How do you make your pool more eco friendly and save a little money in the process? One of the best ways to be “green” is to do away with your old conventional mesh winter safety cover. This type of cover makes it very difficult to keep the water in the pool clean and clear over the winter and into the early spring weeks. As a result, the pool will have to be drained, cleaned, and refilled with fresh water. This method of opening a swimming pool is wasteful. Instead of throwing away thousands of gallons of fresh water each year, install a new solid safety cover for the winter. While this cover looks much like your old mesh cover, the material is non permeable, thus not allowing rainwater and sunlight to pass through. Now come spring time when you take off your winter cover, the water is as clear as it was the day you closed the pool. We no longer have to drain and clean it. Instead we vacuum out any debris, and balance the water. You can be swimming in a clean, heated pool in just a few days.

Another way to help the environment, and your pocketbook, is at the equipment pad. Take a look at your pump and filter. If you have an older pump then you are spending excess money on your electrical bills. With new “smart pumps” you can save 30% to 90% on your electricity costs. These new pumps work to run at the lowest flow rate needed to operate your pool thus allowing it to use only the necessary amount of electricity needed. To learn more visit http://www.pentairpool.com/products/products3.php?id=78

Finally, one of the best ways to go green this year has to do with filtration. If you have a sand filter on your equipment pad, you are throwing away hundreds of gallons of fresh water each week that you have paid to have heated, cleaned and chemically treated. Instead, install a cartridge filter to clean your pool. While a sand filter requires you to backwash on a weekly or semi-weekly basis to clean it, a cartridge filter will run all season long only needing to be cleaned once or twice. Furthermore, a cartridge filter is far more efficient than a sand filter. It is able to remove much smaller particles from the water than its sand filter counterpart. To learn more visit http://www.pentairpool.com/products/products3.php?id=2