Regardless of whether they are or are not obessed with the movie Frozen, I've yet to meet a kid who wasn't ecstatic about immersing themselves in a giant body of water in the middle of summer.
A few years ago, Mr. Gem and I decided that it was vitally important for our kids to learn how to swim.
We looked at our options, membership to the local club, swim lessons through the city or through private instructors and what we found is that it would actually be cheaper for us to buy and maintain a pool than it would be for us to pay others to teach our kids to swim. Bonus!! We would now have a pool for ourselves! (OK, its really a pool for me...you can't say you're surprised though!)
So, that summer we bought a pool. It was a simple cheapo from Walmart (> 300) but... there were only a few days we were able to use it without our kids lips turning purple; however, we were hooked!
The very next summer, we built a solar heater out of spare parts so our pool would be warmer and therefore useable for a longer period of time.
First solar heater |
A warmer pool meant we could use it longer.
That wasn't good enough for Mr. Gem. So the next season we/he built a second solar heater connected to the first solar heater. This time using aluminum as a background to reflect and a pane of glass to trap the heat.
Second solar heater |
He built a THIRD solar heater this season which allowed us to swim on colder/overcast days.
Third solar panel-simple |
It is currently September 4, 2015 and my pool is heated to 91 degrees while the outside temp is 92 degrees. The highest we got it to this summer was 94+ degrees.
I know what your thinking; that sounds insanely hot!!!
The truth of the matter is that yes, our pool WAS too warm for daytime swimming when it was 90+ degrees. HOWEVER, that is the perfect temperature for nightime swimming. If it gets too cold we duck into our cheapo >500 inflatable hot tub!
The truth of the matter is that hubby was so good at building solar heaters that we actually got to a point where the pool was too warm!!
Now...if only I could magically win the lottery and build that dream in ground pool and hot tub!
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