88 WATER INSULATION:SPN Master pages 14/7/09 14:04 Page 2
spnfeature
An outsider’s
VIEW
Eric Lowe is an enthusiastic pool owner. An
engineer by trade when he decided to own a
swimming pool he researched the trade in
great detail. He has been so thrilled by
his purchase of a pool cover and the
way it maintains energy savings he
couldn’t help but share his story
of my pool in order to reduce heating costs. You do lose a bit of temperature on
I have since early February and to date, non-sunny days, but of course I do not run
followed a proactive process to heat my the pump on these days. However I
pool, ONLY USING SOLAR GAIN from the believe that because this is a gradual
cover. The boiler to date has not been used. heating process, what you actually achieve
The process in the pre-season is: is to heat up the surrounding ground
Run the circulating pump only, when all around the pool and feed / return pipes.
of the following conditions are met: This means that on non-sunny days you
A The ambient temperature is equal to only lose a limited amount of heat from
or greater than the pool water the cover, not into heating the surrounding
temperature. Even 1°C differential will ground as the ground reaches the same
work and which is often in my temperature as the pool. This is why it
experience takes so long to heat a pool when you first
am a private pool owner and four years B The sun is on the majority of the pool, open it up and why the boiler runs for so
I
ago I had a 30ft x 15ft in-ground tiled ideally 100% or a bit less long after the pool is up to temperature as
pool of 16,500 gallons built by Gunton C There is no water on the cover as this it is losing a vast amount of heat warming
Pools, Essex and fitted with an would cool the pool by evaporation. up the ground!
undercoping Dripool cover of dark blue The cover should be clean. Note: I also tend to use this proactive process
colour. When purchasing a cover it should be during the season where possible, as it is
There is much said about the many of a dark colour to maximise the solar not sensible to have the boiler running on
advantages of all season safety covers. gain effect. Mine is dark blue dull days and never at night, heating up
However, there is one great advantage deliberately selected for solar gain the World!
that has never to my knowledge been D There is little wind, as this will cool On a number of occasions in previous
mentioned, that is to be pro-active in the the cover summers my pool which I run at 29°C has
operation of the pool. risen to 32°C from solar gain, which is what
I am an energy consultant in the power Using this proactive process this year my lead me to develop my proactive process.
industry so take a very close interest from pool temperature has gone from 5°C to I look forward to others in the industry
an engineer’s point of view in the running 17°C to date from solar gain ONLY from contributing, as I would just like the
of my pool which I do completely myself. the Dripool cover. This represents a huge ‘private user’ community to gain from my
Over the years I have experimented heat gain, with the only cost of running the experience. spn
with the heating of my pool. I have a circulating pump and without the use of
condensing gas boiler of 43kW which any solar panels. I believe with panels I
serves my house and the pool via a could heat my pool with little if any use of
CONTACT
stainless steel heat exchanger. my boiler. Any solar panel manufacturers
envelopeback eric.lowe@o2.co.uk
This season I have refined the operation please note!
88 swimming pool news AUGUST 09 Digital edition available at www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
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