62-66 CONDENSATION:SPN Master pages 20/11/2009 10:36 Page 64
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“POOL COMPANIES ALL OVER THE UK HAVE BEEN
REPORTING RECORD NUMBERS OF COMPLAINTS AND
CONCERNS ABOUT NOT ONLY CONDENSATION PROBLEMS
BUT MOULD PROBLEMS IN POOLS LARGE AND SMALL”
more moisture in the air then the greater cooling, pool water
the problem,” he adds. heating and even
And it is the swimming pool environment now generate their
which clearly has the greater problems. own heat.
“There‘s not a lot you can do about the Adds Chris
surface area of the buildings without Michael: “The only
starting again. There is always the option control is on the air
of changing to double glazing or triple temperature and
glazing but the costs is expensive and not moisture. In
always the ideal solution.” swimming pools
Today the swimming pool people clearly like
dehumidification products available range to keep the air
from simple small dehumidifiers which are temperature high
mounted on the wall in the pool room to and to have a warm
advanced full climate control systems feeling when you
which are located in the plant room and get out of the
distribute air around the pool hall via a water.”
central ventilation duct work system. Chris said this is
As well as humidity control and active where one of the
heat recovery, these sophisticated systems keys to solving
can now provide air heating, ventilation, air condensation comes
in for indoor pools – a pool cover. An
ABOVE: The SP46W ‘through the wall’
dehumidifier available from Meaco is suitable
efficient good quality pool cover should
for pools up to 60 square metres
A pool cover is
be over the pool for 90% of the time, BELOW: The SP46W is also available as a
that’s assuming the people only want to
wall mounted unit
use smaller domestic pools for a few hours
essential to limit
at a time.
A dehumidifier can solve
condensation
the problems for most
domestic swimming
The task of trying to control pools.
condensation is a bad enough problem “Air comes into the
for pool owners. Without a pool cover dehumidifier and
it’s almost impossible. A pool cover will essentially acts like a
‘seal off’ the pool water surface, fridge. Air hits the
reducing evaporation and heat loss to a cold surface and
minimum. When a pool surface cover is removes the
in place, the pool room air can then be condensation from the
allowed to fall to a temperature below air and then recycles
that of the pool water without any it at approx 2 degrees
adverse effects. This is referred to as higher. The energy is
the ‘set back air temperature’. On pools not wasted and the air
where a conventional cover cannot comes out warmer.”
practically be used, to help with energy The key with the
use, it is worth considering a liquid humidity in the air is that the
cover, which acts as a partial less water molecules in the air
evaporation inhibitor whenever the the easier it is to heat the air. The cost of
water surface is still. running a dehumidifier far out way the cost
of heating the air.
There is, he suggests, a formula which
What is humidity?
can be used. Expressed as ‘% Relative Humidity’ this
If, for example, a 10 metre x 4 metre way of referring to the quantity of water
pool is in place then you have 40 sq in the pool room air is misunderstood
metres of pool surface. As long as you and misapplied. The Relative Humidity
have a good cover in place and the air is Level is an assessment of how much more
2%warmer than the water then 10 x 4 water the air can hold, before ‘saturation’
metre pool will need to deal with 50 litres and condensation will occur. Theoretically
a day. The calculation is 1.25 litres for 100% RH equals saturation, when the air
every square metre of surface water which can support no additional moisture. So, in
gives 50 litres. essence, the cooler the air, the less
“If you don’t use a cover it’s double that moisture can be contained and therefore,
amount.” condensation will occur sooner.
The other problem caused by all this
64 Swimming Pool News December 09 Digital edition available at www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
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