lots of running splashing water will have a cooling effect. cascading waterfalls and sprayers going back into the pool should work well. The evaporating water draws off heat and cools the water. On the less attractive end you could just build a twenty to thirty foot cooling tower. (;D) There are such things as water chillers but they use a bit of power.

We were on Sanibel Island (which is only about 45 minutes away), Florida last week. The Gulf was 90 degrees and the pool, which is not covered) was hotter, about 94. Amazingly, this year we had no rain. It usually rains every afternoon and cools things down a little. I literally had to go in the Gulf and pop out time and time again to let the wind blow on me to cool off. I'm scared about this hurricane season with the Gulf so warm already.

Then I came home. Our home pool was about perfect. Then again, I love a pool at about 88 degrees. It is screened in. In the summer, the screen not only helps with bugs, it keeps the pool a little cooler. Not so good for the winter, but it certainly helps in the summer.

Do you have a screen?

I have also heard of people getting chillers for their pools, but I imagine they're expensive.

We've been getting heavy rain every day in my area (north of Tampa). That cools the pool down to the upper 80's. It climbs back up though. We have a screened enclosure and a pretty hefty waterfall, but it will still stay around 90 to 92 degrees if it doesn't rain.

I don't have a screen-- I wanted the experience of a pool out-of-doors, and so far bugs haven't really been a problem. We also kept hearing how the screen cooled the water down so you couldn't swim as late into the year without a heater, which I also didn't want to get (at first)... I can imagine how water features would cool things down a bit, but we were also hoping to avoid the high power bills...

That's interesting, scrapula, that even with a screen it can get up to 92. We've missed our afternoon thunderstorm for the past few days, so maybe that lack of rain is also contributing to it.

But what about running the pump at a certain time? Is there any time that's better?

Aha! A great suggestion. I'll try doing the pump in the morning to see if that helps.

Sounds like you have no need for solar heating but in some areas solar is run at night to cool pools. With really dark skies the panels radiate the heat towards the black sky and that cools the water down.

..Doyle

OK, Florida people, pool water is at 92 degrees... It cooled down last week with lots of rain but this week it's been brutal, and the pool is WARM...

Gonna have to try that running-the-pump-in-the-night trick...

let us know if that works.

Yeah, ours is at 92 with a screen. This morning, I checked the temp and it had cooled down to 88 overnight. Our pool is on the east side of the house, which gets sun until after 6pm at night. I kind of like it warm for night swimming. Today I have the night shift, so I can swim in the morning while it's cooler.

We're at the hottest part of the year, so I'm not going to fool with the solar panel thing. This is the worst that it will get for me.

Our pool has been finished for two weeks now and today it finally made 90 degrees. Then it rained! The temperature drops 3 or 4 degrees each night. Our pool faces west, we have a pool screen and trees, but I was hoping that the solar panels would heat the pool more than this!

Unfortunately I have nothing to compare with as this is our first pool and the solar panels were installed on day 2! I would be especially interested in gk5040's pool temps as we share the same microclimate.

So no need for cooling for us, but it looks as though our season will be shorter than expected!

We had our heatpump replaced with one that has a chiller feature. (It was in our pool contract but PB goofed)To tell you the truth we haven't used/needed it yet. We like taking a bath in the big tub. ;-) LOL May try today as it hasn't rained in a few days now and supposed to hit 97 in the Orlando area.

After my post above about our pool being too cool despite having solar panels......blushing with embarrassment.....I have to admit that the solar installers had left the solar valve closed!!!!After a few hours of solar heating this morning the pool was 93 degrees, so I shut the solar off. We swam this evening at 92. It was wonderful!
Sorry guys, I really am a newbie at this!!!!!