Swimming pool heating specialists
Sarah Vogler
December 14, 2008 12:00am Sunday Mail Australia
A statewide fencing standard for all pools, irrespective of a pool’s age and location, and the requirement of a pool safety certificate as part of a property sale where applicable, also will be investigated under proposed new legislation to be outlined by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh today.
It will be the biggest overhaul of the state’s pool safety laws in 20 years.
The move, which will affect all above-ground and inground pool owners across the state, comes as alarming statistics show existing laws have failed to significantly reduce the number of child drownings in Queensland pools.
Katherine and Andrew Plint, whose daughter Hannah drowned in their family pool last year, welcomed the new rules.
”This change will stop people losing loved ones to drownings,” Mr Plint said.
Today’s potentially life-saving announcement comes four days after what would have been the toddler’s fourth birthday.
The Plints launched Hannah’s Foundation in their daughter’s memory and have been campaigning for the changes since losing their two-year-old on October 4 last year.
”(But) this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Mrs Plint said.
”We would also like to see compulsory CPR.”
Mr Plint said he wanted insurance companies to look at giving discounts to homeowners who have their pools checked regularly.
Twenty-three children have drowned in domestic pools across the state in the past three years – two in the past seven days.
On Friday, Liam Allen, 3, drowned in a friend’s pool at Ipswich, while last Sunday, Townsville toddler Holly Roberts, also 3, used a plastic table to climb over the family’s pool fence and toppled into the water to her death.
Ms Bligh will today announce the formation of a pool safety taskforce of key stakeholders, including child safety and local government representatives, who will formulate revised pool safety policies to be put before State Parliament when it returns in the New Year.
Organisations including the Royal Life Saving Society of Australia, Kidsafe Australia, the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors and the Swimming Pool and Spa Association of Queensland, also will be invited to take part.
“We will be asking the committee a series of hard questions and their answers will lead to improved pool safety laws and new pool fencing standards that will be the best in the world,” Ms Bligh said.
Royal Lifesaving Society Queensland executive director Michael Darben praised the review as “a step forward.”
Keith Tognola, of Townsville, whose son Philip drowned in 2003, said he was glad the State Government had finally taken notice of the recommendation of the coroner investigating his son’s death.
“It’s a relief. It’s good to see they are doing something,” Mr Tognola said.
“There are just too many kids dying in pools.
”This (the review) has been a long time coming.”
The Premier’s announcement to toughen pool safety laws and clamp down on those who wilfully and accidentally violate them follows The Sunday Mail’s Safe Summer campaign over the past three months, calling for improved pool safety standards and increased awareness of the need for constant vigilance when children are near water.
Our Safe Summer investigations and reports put the spotlight on alarming levels of non-compliance of existing safety standards among pool owners around Queensland.
The campaign found as many as 40 per cent of the state’s 300,000 backyard swimming pools would likely fail a routine safety inspection, including thousands that have no working safety enclosure at all.
Ms Bligh said the pool safety advisory committee would be given a wide brief to examine all issues relating to pool safety, including the many confusing and conflicting laws across various councils.
Currently, there are more than 11 different standards in place for backyard pools in Queensland.
“The review will also address concerns that pool laws are not being adequately policed by local councils,” she said.
The committee’s report will be released for public comment before legislation is drafted, Ms Bligh said.
Swimming pool heating specialists
Swimming pool plea (Somerset County Gazette - By Lloyd Vaughan )
WEST Somerset lacks suitable facilities for local schoolchildren to learn how to swim, it was claimed this week.
Liz Stewart, who runs Otters Swim School out of Knights Templar First School, Watchet, said the area urgently needed a 25-metre pool with the required depth so youngsters could learn how to swim safely.
Provision for young swimmers has worsened in recent weeks following the shock announcement that Quantock Lodge swimming pool at Over Stowey was also set to close.
Mrs Stewart said she already had nearly 250 children in her ‘learn to swim’ programme but the latest casualty meant the number of children on her books looked set to rise further.
She said parents had already called her expressing an interest in her swimming group and was making arrangements to accommodate them.
Just last week the County Gazette printed pictures of the on-going demolition of Minehead’s Aquasplash swimming pool.
The Seaward Way facility closed in October 2007 after it sprang a leak and failed to reopen because the cash-strapped council could not afford running costs.
Mrs Stewart said pools at St Audries Bay Holiday Club and Knights Templar School where she teaches were ‘fabulous’ but lacked the size and depth needed to provide children with the highest level of tuition.
She added: “In West Somerset we are surrounded by water with numerous children and adults who don’t know how to swim safely.
“Knights Templar’s pool is fabulous but it needs a lot of work and funding, and then there’s St Audries pool which is only 12 ½m x 7m.
“We should spend all our energy and time trying to secure a 25-metre swimming pool here in West Somerset.”
Swimming pool heating specialists
Rebecca Adlington (We love her cos she’s a Derby fan!!!) says ‘I want to win’
Rebecca Adlington rips open a packet of cheese puffs and, with a blissful sigh, crunches her way towards a much darker and more interesting place. She talks quickly as she eats, paying homage to Strictly Come Dancing and her Jimmy Choo shoes before admitting how she would love to win tomorrow evening’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Adlington is funny and charming but, down in the cheese puff dregs, as words like “sacrifice” and “pain” start to crowd out the chitchat, it becomes possible to understand how a seemingly ordinary 19 year-old transformed herself into a sporting superstar by winning two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
Her anecdotes, drifting from the “lovely Gordon and Sarah [Brown]” to “beating my mum and Aldo Zilli on Ready Steady Cook”, are told with riotous good humour. But Adlington is far more interesting when she moves on to her real life, her swimming life.
