With the Climate Emergency Action Plan, Councils, businesses, schools and the community across the country are collectively taking action to address the impacts of climate change, working collaboratively towards a more sustainable future. This much needed transformational change requires support in the form of a thorough review and assessment of where we are now and a review of the options available to show us where we could be in terms of energy efficiency.
Using gas as a heat resource is a big issue, especially for aquatic centres as large amounts of energy is consumed as well as corresponding large maintenance bills. There are far better alternatives to a gas system and at SmartConsult, we have been working with councils to evaluate the energy efficiency of these centres and looking at where savings can be made for existing and proposed centres.
We have worked on a number of hypothetical ‘ultimate designs’ for aquatic centres with particular reference to the high efficiency aquatic centres that have been developed in Lunen and Bramberg in Germany by the Passivhaus Institute. These centres have been closely monitored since 2013 and the results are clear: we need to rethink the design of these centres, how they are powered and what sort of integration of energy systems can be achieved to drive energy costs down for councils.
We have completed energy system analysis for St Albans aquatic centre (Brimbank City Council), Richmond Recreation Centre (City of Yarra), proposed Clyde Aquatic Centre (City of Casey) and a four-site review of centres for the Moreland City Council. These case studies allow us to put firmer numbers around the energy usage of these centres and give councils clearer reasons to make long term decisions about where they are spending their money if they are aiming to ‘go off gas’ in the future. To request a report for your aquatic centre, click here to contact us. To read more about what our reports include CLICK HERE to read more on how to make your aquatic centre more energy efficient.
Our detailed reports for both new and for retrofitting Aquatic Centres with new heating and cooling systems. The systems we are advocating allow councils and pool operators to go off gas and fully electrify their Aquatic Centres. Our reports show the comparison between the existing operating costs of the installed system and the proposed new electric system. Traditionally heat pumps have not been installed in the lower latitudes in Victoria, SA and Tasmania, due to outdated heat pump designs. The new heat pumps we recommend work well in these latitudes and provide a very acceptable level of efficiency.
The reports also include details of other energy saving systems including thermal storage, glazing and air Handling Unit efficiencies. Our innovative solutions cost a lot less to run that traditional gas system and if teamed with renewable energy lower the cost per kWh of heating and cooling per patron.
Our solutions allow Councils to meet their ‘Climate Emergency Action Plan’ targets by going off gas.
