Swimming pool and domestic heating and heat pumps

This week the Intercontinental Hotel in Beirut is bathed in a beautiful mauve light, and it had nothing to do with exploding phosphorus bombs.

The lighting comes from the complex of new swimming pools surrounding the hotel which have just had state of the art LED lights installed, all supplied by Calyenty - the pool products manufacturer and supplier based in Girona Spain.

Some weeks ago Calyenty were approached by a UK based lighting consultant to provide a bulb which would project a specific purple shade of light which could not be sourced anywhere else in the world. We contacted our factory in China with the request and within less than six weeks the lights were installed and wowing guests staying at the Hotel.

LED lighting has several benefits over traditional bulbs, but are particularly attractive as they can project a variety of colours in addition to the standard white. This is perfect for hotels or other such commercial enterprises as they can create themes tailored for promotions and special events.

Calyenty LEDs come complete with a mini computer which can be phased to create several fixed colours such as green, blue, white, red and our now famous purple. They can also be phased to create bleed effects or even disco beats – great for parties.

LED lights are far more environmentally acceptable too, as each bulb only consumes just 15watts per hour compared to traditional bulbs which consume between 300 and 500 watts to generate a similar light output.

Our bulbs are PAR 56 which means that they are interchangeable with most standard swimming pool bulbs.  A common misconception is that it is necessary to drain the pool to change the bulb.  This is not true and any competent person can change a bulb in less than half an hour.

LED means light emitting diode.

Pool Covers.

Why is a pool cover such an important addition to my pool?

Pool covers are essential to a keeping an efficient and more useable pool for many reasons, but firstly it is important to understand the different types of cover that are available.

Summer covers. Summer covers are temporary in that they must be able to be removed simply and quickly when it is time to swim, usually by having the cover attached by straps to a roller positioned at one end of the pool. Summer covers are made from materials that have good insulation properties the most common being bubble or foam.

The main benefit from having a summer cover is that it keeps heat in the water, especially where a heater is used. Most climates experience a drop in temperature at night, frequently climates where daytime temperatures are high the converse drop when the sun goes down is greatest, making the use of a cover at night essential to retaining a high water temperature. This cover will also significantly reduce the amount of evaporation from the surface of your pool. This is often overlooked by pool owners, but during hot summers you can lose the equivalent of the whole volume of your pool through evaporation, which is hitting you in the pocket and is terrible for the environment. By cutting down on evaporation, you are also reducing the amount of chemicals that are needed.

Summer covers also reduce the occurrence of algae attacks and reduce the amount of debris entering the water.

Winter covers. Winter covers are employed where a pool owner closes the pool down during the winter. These covers are frequently referred to as debris covers or safety covers. These covers are usually made from a tough woven fabric and are fixed down overlapping the edging stones of the pool basin securely by straps to anchors in the hard ground around the pool. The main purpose for using these covers is safety, where if the pool is not being used and supervised it prevents anything falling into the water. They also prevent the build up of leaves and other debris while the pool isn’t being maintained on a regular basis.

Automatic covers address the issues for both summer and winter situations and have the convenience of touch button automation. These are more expensive, but look fantastic and really help to keep the health of the pool water throughout the year, keep the heat in and provide peace of mind safety.

see

http://www.calyenty.com

For more etails.

The Lib Dems are today up in arms and the attorney general, baroness Scotland (yep the same that passed the legislation outlawing Samoan cleaners without passports from being cleaners, then promptly employed one because she only cost 10p a day) is bringing action against Bae for unethical sales techniques - (A curry and a night at Spearmint Rhinos for a couple of Czech arms dealers) when securing massive arms deals abroad, citing that such practices brings into question the equity and fair-mindedness of the British when conducting business on the international stage - and that this will look bad and nobody will want to buy sausages or Scotch Whiskey off us any more.

Bae generates more revenue than any other UK company, and they build fighter bombers, fighter bombers that kill people, kill lots of people. Either we stop making killing machines per se, or we sell as many as we can and to hell with the ethics or how many pole dancers it takes to do it, if our politicians think they can have it both ways they are delusional.

Oh, I think one of the Czech arms dealers was offered a years worth of Chlorine for his 6m above ground swimming pool.

Why Heat Pumps for Heating Pools?

Heating the water is essential if you want to make the most of the investment you have made in your swimming pool. Extending your season and more comfortable swimming are just two of the good reasons for doing this. The challenge for any heating system is that an average pool contains about 50 tonnes of water and has a large surface area to lose temperature when the temperature drops at night.

The options you have are: direct electric induction heaters, gas, solar or heat pumps. Induction heaters are cheap to buy but incredibly expensive to run. Gas is both expensive to install and run. Solar is expensive to buy and maintain, challenging to install without major visual impact to your property and fails to warm the water when really needed.

It is now widely accepted that the only feasible option to economically heat a pool is to use a heat pump.

Why are heat pumps so efficient? They use a technology which has been around for several years, similar to that used in your fridge only in reverse. Recently this technology has been improved to make them even more efficient.

How can they produce up to seven times the calorific output compared to the energy they consume? Power consumption is only used to power a compressor and a fan. The fan draws surrounding air across a condenser coil. The energy from the air passes into the condenser coil which is then passed to the pool water via a heat exchanger.

Because a heat pump utilizes the energy that is already present in the atmosphere it is by far the most effective and economic way of providing warm water for you pool. We always recommend that a cover is used at night when the pool is not being used to keep all that valuable heat in the water.