which lowers the temperature by expending energy. You will get a more significant cooling effect by running them at night, and you will need to add water to the pool to compensate for the water that evaporates.
These ideas won't help
During a hot summer, you might be tempted to try just about anything to cool off your pool. Before you waste your time and/or money, skip these ideas:
- Pool covers. Despite what they may advertise, in hot climates, a pool cover won't help with cooling. Instead, they stop evaporation, making it harder for the temperature of the water in your pool to drop.
- Adding ice. It works in a glass, so why not in a pool? Think again the amount of water in a pool is simply too large to be affected unless you added an enormous amount of ice, and even then the effect would wear off quickly.
