Chapter 12 - Swimming Pools

Abstract

This chapter discusses water conservation opportunities for swimming pools. Swimming pool water is an expensive commodity given the fact that a large body of water needs to be continually pumped, treated, filtered and backwashed and then heated to temperatures. Councils, leisure and fitness centers, hotels and most motels all have swimming pools. In indoor pools the air needs to be ventilated. For this reason swimming pools consume two to three as much energy as an air-conditioned office building per square area. The typical average energy use in sports centers with pools and dry sports centers are shown. It becomes evident the energy consumption of swimming pools is two to three times per square meter. Twenty-five per cent of the energy is used to heat pools to maintain these temperatures and another 53% of energy is used for space heating in indoor pools. The typical breakdown of water usage in large public swimming pools which show, retrofitting showerheads and minimizing leakage will have a significant effect on reducing water use. Data indicates that 33% of the water usage can be reduced by instituting good management practices. Water conservation opportunities for swimming pools consist of: reducing leakage, installing water-efficient taps, showerheads and toilets, reducing backwash frequency and time and reducing pool evaporation.