wvb, Check out the thread before this one. It is a very inexpensive system from the hose bib. aloha

Another option, hit walmart and look for those "water globes". They're blown glass balls with a long spiked spout sticking out. You fill them with water and stick the spiked opening into the dirt. The wet dirt at the opening keeps the water from pouring out all at once, and as it starts to dry out, more water drips down into the pot. In my experience, they're good for 2, maybe 3 day's worth of constant drip watering before they have to be refilled. Another option, you can get a bag of water retention crystals (also from walmart) that soak up water then slowly release it over time. Mix some of that in with your soil and give it a good soak, and they'll be good for quite a while as well.

I installed it all and plumbed it myself - Not a really difficult job . . . . maybe 3 on a scale of 5 The collector panel was $1K, the tanks were $600 for the pair, the circulator pump was $100, the differential controller was $200 and about another $300 for copper piping, valves, flowmeter and an analog temp guage. $2200 for the total system, give or take $100. We had no hot water heater to begin with, so we would have had to spend $300 anyway, so take away the $300 and the $400 in Tax rebates and the system actually cost us $1500 - I got $300 off my federal income tax and another $100 from the state My 'break even point' is about 3 to 4 years - It would be higher if I had paid another $1500 to $2K for a professional installation We're remodeling an old farmhouse, so we've never lived here with anything but the solar heat but the tag on the side of one of the water heaters says it costs $400 per year to run - It's a very high efficiency unit with 3 inches of polyfoam insulation, so a lesser water heater would cost more to operate. $500 to $600 per year is probably an average cost for domestic water heating per year for a family of four I REALLY don't understand why there isn't a larger push from the government on solar water heating. Unlike solar electric, or hybrid cars, this technology is pretty well perfected right now and the payback is much shorter than for just about any other 'green' energy source. It can be used in most places in the United States. The outside temp isn't a big factor in how well it works . . . . it depends more on how many sunny days you have If more houses had solar domestic hot water systems, we could make a huge dent in the total energy use of the country and just think of how much less fossil fuel we would consume Don

First off, your CYA is a bit too high for a SWG or any time of chlorination. With splash out this should reduce over time or you can do a partial refill but in meantime, you will need to maintain a FC level of at least 5 ppm for a CYA of 100 ppm. Otherwise your CC levels will start to climb and algae may bloom. Also, SWGs tend to make PH climb so you will always be fighting that. It is important to keep PH below 7.8 so that the chlorine will be more effective and it will be easier to keep PH lower if you also lower TA. TA will come down over time if you keep PH at the lower end of the scale closer to 7.2. Muriatic acid is the cheapest solution to lower both PH and TA. If you are interested in reading more on how to maintain a SWG pool, please read the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Water Balance for SWGs