Kent Williams

Kent, Get blog; there are so many people out there...

2009-02-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

Kent,
Get blog; there are so many people out there missing out on great energy and water savings simply because they don't really understand the benefits of pool covers. Going back a few years, the PPOA published an article on Liquid Solar Pool Covers, which covers many of the same points as your blog, but also shares the results of a comparison between using no pool cover, a plastic pool blanket, or a liquid blanket. Pretty astonishing; you can read it here: Liquid Pool Covers Save Energy
For more information, check out my lens.

Kent:I couldn't agree with you more. But you forg...

2008-12-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

Kent:

I couldn't agree with you more. But you forgot to highlight one very important point - indoor pools have the same evaporation heat loss physics as outdoors (except wind). But indoor pools use lots more energy because they are operated year round, thus can save more using blankets.

I am with Dynamo Swim Club in Atlanta where we own 5 commercial indoor pools. Five years ago, we installed big solar thermal systems (27,000sf) and applied blankets on all 42 lanes (28,700sf water surface). Our savings in each of the past four years has been almost $200,000 in gas (139,000 therms) and $27,000 in water (4.6 million gallons). We built a 6th pool this year, and total projected savings next year is $300,000. We find 70% of this is attributable to our "energy blankets," and only 30% of savings comes from the solar systems.

We have designed our own vapor barrier blankets, and payback is only a couple of months. Having studied the complexity of evaporation conditions and tracked the differences for over four years, we can safely claim we have reduced energy by 50%, water by 50%, chemicals by 50%, and emissions by 50%. No study was done for the corrosion prevention benefits. This is real green and clean environmental consciousness, but more importantly, the bottom line financial implications are HUGE and rewarding.

Chip Harvey

Great Post. Let me ask anybody who might know:All ...

2008-06-29T21:25:00.000-07:00

Great Post. Let me ask anybody who might know:
All of our pools were epoxy, they broke down in the sun which was a factor in our cloudy pools. Since we have painted one with an extremely expensive epoxy system from a Jacksonville Fl. company and the rest with a pool paint so cheep it is only expected to last 1 to 2 years. We wont know if the Jacksonville paint was worth it for another 6 or 7 years but maybe someone has some experience?