Chlorination System

One of the side questions that we have been receiving from a variety of persons revolves around a question phrased a variety of ways...

Are you using chlorine in this pool?
What kind of chlorine are you using?
Is this a salt water pool, I understand that there isn't any chlorine in those?
Is this an ozone pool?

And so on...

So, we thought it would be worthwhile to spend a little bit of time go through some of the basics of the disinfection system that we will be using.

First off yes we will be using Chlorine. This is because it is one of the few elements out there that is approved for use in pools (the other is bromine) which actively disinfects (kills) other stuff in the water. So, when little Johnny (or Jane) pees in the pool a molecule of chlorine is there to take care of the nasty stuff to ensure that it is disinfected (killed) quickly.

So, even if a pool is salt water or disinfected through gas, liquid or granular (powder) they all have chlorine in the water they just put it into the water in different ways. The way we will be introducing it is through an erosion feeder - the system we are purchasing is called Pulsar and their website is here.

Now, when a pool has an Ozone system, what they are actually doing is taking a portion of the pool water and putting it into a separate disinfection chamber which kills everything in its path at that point (including the Chlorine molecule). The killing of the molecules / organisms / whatever only occurs at that distinct point in the system where the Ozone exists.

For our pool, we are using Ultraviolet (UV) light in a similar set-up as Ozone. It will only take a portion of the pool water and at one point it will kill everything that is exposed to the UV light. So, just like Ozone, only at the point where the UV light is generated is where the killing of stuff actually occurs. The UV system that we will be installing is developed by a company call Hanovia, to learn more their website is here.

So, when you are sitting in the hot tub, we have Chlorine around to take care of the stuff (for lack of a better term) floating around and in the pool but when the water heads back into the filter room a portion of it is exposed to UV to kill all of the bad stuff in the pool. With these two systems working hand in hand, we will have some very clean water for everyone to enjoy - which, by the way, also improves the air quality at the same time!

Now, this only skims the surface - pun intended :-) - as far as the disinfection system goes. If you would like more info or have questions please click on the comment link below and toss some words at us - alternatively you can email us at aquatics@northcowichan.bc.ca as well.

Thanks!