Benefit Comparision – Heatsavr vs Conventional Cover

Instantaneous comparison – night time – pool closed

A simple assessment might assume that when a conventional cover is in place it cuts out 100% of evaporation whereas in practise this is unlikely to be the case and 90% may be more realistic.

Independent evaporation tests have shown that Heatsavr can reduce evaporation by between 50 and 60%.  If we take the average as 55% then Heatsavr will be 61% as effective as a conventional cover – instantaneously.

Based on one conventioanl cover supplier’s assessment of the benefits of their product, the potential saving from utilizing a conventional pool cover on a 25 x 12.5m pool is £15000  Therefore, the comparative saving using Heatsavr, based on night benefit only is £9150  The annual requirement of Heatsavr for this size pool would cost around £1900, so the net saving using Heatsavr would be £7250

At this point a conventional cover supplier might state, incorrectly, that their cover is better than a liquid cover by a ratio of 2 to 1

BUT – THIS IS FAR FROM THE OVERALL PICTURE

Overall Comparison

Most commerical pools will be closed and therefore only able to accommodate a conventional cover for a maximum of 8 hours at night.  Heatsavr on the other hand is available 24 hours.  Admittedly when the water is particularly active the effect of Heatsavr will be minimal BUT the pool water doesn’t have to be completely still for Heatsavr to have some effect – it works to a greater or lesser degree dependant on pool occupancy/activity and during opening hours it could reduce evaporation on average by between 15 and 25%  So the majority of pools will still be gaining benefit particularly during quieter periods throughout the day.  The effect of this over the 16 hours or so per day should not be underestimated and should not only take into account reduced water heating but also the potential air treatment benefits.  For a typical leisure centre pool the cost of energy use relating to ventilation (fan power and heat loss) can account for over 60% of the total.  Even though air temperaature reduction may not be possible during the day any air handling system equipped with humidity controlled variable speed fans should automatically run at a lower average speed due to less moisture gain.

This will result in a twofold benefit:  1) a reduction in the average fan speed and 2) a reduction in ventilation heat loss.

Example:  a 20% reduction in fan speed reduces the electrical load by 50%  Applying this to two 10 kW fan motors means a total reduction of 10 kW.  Daily reduction in energy consumed over 16 hours per day is therefore 160 kWh which equates to an annual reduction of 58400 kWh.  Based on an electrical cost of 10p per kWh the annual electrical cost would be reduced by £5840

If as a result of the reduced fan speed the ventilation rate is reduced by 1.4m3/h then the average ventilation heat loss at normal pool hall temperature is reduced by 36kW.  Based on 16 hours per day this equates to an annual heat load reduction of 210240 kWh.  Taking into account a conversion efficiency of 80% on a gas boiler system this relates to a reduction in gas energy requirement of

262800 kWh.  Based on a gas cost of 2.5 p/k Wh the saving would be £6570.

I.E.  a total additional day time saving on gas and electricity by using Heatsavr of £12410, making a total day and night net saving of £19660 – plus adding a bit of day time saving on water heating too, could increase this to over £20,000

Amortizing the cost of a pool cover over its lifetime needs to take into consideration the cost of maintenance and the costs of regular cleaning to avoid bacterial build up problems which easily occur in a rolled up cover, as highlighted by all relevant health and safety authorities.  An annual allowance of £1500 for this would not be unreasonable.  This reduces the net saving of a conventioanl cover on the above example down to £13500

A situation where the overall benefit of a liquid cover exceeds that of a conventional cover by a ratio of 1.5 to 1

SO WHETHER YOUR POOL IS CURRENTLY WITHOUT A COVER OR YOU NEED TO REPLACE AN EXISTING COVER, A LIQUID COVER SHOULD BE THE SIMPLEST AND MOST COST EFFECTIVE SOLUTION

For more information on the different range of pool covers on the market, please click here. To get more information on our products and services please use our Contact page and see what our customers are also saying about Heatsavr and our services at our Testimonial page.

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