Mary Has anybody got any experien

Mary
Has anybody got any experience in reducing heat-losses in indoor swimming pools. My main concern is the pool flume which travels outside the building where outside temperature may reduce to slightly below freezing. I am particularly interested in high grade material of construction or types of insulation which may be available but these must be aesthetically pleasing. I would very much appreciate any advice that you might have.
Thank you
Mary

 

[Flareman]

This is certainly not my area of expertise but I'm sure I have seen some "esthetically pleasing" floating pool covers made a little like bubble wrap. I would have thought a pool supply house would know about this sort of thing.

Good luck!

 

[jherbert]

Hi,

Assuming I understand the question correctly, you are concerned about the flume water freezing?

Lets assume during operation:

1. Flume water supply would be say 29 Deg C?
2. Flume is typical construction enclosed tube GRP
3. Flume is self draining

Water flowing down the flume, at say 28 deg C, over a distance of xx metres thou external tubing would freeze ?

Freezing is likely if external conditions are sub zero, when the flume is not operating (say over night or during maintenance shutdown) the small quanities of water trapped in between the flume joints have the potential to freeze.

Insulation will only slow down this process, you need to work out the exposure time, to size the thickness of insulation or alternately consider trace heating.

Whichever option you chose it must be protected from the elements, otherwise it will become a maintenance nightmare.

Regarding pleasing appearance.........hmmmm.....Ask the flume manufacturer, or another GRP manufacturer to fabricate a "colourful" tubular cladding to fit over the flume tube.

hope this helps

 

Thankyou jherbert for your response. I found it very useful. I also have a concern regarding the air within the outside section of the flume. To prevent this cold air (during the night for example) from escaping onto the pool surrounds, I have placed an airtight 'bung'into the end of the flume. This results in the 'wind tunnel' being eliminated when the flume is not in use. However, on opening the bung, all this very cold air escapes into the pool and surrounds. To reduce the severity of this I entend to insulate the outside section of the flume, but I am unsure as to the most suitable material to use. From speaking to the flume manufacturers, one option is to fabricate a second outer (thinner) flume to cover the initial flume. Some type of insulation could then placed in between. This obviously will result in a cost which is far too high in relation to the potential savings which may be achievable.
Any help/suggestions you may have would be very much appreciated.

 

[IRstuff]

Given that the flumes are semi-rigid, the simplest insulation is probably to leave air in the gap and segment the gaps to eliminate convection, kind of like bamboo:
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TTFN

 

[jherbert]

More info is needed:

1. Is this existing or new premises?
2. What is the linear length of external section of flume?
3. What are the internal design conditions?
4. What is the night setback?
5. What are exteranl design conditions? when does sub - zero occur ? just overnight?

If the external flume is short, placing a "bung" in the top, will serve little purpose - and will not prevent "wind Tunnel" - convection alone within 1m dia, tube will circulate colder air into the space. And in reality, the staff will forget or loose it inside the first six months.

For heat loss/ gain purposes, the external flume is only an extension of the external wall area, with a much lower thermal resistance - remember without effective insulation condensation will acculumate on the flume surfaces.