70% pool and spa energy savings make an impact on global carbon emissions

Against the clock

Thirty seven seconds isn’t long is it? You can’t achieve much in that time; in fact a freediver can hold their breath for ten times as long. But 35 seconds is a long time for pool and spa energy efficiency specialist Powermaster. In 2011 alone the company has saved enough energy in the pool and spa sector to compensate for 35 seconds worth of global carbon emissions. When you think of all the factories belching out smoke and all the power plants burning coal to fire their turbines, 35 seconds suddenly seems like a long time.

Powermaster was responsible for reducing overall UK carbon emissions by 15,136 tons in 2011. This is the result of an electricity consumption reduction of 8,115,000 kWh units, which is the equivalent of £2,389,775 based on an average cost of 8.5 pence per kWh unit.

The savings are achieved by reducing electricity consumption at each site on which Powermaster works by up to 70%. This is done using a combination of variable speed drive control on pool pumps, heat transfer to maximise the heating efficiency of the building and the pool, voltage optimisation and a trademarked remote monitoring and energy efficiency product called IWEMs (Integrated Water and Energy Management).

The remote monitoring and reporting functions of this kind of technology are proving to be one of the biggest reasons that Powermaster’s customers invest. There is increasing pressure on pool and spa owners, particularly large chains, to prove how much they are reducing their electricity bills by and, as a result, how much carbon they are saving.

In fact, the UK Government’s Climate Change Levy is a charge on energy usage for business and the public sector introduced to encourage energy efficiency. Effectively, large businesses are taxed on their energy usage, so it makes sense to both reduce it and prove what you use.

Managing water quality and chemical usage is an additional benefit of the remote monitoring and reporting functions of IWEMs. For instance, because the system operates in real time it can alert you by SMS or e-mail that your free chlorine level has dropped with ten seconds of the event.

“Reducing energy usage both improves a company’s economic sustainability and allows it to contribute to the UK’s overall environmental sustainability,” explained Geoff Renshaw, a director of Powermaster. “Technology like variable speed drives and our IWEMs system is simple to implement, easy to prove and very popular. A 70% electricity bill reduction can make the difference between a profitable pool and a loss making one.”

It probably took you about 35 seconds to read the last three paragraphs of this article. In that time global carbon emissions were equivalent to those of a small UK town or city for the entire year. So 35 seconds is a long time and you can do something useful in half a minute. You can make the decision to make your pool more energy efficient, profitable and environmentally sustainable.