Cactus dude, its all good. If you're not familiar with mid Atlantic and Northeast Beach culture, its radically different than going to a beach in California. California is more about day tripping to the beach. It's a year round beach climate and people go there to surf or picnic or watch the sunset. Here, our beach season is short. Businesses have three precious months to make money for the entire year. Rent is VERY expensive. Anything that sets you apart from your competitor or makes your place look more "beachy" will help make the season. Tourists generally don't do day trips either, as most of the east coast cities are a few hours drive from their favorite beach resorts. So visits are often in increments of every weekend, entire week's vacation or entire seasons renting a house (often year after year or generations). Repeat loyal customers are big business. The thousands spent on "disposable" palms can translate to hundreds of thousands for the beach club, bar, mini golf or restaurant. Same for the garden center that sold the palms and installed them. Growers too.

Do you have over 600 square feet of southern exposure roof top on the roof? Is it contiguous? Is it visible from the front? Many don't like seeing the array from the front. Is this a windy area? Windy locations require somewhat larger arrays. How long will the sun hit this area? How high is this area? Two stories is pretty much the maximum. What size is your existing pump? How far away from the equipment pad is the roof? How far is the pool from the equipment pad? Is the plumbing 1-1/2" or 2" plumbing? Lots to think about before you move forward. Scott

Don't use Kinney pools. We hired them and had nothing but trouble. They did install the pool but it took 6 1/2 months from the time we signed the contract and the time they put water in it. They never finished back filling. We had to take care of it. Below are some of the details if you would like to read: The entire installation was one problem after another. First they did not know we needed a soil boring test (the township said every pool in our county needs this test). This was an additional cost of $800. We had figured there would be some additional cost so we didn't make a big deal about it. It took 4 months to start the installation (14 days after the contract date). There equipment leaked oil all over our driveway and in the street. They never even attempted to clean it up. Next, the Cement truck used to pour the cement for the collar of the pool left tire marks and cement stains all over the driveway. Next, two and half months after they started the pool was installed but they never finished backfilling the pool. All calls to them to finish the job were not responded to. I had to get someone else to finish the backfill so the cement work could be done before the winter. From the time we signed the contract to the time they had water in the pool was six and half months. Other items not completed were: (1) They never came to do the final clean up. They left the yard a mess and I had to remove 7 pallets and all the boxes from when they delivered the pool supplies. (2) Never received and indoc (they were supposed to show us how to operate the pool). Lessons learned. (1) Read the contract carefully. There is fine print that states that they are not responsible for any damage they cause (which is why they never addressed our concerns about the damage they caused to our driveway). (2) in the contract do not agree to pay them the bulk of money until the job is complete. On another note, the salesman (Ed Kinney) will brag about all the Judges who bought pools from them to try and gain your confidence. DONÂT fall for it. There is much more to this story but I tried to keep it somewhat brief.

If you want efficient and expect to use the spa a lot, a heat pump for the pool and a portable spa is way more efficient, will cost less to operate, and the spa would be available earlier and later in the season than would be practical for the pool. While keeping a pool open today in your climate would, and I am sure you'll agree, be problematic, a portable spa like a Hot Springs, Jacuzzi, and Cal Spa, can still be used, even when it's cold out. The brands I mentioned are not an endorsement of any sort. I used them because they are well known brands only. I don't know how your property is laid out. My experiences with liner pools and spill over spas is not a course that I would recommend. They tend to pop out when winterized improperly or when the water table is high and someone is draining it, whatever the reason is. I own a liner pool. I would not do it on mine, though I can. Finding a mason that understands the weight support issues and know what he's doing with setting a tub correctly is another issue. If you were in Florida, souther California, or other area with a similar climate, then things might be different. Please remember, I don't sell pools or spas, I just fix them for a living. By helping people, I help myself. When people are given better information, they will typically make better decisions. There are a number of techs like myself and builders here that feel similarly. We also try to offset some of the damage that a few in our industry create because they have a lesser morals standard. I like to be able to sleep at night, at peace and look in the mirror in the morning and like who I see. Scott