Simplified explanations: Oxygen is a diatomic gas. Two atoms will share the outer electrons to form a weak bond forming a molecule. It's chemical symbol is O2. When heavily charged, a 3rd Oxygen atom may join the party to form O3, aka ozone. This gaseous ion will reduce organics and oils into inert and harmless inorganic compounds that bio-baddies can't eat. It doesn't last long from the time it is generated to the time it breaks down. It is injected on the suction side of a pool's pump. By the time it meets the device adding chlorine at the end of the equipment pad, that which don't do any work will have will have broken down back to O2 molecules. UV is Ultra Violet light. Circulating water passes through a vessel that has a special light bulb that creates a specific light frequency that changes a bio-baddie's DNA so that it can't reproduce. Chlorine then kills the bio-baddie. UV leaves no residual. Once the water leaves the cell, the work is done. Both can reduce the amount of work chlorine needs to do but for the vast majority of residential pools, it isn't needed due to the lower levels of organics, bio-baddies, surface area, and bather loads. Of the two, I prefer a good UV system. It stops the reproductive cycles of bio-badies, some of which are, while rarely found in a residential pool, chlorine resistant and fast reproducers. It also has fewer servicing needs than an ozone generation system. Ozone, like chlorine, can be hard on plastics over time. This can and does lead to parts breaking. Scott

Wish I could help with the equipment. I don't have a heater and just took what they offered with the pool. I have a Jandy stealth pump, a nature 2 Fusion Soft salt chlorinator, and a simple polaris 280 vacuum robot. I really wouldn't recommend the polaris. It messes up all the time. the wheels get hung up and won't turn. I have to pull it out of the water and turn the wheels until it decides to start working on its own. I'll probably have to buy something else this summer. BTW, I still can't get in my pool because the water is still too cold. My friend's pool is warmer and they have already started using theirs. I have shade in my yard and she doesn't. I am drooling every time I look out the back door. I can't wait. The color you picked sounds good and I'm sure it will turn out great.

The Intellichlor will work fine. It is intended to be continuously powered on. The bigger problem you may have is that when using the Intellichlor without the Intellitouch personality modules, you can only set the output in 20% increments. Since you are using the VF, I presume you want to run it at low speed to take advantage of the energy savings. So the Intellichlor will basically be producing chlorine for at least 20% of the extended run-time of the pump. Unless you have a very large pool, you will probably be producing much more chlorine than you need, especially if you're trying to maintain lower-than-normal levels. I think that until you get your Intellitouch fully operational, you should buy yourself a timer. I believe there are outdoor-rated Christmas light timers that may be showing up in hardware stores by now. This would probably be just fine as a short-term solution. Once you get the personality modules, the Intellitouch should communicate with the Intellichlor, at which point you will be able to set the output in 1% increments. I have a 13K pool, and my Intellichlor is normally set to between 12-15% depending on bather load. On occasion, I may need to set it higher than 20%, but at least I don't have to make the quantum leap up to 40 or 60%

Daisee, Why don't you just splurge and go for a one time pool heat for a week or two and enjoy the pool before the real winter hits? You'd be shocked how warm high 70's feels after you've been in the water for a few minutes. It feels even warmer if the outdoor temps are less than 65. I hate 76 to 78 unless the outside temps are 10 to 15 plus degrees or less, then it feels awesome. Before I built the pool I now have I used to maintain a mid 70's temp and swim year round in SE Texas. With the size of our new pool I can't afford to keep even a mid 70's temp through the winter. I'm curious, what part of the country are you in? See ya, Kelly