My dirt is heavy hard clay with a heavy Bermuda grass lawn. I cut out the bottom of the pool and left about 18 inches of the bottom attached around the edge, otherwise the the sides will kick up and everything run out under the sides. After I filled it up, I realized too late that I should have turned it inside-out, so that the pale blue inside would have been the outside. I've sort of grown fond the the little fish on the sides now. ;-) I grew the tomatoes like this last year with just compost. The compost held lots of water bit it still dried out really quickly once the vines got big. Before I set out my plants, I added three 25 pound bags of Wal-Mart Special Kitty Natural Litter to each bed. I scattered it on top and then scratched it into the top bit of compost, and it has settled further in as I watered each time. It holds tons of water and the extra water retention has really helped this year. I had a few determinant tomato vines that had finished fruiting, so I replaced them with some new transplants about a week ago. The roots had gone at least 6 inches into the underlying clay soil. Before I filled the beds last fall, I mowed the grass as short as I could cut it, I then covered the turf with 2 layers of flattened cardboard boxes to smother the grass. The worms and microbes had left no sign of the grass or cardboard in only 9 months. My basil and peppers are about 3 feet tall now. I'm permanently disabled and live on Social Security, so I was looking for something for raised beds that was really, really cheap. Cedar 1x6s lumber would have cost me about $100 for raised beds that were 16 sqft. Before I started using these pools I was growing tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. The 6 foot pool is 15 inches deep, which is almost as deep as the buckets, but gives more horizontal space as well as roots going down into the soil underneath. If you've got some space and not much money, I could not recommend the pools enough for raised beds. I was not sure at first if the round beds would be a problem, but the really work well. On Victory Garden recently they showed a community garden in San Franscisco where they used straw-filled burlap bags to form the border of their round raised beds. There is a picture below. They were really nice because you could knell or sit on them to plant, weed, and harvest.

Total watt consumption is not the formula of volts x amps = watts. It's a good estimate but not true. Motors have a power factor that needs to be considered. Most are .85-.95. your formula is then multiplied by that factor and then that is not even accurate without a clamp on watt meter. The uprate is a scam to confuse you. Motors are "uprated" or "full rated". What you are interested in is the TBHP or total brake horsepower. That number is nameplate HP x the nameplate service factor or SF. A 1.5 JHPU is a 1.0 JHP. A 2.0 JHPU is a 1.5 JHP and so on. Uprates have a low service factor so a 1.5HP uprate with a SF 1.3 = 1.95HP. Full rates have a high service factor so a 1.0HP full rate with a SF of 1.4 is a 1.4HP. Pretty much the same and the same cost. That is why you see them together on flow charts. The 9amp full load draw is on start and I can guarantee you they all pull about twice that for a second or two before settling in to the other amp rating which is running amps. The 1.5JHP is rated 18.4 on start and 9.2 on run. The 2.0 JHPU is rated the same. On your math, it needs corrected. 19kw at .10 per is 2.05/day or about $60/month as you say later.

Can anyone advise me on my problem? I have Jandy filter, 2 Jandy pool lights and 1 Jandy spa light. After only 1.5 years both pool lights in the pool went out within days of each other. My pool guy is impossible to reach and difficult to deal with, but he finally said he’d replace them if we buy new ones. So we paid him for 2 new lights (Pentair Intellibright) for $1,700. I asked him why he didn’t get us the Jandy like we already had (that changes to 17 or so colors) and he said it doesn’t matter and there are better. Well..... long story short — his guys were here and cannot pull the wires out to install the new light. I don’t know why and neither to they. So they cut the light out with about 3” of wire and the other end is just a dangling wire in the pool. He says he’s done and they cannot Pull it — it’s stuck. We are trying to get someone else but don’t know if we should get the Jandy lights instead. It will be impossible getting our money back for these lights We use aqua link app to work pool lights, filter etc. are these Intellibright compatible with our app system and Jandy spa light. I am so disgusted and maddened bec we spent a fortune on our pool, patio etc. and we are stuck. P.S. another company first came when we saw the lights didn’t work and they also could not pull the wire through. The piping is underneath our new stone patio. And advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

As for security... There are generally three types of home burglars. Impulse burglaries (opportunists) - These are generally people who decide to burglarize upon seeing a target rather than looking for a target. This are the bad neighbor burglaries when kids are walking down the street and upon seeing an open window decide to crawl through it. Convenient burglaries (scouts) - These are people who scout areas looking for easy to burglarize targets. Their intention is to burglarize someone and they look around for a target that meets their specific needs. Cased or planned burglaries (prowlers) - These are choose the target based on the likely reward and risk of getting caught and familiarize themselves with the property or family to maximize the reward and minimize the risk. The first two types account for most burglaries and are generally easier to discourage with things like thicker doors and good lighting. However, thicker doors and good lighting do nothing to discourage the third kind. It only takes a few seconds and a pipe wrench for a knowledgeable person to enter a home, if they don't just walk to the side and break a window. Only things that reduce their time in the house or increase their chances of being prosecuted are real deterrents. Since they make up a much smaller percentage of burglaries they are under-represented in studies about "the most effective" deterrent. However, they also represent the greatest losses. Also these claims have a lot of confirmation bias... most burglaries occur when thieves enter the front or rear door, and most houses have inadequate doors, therefore bigger doors would help stop them. However, there is little evidence that those thieves wouldn't have broken a window if the door was thicker. We know that alarms and cameras deter all types of burglaries. It is the only system that does deter all types, it doesn't mean you are burglary proof but that is how statistics work.