A private residential pool in the Midlands, which won Rockingham Pools the 2014 Sustainability Gold Award in the Swimming Pool and Allied Trade Association annual competition, makes an excellent ‘case study’ for Rockingham and Heatstar.
The owner of the pool had already built his adjacent house to a high specification. However, he had insisted that the house should be designed with low energy consumption and sustainability as key features. It was also therefore essential that the pool’s ‘green’ credentials should be at the heart of the project.
The pool which Rockingham and their architects designed, was an intelligent marriage of aesthetic beauty combined with state-of-the art sustainable features and the best energy efficiency available. Even the dramatic lighting, which the SPATA judges commented on, was low energy LED powered by PV solar panels during daylight hours.
Other sustainable features incorporated in Rockingham Pools design included a variable speed filtration pump, a highly insulated pool cover, cartridge filters and pre-filters to reduce water consumption and the installation of power usage meters. A salt chlorinator was also fitted to reduce chemical usage.
However, one of the most impressive pieces of energy efficient equipment to be installed was the Heatstar Gemini 3000 Superplus environmental control unit. This convenient ‘all-in-one’ environmental control solution was designed for all those looking to incorporate a source of genuine renewable energy to provide efficient heating for both the room air and the pool water.
The Gemini contains twin heat pumps – an integral aero-thermal fresh air source heat pump and also a combined dehumidifying/ expelled room air heat pump. The unit also features the latest fan technology including a Blue EC ultra- efficient digital inverter fan system and ‘Auto fan’ intelligent air recirculation fan management.
Rockingham Pools commented that, in addition to its efficiency, energy saving and reliability, a Gemini unit was chosen because of Heatstar’s ability to tailor make its units with ‘sectional splits’ where installation access is limited – particularly useful in this case as the plant room was situated in the basement.
