Now that the pool house is complete, the pool with water, we’re getting a lot of questions.  How much does it cost to fill and/or heat?  How do we keep the humidity in check?

We got the water bill for filling it using hoses and city water.  The bill for September, the month we filled it was $120, which is about $60 higher than average.  So that was far cheaper than getting a water pump truck to fill it, which runs around 500 dollars.  However, it took several days to fill with the hose, so there’s a give and take.

The pump room is the brain of the pool, housing the furnace, pump, cartridge filter, bromine applicator, and on demand water heater for the pool water.

In addition to the water bill, we have received the electric bill.  Again, our average bill runs around $60 per month, but was up to $120.  The electricity is mainly used for the pump and the hot tub. 

As for the cost to heat the water, the on demand heater is an unconventional choice.  Ben researched affordable, efficient water heating methods but hadn’t seen anything about a conventional on demand heater for a pool.  Over the course of the last year, he asked everyone he came in touch with that dealt with water or heaters for their opinion.  No one had a reason it wouldn’t work, so that’s what he installed.

We don’t constantly have the water heating, but try to keep it between 82 and 86 degrees.  At that temperature, the water helps keep the room heat up, so we haven’t been running the furnace much.  Our gas bill should come soon, so we’ll see how different the average versus pool heating is.

Despite being indoors, we have a clear bubble cover on the pool when not in use.  Not only does this help keep the water heat in, it also minimizes the air humidity.  It’s cut for a close fit, with slits to wrap around the ladder.

Though the cover helps tremendously, we did get a stand alone dehumidifier.  It comes in handy during and after swimming, when the cover is off for extended lengths of time.  When swimming, the humidity can get up to 90%, but the unit will bring it back down to 35% within a few hours.

It has a pump, so there’s no emptying the tank, it simply pumps right back into the pool.  Though I don’t love the look of having the dehumidifier on the floor, it does work wonders.  Perhaps down the road we’ll get one that hooks up to the furnace, but we’d like to see how it goes through the summer months as well.