Energy saving options to incorporate at your facility.
Energy conservation is a key factor in the analysis of your swimming pool mechanical systems. Focusing on making these improvements will allow you to improve your overall aquatics facility operations.
Swimming pool covers provide one of the fastest paybacks for your investment dollar. If you use either a thermal pool blanket or one of the lighter solar covers, you will insulate your pool from the effects of wind and air temperatures. These cause your pool or spa to lose heat. Many operators find they can save 50% to 70% of the costs to heat an outdoor pool and 25% to 40% on an indoor pool. Also, for safety, all pool and spa covers need to be removed when the facility is open for use.
LED light fixtures and LED replacement bulbs will reduce the power needed for your pool lights. The LED light fixtures can replace your existing incandescent light fixtures. These LED fixtures use only 45 to 55 watts of power to produce the same lumen output of an older 300 to 500 watt fixture. Further, the life expectancy for the new LED lamp can be as much as 11 years, versus only about 10 months for an incandescent lamp. The added life of the lamp will save you the cost of your labor time and the cost of the bulb each time you need to replace them. The benefit of the switch is the money you will save every minute your light fixtures are on.
New multi-speed, high efficiency pumps allow you to select the speed of your pump to reduce power consumption, instead of allowing a pump to run full speed 24 hours a day. This new multi-speed pump technology has been around for years but is now being applied in our swimming pool environment. A new Department of Energy regulation went into effect on July 19, 2021, requiring smaller pumps to meet minimum energy efficiency standards. Most pool pumps with a horsepower rating of under 5.0 THP will be required to meet those energy standards. This change applies to single phase motors only. Three phase motors are excluded.
Pool and spa heaters are another focus area utilizing new technology to reduce energy consumption. New high efficiency heaters are available that can be up to 98% efficient. Many of the older atmospheric pool heaters in use are only 65% to 82% efficient. Changing to a higher efficiency pool heater or boiler can help reduce facility gas or electrical consumption. Furthermore, there are new indirect pool heaters that use a separate heat exchanger to keep the corrosive pool water away from the expensive heater components. This closed loop system helps with the payback calculation, and ensures longer heater and boiler life.
We all have an opportunity to help conserve energy. These are only a few of the energy saving options available. Most products you can select have very quick returns on investment, making the choice to purchase any of them much easier.
