Most people heat their pool to 28deg C but other temps might be better for some activities and a cooler pool will save you money and might even be good for you.
Too warm, too cool or just right?
The perfect temperature for your pool is a matter of personal choice but swimming pools are maintained at a wide variety of temperatures and people swim in an even wider range of temperatures.
It might be that you have got into the habit of having your pool at a certain warmth but that a slight adjustment might actually suit you better and could potentially save you money.
Obviously, the warmer you have your pool, the more energy it is going to take to heat it.
What is less well known but just as true is that the warmer your pool, the more energy it will loose.
For instance a pool kept at 32deg C will loose heat at twice the rate of a 26deg C pool if the ambient air temperature in both cases is 20deg C. (32deg C is obviously pretty warm, but it makes the maths nice and clear.)
So having a warmer pool is going to cost you a fair amount more money. The question is, is it worth it?
Different activities suit different temperatures.
A lot of hotels will maintain their pool at about 30deg C.
They want their pool to be inviting to guests and, in the main, the bathers in the pool are just going to be enjoying the soak and perhaps swimming a few leisurely laps.
If the laps aren’t leisurely then lets look at competition pools. For competitive swimming it is usual for a pool to be maintained at about 25.5deg C. That is a lot cooler, but the temperature promotes easier and deeper breathing and a faster heartbeat.
If you use your pool for exercise and like to swim a good number of laps at a steady pace, then perhaps one degree warmer would feel more comfortable but still give you the same benefits. So now your pool is at 26.5deg C.
Still a degree and a half below the 28deg C norm and that will save you money and make your pool more eco-friendly in a number of ways.
A cooler pool looses less water through evaporation and so needs less chemicals to keep the water in balance.
A warmer pool will promote algae growth and so a cooler pool will save you time and effort in cleaning as well.
Admittedly these are relatively small savings but over the course of a season or a year they do add up.
Whatever temperature that you decide on, a DEL slatted cover will help you keep some of that precious heat in the water and if you opt for the polycarbonate slat option, they will act as a solar cover and actually help the pool absorb the heat of the sun and retain it.
Another money saving option is to invest in a DURA heat pump. Economically priced and suitable for all types of outdoor swimming pool, DURA and DURA+ heat pumps benefit from oversized, titanium heat exchanges making them highly resistant to corrosion by salt, chlorine and bromine.
Both models are suited to UK climate with the DURA+ able to provide all year round heating capability and show a significant saving on energy bills.
But if you wanted to be really brave, what temperature could you swim at?
Take it outside.
Not every keen swimmer swims in a pool. Outdoor or ‘wild’ swimming is increasingly popular in the UK; and lakes and rivers have no heaters.
At about 21deg C, a wild swimmer would describe the water as ‘warm’.
Between 17 and 20deg C, those outdoor swimmers still aren’t wearing their wet suits and they call this typical summer swimming.
‘Fresh’ is how they describe water between 12 and 16 deg C and the ones that are acclimatised to it find swimming at these temperatures the most enjoyable and exhilarating.
All that starts to sound pretty extreme, but wild swimmers claim that they have stronger immune systems, suffer from less colds and have firmer, healthier looking skin into their 60s
So perhaps warmer isn’t better after all.
We hope this article has been of interest to you.
There are many more articles on this site that will give you information on almost every aspect of your pool.
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