- are an essential safety requirement if a pool is to be used at night

• Unlit pools are dangerous - a swimmer in difficulties may go un-noticed and drown

• Unlit pools are also not as attractive to look at as lit pools (just my opinion!)

• Installing lights in your pool and pool area not only adds to the overall appearance; it also makes it a safer pool

• Proper lighting in the pool, and also in the pool area, is necessary to make it safe at night

• If someone fell into the pool at night they would not be visible and could drown

• It's far more likely that someone could trip over in the dark if the pool area has poor or non-existent lighting

• Installing pool and terrace lights helps to secure the safety of your family, friends and pets

Traditional pool lighting falls roughly into two camps; Halogen lights and Tungsten lights

Halogen Pool Lights:

are usually flat-mounted directly to the wall of the pool and consume up to 100 Watts

They can be retro-fitted to a pool that currently does not have lights

The bulbs often give years of trouble-free performance but nothing lasts forever

Happily, the bulbs can be changed fairly simply: -

• Turn the lights off and turn the breaker to the pool equipment off also

• Remove the light from the wall by removing the fixing screw/s

• Each manufacturer has their own trick of hiding the screws so you'll have to examine your lights to find the screws - very often they are behind a clip-on ring of plastic that surrounds the glass

• If the light was installed correctly there will be sufficient cable, coiled behind the light, to allow the unit to be removed from the water and brought to the side of the pool - if not you'l have to partially drain the pool to change the bulb

• Disassemble the unit and install a new Halogen bulb; reassemble and re-fit to the pool wall

NOTE: Do not touch the new bulb with your bare fingers, or allow any dirt or grease to get onto it, as the intense heat of the bulb (when it's on) will cause the glass to melt at the 'dirty' spot, the light will burn out and you'll have to do it all again!

Tungsten Pool Lights:

- are usually niche-mounted in the pool wall and consume 300 Watts

A niche light has a plastic 'bucket' like this, built into the wall of the pool during construction

The cable passes through the cable-gland (seen here at the bottom of the fitting but almost always installed with the cable-gland uppermost)

The image on the right shows a 300W Tungsten bulb installed to the bulb-holder assembly which is known as the 'light guts'

Please watch a video of how to change the bulb here

Note: If Chlorine is your principal sanitizer the black rubber of the cable may be partly decomposed and it can leave unsightly stains on the pool coping.  Clean the cable with paper towels and water before continuing

Both of the above types of light have their drawbacks: -

• They only produce white light

• (Coloured light can be produced by fitting a filter over the bulb)

• They have a lifespan of a 4-5000 hours at best

• They consume a lot of power

A better alternative is to replace a defective bulb with LEDs or to install them from the outset

LED lights produce coloured (including white) light, consume a tiny fraction of the power of either a Halogen or a Tungsten bulb and have a lifespan of at least 50,000 hours without significant dimming

LEDs also have many colour-changing programs and can transform a pool, as well as making it safer

We supply all plant and equipment featured on this website. All our work is Guaranteed; Parts and Labour

For free and unbiased advice, a site visit or no-obligation Quotation*, please make initial enquiries by email. Tell us a little about your pool problem and include a daytime phone number. Thanks, we look forward to meeting you soon

Note: - Please contact our recommended pool professionals for supply and installation of all pool-related services: - 

Andalusia and the Costa del Sol - Pool Safety Spain

Nerja area - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

*We only offer Quotations: - a fixed, agreed price that cannot, and will not, be increased. We do not give 'estimates', as an estimate offers the client no guarantee of final price

Share this website with other Pool Owners and Users,  encourage them to read about Pool Safety, learn CPR and help them to save lives, time and money. Please help us to make every pool a safer place - by sharing this information we can cut the number of pool accidents and deaths.  Please also see our Facebook page

Ken Walker - MyPoolGuru©

Why use a Pool Cover?

- Because a pool-cover.......

• Reduces heat lost by evaporation by 90-95%, allowing you to swim earlier in the Spring and later into the Autumn whilst saving thousands of litres of water

• Reduces the amount of dirt, dust and debris that enters your pool, saving you time on cleaning and maintenance

• Minimises the amount of chemicals required to sanitize the pool, thereby providing further savings

• Greatly extends the period between emptying the pool and re-filling with fresh water - see Total Alkalinity and TDS

Up to 95% of heat loss from a swimming pool is due to evaporation of the pool-water.  The remaining heat losses can be accounted for by conduction through the sides and bottom of the pool and heat lost when a backwash is carried out

Cut the evaporation to next-to-nothing and cut heat-losses to next-to-nothing - it's that simple!

