Don’t splash it – stop your pool leaking money
RISING energy prices are making it harder for some Australians to keep warm in winter, but they will also hit the hip pocket when summer rolls around and not just for those with airconditioning.
New research by electricity retailer Pooled Energy has revealed swimming pool operational costs are likely to rise by an average of 53 per cent thanks to recent energy hikes.
This is significant when considering the annual total costs in different parts of Australia for a typical pool of 45,000 litres, with a 1100 watt pump.
Brisbane pool owners for example spend an average $1961 a year in total, which includes electricity and chemicals; while Sydney pool owners spend $1727 a year. Melburnians get a better deal due to the cooler climate, forking out $986 a year, but it is not a sum to be sneezed at.
The size of these costs would come as a surprise to many pool owners, who are not aware that the filtering, cleaning and chlorination of a pool can use 40 per cent or more of their total household energy consumption.
The average house with pool uses approximately 11 Megawatt-hours per year and a pool with minimum equipment uses 4.3 MWh of that, Pooled Energy chairman John Riedl said. If the pool has automatic pool sweeps and solar or other heaters, the consumption increases to about 5.2 MWh.
“Major NSW retailers have announced an approximately 20 per cent overall price rise from July,” Mr Riedl said. “This 20 per cent increase is an average of multiple tariffs … in the Ausgrid distribution area for much of Sydney, off-peak electricity prices have increased dramatically: the average increase for all three large energy retailers is 31.5 per cent.”
There are currently 1.4 million swimming pools in Australia, using a total energy consumption of around half the state of Victoria, according to Mr Riedl, whose company provides energy saving automation systems for pools. Pooled Energy claims it can save pool owners an average of $1292 a year in Brisbane, $1189 in Sydney and $626 in Melbourne.