by Dan Empfield
1.29.03 (www.slowtwitch.com)
"Whatever happened with your Endless Pool installation," I get asked weekly by someone or other. Yes, it took a hiatus. It wasn't planned that way.
But, finally moving out of San Diego lock, stock and barrel and relocating up here in God's Country, er, Valyermo, I got sidetracked. Then we had the Storm of the Century (why would God do that in His country?). So we had to put a new roof on (that the Storm of the Century blew off), and then we put up the new air conditioner (the old one blew off in the S-of-the-C), and we had it vented and plumbed better than it was. And then there was the floor, which was carpet when I moved in, and is now almost entirely ceramic-tiled, which we did ourselves. So, one thing after another.
Last week I turned my attention back toward the pool. The hardest part was figuring out how I was going to do the electrical. I was bringing three circuits out from the workshop, 130 feet away and up a hill to where I'd situated the pool. I'd already trenched the ditch, and now I had to figure out what size conduit, what kind of conduit, what gauge wire, how many wires, and most importantly, was I going to have the circuit breakers in my main breaker box, or was I going to put a sub-panel out closer to the pool?
I should back up and tell you why I needed to bring power to the pool. For my pool I need power for three things: the pump that makes the "river" go; the filtration pump that circulates the water and keeps the pool clean, and the electric pool heater. As to the latter, your pool may or may not have this—you may choose a gas heater instead.
The electric heater and the big propulsion pump each require a 220v, 30 amp breaker, and the circulating pump requries a 110v, 20 amp circuit. This is a lot of amps, and requires 4 gauge wire, which is very thick, if you're going to do as I did and yank out wire sufficient to install a sub-panel out at the pool. But it turns out I overdid it. There is a scheme whereby I can wire the equipment so that the propulsion unit and the heater don't work at the same time (I don't need the heater going while I'm swimming). This means I only need one 30 amp breaker, and I've only got to be concerned with 50 amps worth of circuits instead of 70. I probably could've gotten away with #6 wire or perhaps even #8 (probably the heavier-duty #6 because of the extreme length of wire I'm pulling).
All these questions could've been answered very quickly by an electrician, upon which any sane person would rely. But as with the slab, and the trenching, I felt I had to do this myself (except for the very last part—wiring the equipment, I'll have an electrician do that so I don't toast my fingernails).
But I felt I ought to do the grunt work, because why should I pay an electrician $50 per hour to run conduit when I can do it for $0 per hour myself? There is a national electric code, and this calls for rigid-wall metal conduit (EMT) to be drawn above ground, which you can see in the photo above. You'll see the sub-panel in the workshop from which I'm drawing my power. I drilled through the back wall of my cinderblock workshop, and ran EMT around the corner to a retaining wall, and then went along that before going underground. Then I ran a galvanized pipe down about two feet into my trench, and then continued with the grey PVC that is called for when running your wiring underground.
When I actually got to erecting the pool, putting in the liner, the inside-the-pool equipment, and plumbing the equipment to the pool, it was quite straightforward and quick. All that took me about two days just working by myself, except for having a friend help me lift the propulsion unit into the pool (it's too heavy for one person to lift).
It's all the horse pucky leading up that that which took time. If you're not putting your pool out on the North Forty of your property, you won't go through the hassle I did.
So what is left before my pool is operational? I've got to mount the retractible pool cover on it, which mounts on top of whatever coping or fascia goes around your pool, if any. I'm building a redwood deck around my pool, and so I had to put the first few boards of the deck onto the top of the pool, onto which I shall affix the rails of the retractible cover. Now that I've got the first redwood boards up, I can put the cover's rails on. Then I've got to plumb the hydraulic lines, but there are just two of them and it ought to take 20 minutes. The electrician has to come out and hook up the wires. I've already got a sub-panel up (it's on a pole on the bottom right of the photo just above), with two GFI breakers in the box. The conduit is hooked up to the sub-panel from the main panel.
Then I think that's it, I should be swimming by the weekend. I'll let you know.
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