A numerical study on various heating options applied to swimming pools for energy saving

With the advent of human-induced climate change, an effort towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been a priority for many communities and households. Pool heating is highly energy intensive and it accounts for major part of energy bills and a large carbon footprint. It is important to investigate the possible ways of reducing the energy consumption of the heated pools. The pool selected for this study is a 25 x 18-metre swimming pool located at Central Queensland University Community Sports Centre, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. The pool maintained at a temperature of 28oC during the winter months by burning natural gas which causes excessive energy bill and ramps up the emissions of the university’s operations. A mathematical model of the swimming pool incorporating the weather data files and various heating options is developed using the software TRNSYS, adopting relevant Australian Standards. The model is to be used to study the various heating options such as flat plate solar collectors, evacuated tube collectors, photovoltaic systems, electricity-driven heat pumps, natural gas heat pumps. With the use of this model, this paper investigates the amount of natural gas cost that is reduced when applying alternative heating concepts that exploit renewable energy or higher coefficients of performances