WATER SAVING: Pools, Gardens
WATER SAVING, Pools, Gardens
In the Garden:
• Irrigate the garden only if it is essential and only in the evening so as not to lose water from evaporation.
• Plant drought-resistant plants, don’t plant grass.
• Mature trees need watering only if they show signs of suffering, younger trees maybe once or twice a week in very hot weather. Mulch.
Swimming Pools
• Village water must not be used to fill pools. Non-potable water must be purchased for large amounts of replacement. All waste water from pools, back wash etc must be disposed of into a proper soak-away on the owner’s premises. Under no circumstances must pools be emptied onto roads or land belonging to others.
• Pool cover. First, if you are a pool owner, get a cover. With this, you can stop up to 80% of evaporation and the amount of water lost through evaporation is considerable. We do not recommend the bubble covers, they will disintegrate.
• Backwash.
• Reduce the number of times you backwash, and backwash only if it is really necessary (check your pressure gauge). Always follow the backwash with a short rinse to keep the sand clean to enable the filter to work efficiently. In any case, clear as much debris as you can manually with a net.
• Recycling Backwash
• An apparently foolproof brilliant idea from John Wills and Mark Lipscombe:
“My friend John Wills pointed out a simple method of saving thousands of litres of water that is applicable to all pool owners!
Few people probably realise how much water is wasted down the drain each time they ‘backwash’ the pool filter to clean it. John discovered that about 400 litres are wasted for each backwash and more if the pool is really dirty or is subject to having loads of sand blown into it (like most pools in Pissouri).
We have now both fitted a plastic tank and diverted the backwash water from the drain and into the tank. After a couple of days (less if you add a little flocculent) the dirt settles out of the water which can then be drained back into the swimming pool.
My tank (800 litres) cost €180 from the local DIY shop. You also need some fittings and hose from a pool shop to divert the water but they don’t cost much.
If every pool owner invested about €400 in a thermal pool cover and a waste tank described above the village would save thousands of litres of water every week.”
• Some people have tried “solar pool rings” put on our pool and already the temp has increased 2º in just 3 days. And this reduces evaporation and chemical usage. Only downside is that the bugs get trapped underneath instead of being swept in the filter.
• Some people have fitted a prefilter for pool cleaning which they say can save up to 8000 litres of backwash a year, but it is not cheap at about €400 euros.