When you have paid good money to heat a pool it makes good economic sense fit a pool cover to conserve the heat

If a pool is unheated it still makes good sense to fit a pool cover because the water will warm earlier in the year and remain warm longer into the autumn. A pool cover will give the pool-owner a longer swimming season and save vast amounts of water

In an unheated pool, it works like this: -

• Every minute that the sun is shining on your pool, and all the time that the air temperature is warmer than the pool-water, the pool gains heat.  However, heat is lost whenever air blows across the surface of the pool because when that happens some of the pool water gets evaporated - and that costs heat

• Heat is measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs). One BTU is the amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. However, the evaporation of one pound of water takes 1048 BTUs

• In the course of one sunny, breezy day a pool can easily lose an inch (25mm) of water and that's a lot of lost heat - all of which comes directly from your pool water and therefore the pool gets cooler

• Bear in mind also that during the night there is no sun shining on the pool: - so no heat is gained, but there is usually a breeze: - so heat is lost to evaporation

• It's not just the water that has to warm up - it's also the structure of the pool

• At any given time the pool-water and the pool structure are trying to be at the same temperature. As the water warms in the sun the pool structure 'steals' heat by conduction. If the water is cooler than the structure the structure will give up heat - and warm the water a little

• In a heated pool it works exactly the same way with the difference being that you have actually shelled out hard cash to put the heat in the pool - without a cover that's money gone to waste

• By placing a barrier between the pool surface and the atmosphere evaporation can be reduced or even eliminated

Heat-retaining covers come in many varieties: -

• Electric, automatic, slatted roller covers - 95-98% efficient, the most expensive option but the longest lasting. This type of cover can be installed in the deep end of a pool or can have its own dedicated 'tank' that is outside of the main pool

• Floating Solar Covers - 90-95% efficient, plus a roller/reel to store it on when it is removed from the water surface

• Liquid Pool Covers - 50-75% efficient, a little dearer than a Floating Solar Cover but effortless in use because it remains on the pool while swimmers are enjoying themselves - and it does not need to be replaced when the pool is not in use. Therefore, over time, a liquid cover is about as efficient as a traditional Floating Cover

• Automatic 'Top Track' covers - 90-95% efficient, with a fixed, electric roller, at the end of the pool to contain the cover and it's winding/unwinding mechanism. This roller can be either above-ground or in-ground. This is an excellent, automatic Safety Cover 

We supply all plant and equipment featured on this website. All our work is Guaranteed; Parts and Labour

Andalusia and the Costa del Sol - Pool Safety Spain

Nerja area - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For free and unbiased advice, a site visit or no-obligation Quotation*, please make initial enquiries by email. Tell us a little about your pool problem and include a daytime phone number. Thanks, we look forward to meeting you soon

NOTE: - On the Costa del Sol please contact PoolSchool for supply and installation of all pool-related services and equipment including Jolly Gel

*We only offer Quotations: - a fixed, agreed price that cannot, and will not, be increased. We do not give 'estimates', as an estimate offers the client no guarantee of final price

Share this website with other Pool Owners and Users,  encourage them to read about Pool Safety, learn CPR and help them to save lives, time and money. Please help us to make every pool a safer place - by sharing this information we can cut the number of pool accidents and deaths.  Please also see our Facebook page

Ken Walker - MyPoolGuru©

- there are countless pool accessories that you can add to your pool to make it a safer, more comfortable or more fun place to be

It works like this - a few decades ago the only place you'd be likely to find a pool would be in a Hotel, a Sports Club, a city-run facility or a school. (And at the homes of the odd squillionaire, of course.)  So the total global market for pools was quite small

- lets give it a wild-guess figure of $10 million a year as a figure for this discussion.  Whatever the correct figure was then - it's changed a lot!

Nowadays the market is enormous - maybe a thousand times, or several thousand times, the figure suggested above - and everyone with half a brain is trying to find some way to chisel off a little of that vast sum for themselves

 For this reason there is nothing that you can visualize for your pool that is not available somewhere, at a price that is probably going to get less as time passes 

There's no shortage of things to add to your pool: -

Floating furniture and loungers, auto-cleaners, goggles, fins, heaters, resistance-swimming pumps, automatic pH controllers, exercise equipment, lighting, air blowers, fountains, waterfalls, toys and games, pool safety nets, flotation aids, terrace furniture, pool-covers, safety fences, pool enclosures, steps, ladders, handrails, disabled-access equipment, alarm systems, sun-shades, rising floors (to turn your pool into a terrace at the flick of a switch!), wave machines, underwater speakers, coloured dyes, training aids, even floating tables and bars

We supply all plant and equipment featured on this website. All our work is Guaranteed; Parts and Labour

For free and unbiased advice, a site visit or no-obligation Quotation*, please make initial enquiries by email. Tell us a little about your pool problem and include a daytime phone number. Thanks, we look forward to meeting you soon

Note: - Please contact our recommended pool professionals for supply and installation of all pool-related services: - 

Andalusia and the Costa del Sol - Pool Safety Spain

Nerja area - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

*We only offer Quotations: - a fixed, agreed price that cannot, and will not, be increased. We do not give 'estimates', as an estimate offers the client no guarantee of final price

Share this website with other Pool Owners and Users,  encourage them to read about Pool Safety, learn CPR and help them to save lives, time and money. Please help us to make every pool a safer place - by sharing this information we can cut the number of pool accidents and deaths.  Please also see our Facebook page

Ken Walker - MyPoolGuru©