Courtesy: S.R.Smith
Water evaporation is a major culprit contributing to a swimming pool’s high energy costs. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “Swimming pools lose energy in a variety of ways, but evaporation is by far the largest source of energy loss. Evaporating water requires tremendous amounts of energy. It only takes 1 Btu (British thermal unit) to raise 1 pound of water 1 degree, but each pound of 80ºF water that evaporates takes a whopping 1,048 Btu of heat out of the pool.” In addition, with the evaporating water goes costly chemicals used to keep the pool water sanitized.
Hands down, the best way to reduce energy bills is by covering pools when they are not in use with an edge to edge insulated cover. Nathan Templeman, Canby Swim Center Facility Operator in Oregon, explains “We put the covers on every night, and have been doing it for years. For our six-lane pool, it takes about 10 minutes to put on manually, and it saves on utilities and chemicals. The covers also help reduce evaporation that is hard on the HVAC system.”
Swimming pool water evaporation varies with environment and time of year. Air temperature, humidity and wind are all factors that effect water loss, so cost savings vary with pool location. However, whether the pool is indoors or outdoors, Energy Saver* studies show significant reduction in energy costs with pool cover usage*.
S.R.Smith EnergySaver Pool Cover helps reduce water and chemical evaporation delivering significant energy savings.
Thermal pool covers immediately start saving facilities money. In most scenarios, a facility can recoup their investment in a pool cover system in 12-16 months. Routine use of a pool cover can drastically reduce a facilities costs, typically:
- 70% reduction in heating costs
- 60% reduction in chemical consumption
- 50% reduction in water loss
S.R.Smith’s custom built Thermal Pool Cover Systems are designed to help aquatic facilities realize these cost savings. To limit the burden on pool staff to deploy and reel in the covers, manufacturers have automatic re-winders, deployers and storage reels available. S.R.Smith’s thermal pool cover deployer system can be operated by just one person. Get an energy saving quote on an S.R.Smith pool cover system
*Energy Saver is the U.S. Department of Energy’s consumer resource on saving energy and using renewable energy technologies. For specific examples of cost savings by geographic location go to: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/swimming-pool-covers.