Watersource For Swimmingpool

[Pink5]

Im on stage of planing by house and pool build On some farmland outside Korat and wondering what watersource i should use. There is waterpipe from the local watersupply, but should i think of drilling for water? My pool will be around 10 x 4 meters

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[STMx]

Usually swimming pools use almost persistent volume of water. Water circulates and you should add small amount to compensate leaks.

[fdimike]

We live in Udon Thani and have a large pool here at our home. We did the initial fill with water purchased directly from the water department. They delivered the water in tanker trucks. We top up periodically (evaporation) with city water from the pipe which runs to our house. This water is not drinkable but is clean and free of rust. Well water can be problematic especially if you happen to hit "bad water" (highly acidic or rusty). Our Hayward DE filters keep things nice and clean and the chlorinators add just enough chlorine into the water (salt water pool) to eliminate bacteria, fungus etc from growing in the water.

[SantiSuk]

I had my pool (95cu.m) built in an Isaan village in southern Sisaket. We were at the end of a village supply pipe to which the relatively newly built house was connected for water. My builder told me that the village would not like me using their water for a big installation like a swimming pool so in came the drillers and the tower constructors.

To cut a long story short:

• Having two sources of supply is undoubtedly very useful
• The well water is not as well-balanced as is my village supply (total alkalinity and pH of the village supply is normally perfect and the well water is quite heavily into calcium; not a problem in the short and medium term but may fur up underground pipes over say a 10 year period (maybe get easy access conduits designed in anyway? I would if I started afresh and at least I would keep details of where the pipes are!)
• Village water in Isaan here is dirt cheap - 4 baht a cu.m. From what I can work out using Crossy-thread info, the pumping cost of a 35m well is likely to exceed that
• I have taken to dispensing with default use of the automatic sprinkler gear in my garden (fed from the well/tower and suffering two lots of pumping costs) and do an extensive hose-watering day myself one or two days a week. I have used as much as 100 cu.m a month in the height of dry season and the village watering guys have shown no signs of having problems with that. My pool only takes 5 ish cubic meters of that in top up and then only during dry season
• I have dispensed with the auto pool water feed form the tower and top-up manually by hose form the village water supply! [Can of course reconnect to auto feed- locals here will run water lines very cheaply all over your pad]
  

So, I'm happy to have the option of well and tower in addition to village supply, but it's expensive to construct all that and you might not save any money even on running costs - it's certainly way more expensive when you factor in the depreciated build cost. Not sure of build-cost as my tower was part of a broader build project involving pool, extra bedrooms and pool bathroom, but I'm guessing that the total for a deep well/pump/tower and tank is 200kish baht.

My advice would be to do as much research as possible:

• If you have a neighbour with a well then do pool chemical tests on both supplies. It may not dictate your final choice but it might help inform the choice
• Talk to the village water man about any concerns they may have. They will focus on the size of a pool so maybe you should be prepared to offer to get the pool filled by tanker if they are hesitant. Focus on the limited requirement your pool is likely to have for top-up (if it's low usage domestic-only it's unlikely that you will use more than say 7% of pool volume as top-up and not at all in rainy season)
• Don't go the village water only route unless you have a reasonably secure village supply. I'm lucky - mine is very rarely down for more than a few hours at a time (and then that is only a handful of times a year). Having said that you can protect your pool top-up reserve by having a 10% reserve overflow reservoir built-in [mine is only 6% and is fine but others on the pool forum tell me it's too small!]. It's expensive to have a reserve reservoir compared with the skimmer route, but an overflow pool is great IMO. You can also put a couple of standing floor tanks in to provide a good village water supply back-up. When I did rely on village water for the house prior to building the pool I found that one 2 cu.m tank only gave me one day's cover for my family of four regular shower-takers and inveterate washing machine users. Running out was very rare, but I did have to become the water-use monster policemen!

If I was starting over again I would have roof water collection/underground tanks designed into my property water supply and solar installations for pumping. I might still consider having a well and tower if my village water was at all questionable as a supply source. But then like everyone else in Isaan I started from a premise that I was going to get shafted, so my planning was far too short term. 8 years later you realise that ThaiV morons, still-based in your original flesh-point port of entry have provided far too imbalanced a view of future living in Thailand and then you start the retro-fit projects at additional expense!

Edit: I didn't cut the long story very short did I?

Edited December 14, 2015 by SantiSuk

[Pink5]

Thank for all replies... Im goung to build a long 1 storey house so maybe collecting rainwater is an idea too... I see all house in this area collect water in large round cement storrages.

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