Objective
To demonstrate the characteristics of different solar heating systems in 24 swimming pools; 17 open-air, 3 mixed and 4 covered. An average pay-back time of 5.5 years is expected for the solar installations. The energy saved is 76 TOE/y.
The results vary enormously from installation to installation. The thermal output is less depending from the local available solar energy than from the technical realisation and from the local agent as to control and maintenance. Most of the open air pools are only functioning from June to August. Most of the solar installations gave satisfaction to the involved management. The handling of the pool covers and its physical resistance was much more problematic than the solar installation itself. The repair and maintenance of the monitoring equipment was difficult and quite some data were lost during the second year of the monitoring campaign. Similar to the results all over Europe, the French solar installations demonstrated the use of unglazed collectors to heat open air swimming pools. For pools used only from mid June to the end of August a ratio of 0.4 solar installation to pool surface, seems to be high enough to keep the pool at reasonable high temperatures. During fine weather periods in July/August unglazed collectors can be used to warm the water for hot showers even if their efficiency is then not very good.
For the open-air pools unglazed plastic panels are used. For the covered and mixed pouls glazed panels have been chosen.
In each case the system has been designed for simplicity thereby reducing costs to a minimum.
Monitoring will be sufficient to carry out a global technical and economic assessment of all the pools however 18 pools will be the object of a more detailed campaign, allowing the analysis of the different parameters influencing the systems. The involved public swimming pools are mostly relatively small 250-450 m2 of water area. There are 6 different manufactors involved, two of them covering 80% of the installation. The sites are located all over France. The French Agency for Energy Control is contractor, the monitoring equipment was delivered by Veritas, a French energy consulting and surveying company. The monitoring was done manually.
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
06565 Valbonne Cedex
France