“That’s why I would really, really love to win [tomorrow],” she says, “because I’m a swimmer. We all talk about the shoes and TV shows but it’s actually got nothing to do with that. It’s all about me and the pool. I think most people don’t understand what you have to do to swim at Olympic level. You can’t expect people to really ‘get’ it because they don’t see me in pieces just minutes before the biggest race of my life. They don’t see me when I drag myself up six mornings a week at 5am so that I can train so hard that I can’t even lift myself out of the pool.”
Adlington laughs, but her eyes glaze with concentration. “I’m a bit of a masochist,” she says. “I love the pain. As an athlete I feel guilty if I don’t push myself in the pool. That’s why I get such satisfaction after a fantastically hard training set. There’s such purity in swimming. None of us are doing this for the money, and before Beijing I was trying to live off £12,000 a year and pay for all my training expenses. You can’t do that so you go,” she puts on a girly voice, “‘Daddy - can you help me!’”
She now shares a flat in Nottingham with her boyfriend, the Scottish swimmer Andrew Mayor, but she and her father still argue over money. “We had another little thing last Saturday,” she says. “I went back to my parents to watch Strictly and I love Austin Healey. He’s brilliant. My sister phoned in a couple of votes for him and I said, ‘Go on, give me four votes for Austin.’ My mobile won’t let me call that number so my sister phoned in four more votes on dad’s phone. He got really stroppy. He said, ‘You’re costing me money, making all these silly calls!’ I took out £2 and said, ‘OK, dad, here you are! Get over it!’ I really went mad then. I voted 12 times for Austin - but he still got voted off.”
Adlington looks genuinely pained. “I love them to bits, these shows, but they’re all the same,” she says. “The favourite never wins. Everyone keeps telling me that I’m the favourite [in the BBC awards tomorrow] but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m not saying that to get the sympathy vote, but the favourite never wins; and can you actually imagine a swimmer getting it?”
In sporting terms it’s absurd to try and decide whether Adlington deserves tomorrow’s award more than the astonishingly gifted Lewis Hamilton, or than Chris Hoy, who won three Olympic golds as a sprint cyclist. But the BBC gong is ultimately a popularity contest, which is why the odds have narrowed in her favour at the expense of Hamilton, who lives as a tax exile in Switzerland with his pop-star girlfriend.
Adlington, by contrast, lives in Nottinghamshire. “We should get Lewis to come up to Mansfield,” Adlington says, grinning, “I’ll show him the sights.”
Of course, Hamilton dragged himself from a similarly unglamorous backdrop in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, to become formula one’s newest world champion. Hoy also laboured in obscurity for years before Beijing.
“I love Chris,” Adlington says, “and look at Ben Ainslie - who just won’t allow himself to be beaten in an Olympic boat. I sat next to him on the plane back and he was lovely. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Hmmm, Ben, you’re all man!
“I really think an Olympic athlete should win it this year, but when I first said that all the papers wrote that I hate Lewis Hamilton. I was, like, ‘What?’ I totally respect Lewis and he has had an amazing year. But the Olympics only come round once every four years and there’s no way Chris or me will be on next year’s shortlist. And you can bet that Lewis is going to win another world championship next year or the year after that.”
The bookies believe Adlington has inched ahead of Hamilton and Hoy - who will compete against each other tomorrow afternoon at Wembley in a gimmicky event titled the Race of Champions before being flown up to Liverpool by helicopter. Adlington is full of mock indignation when hearing that, in the event, Hoy will be on his bike and Hamilton in a speeding car as they “race” each other. “Why didn’t they build a swimming pool for me to bomb up and down while they’re on their bike and in the car? Hang on! What if they put me in a sidecar with Lewis? I’ll give that gorgeous girlfriend of his from the Pussycat Dolls a wave as we flash past.”
For all her easy humour, Adlington will face some of her own insecurities tomorrow evening. Even in the beautiful red dress she and her mum brought in Spain, and the gold Jimmy Choos the mayor of Mansfield gave her, “it will feel daunting. I’ll look a bit ‘minging’ next to Lewis’s Pussycat Doll. But I do love their new single.”
That very human vulnerability is different to the sickening doubts which engulfed her in Beijing. After Adlington had stunned everyone by winning gold in the 400m freestyle she endured a four-day wait before the 800m final - for which she had long harboured serious ambitions. Bill Furness, her gruff coach from Nottingham, told Adlington after the 800m heats that she would smash the longest-standing world record in swimming, which Janet Evans had set almost 19 years earlier.
Adlington shudders. “I told Bill not to say that. With 10 minutes left before the final I wanted to burst into tears. Then I thought I was going to be sick, or faint. I lay down, and Bill knows I never lie down. He says, ‘You all right, chick?’ He always calls me ‘chick’ and pats me on the head. ‘Bill,’ I say, ‘I’m gonna be sick.’ He says, ‘No, chick, it’s just your body getting ready to race.’”
Then, she says, with a little smile, “Something extraordinary happened. We were told to get to the call room, me and the other finalists, and up on the TV screen we watched Michael Phelps race that incredible 100m fly - where he won by the tip of his nail to get all eight golds. I forgot everything else as I watched him. I walked out afterwards and this calm came over me.”
As soon as she dived into the water, her nervousness turned to confidence. “I said to myself, ‘Let’s go for it - even if I end up dying in the pool.’ All the time, during racing, I’m thinking constantly, remembering what Bill shouts at me at 5.30 every morning: ‘Bring your right elbow up, keep kicking, focus on the turns!’ In the final I actually could see Bill. He had come down to the edge of the pool. Normally he’s churning his arms to encourage me and screaming, but this time, in the most important race of my life, he’s standing dead still. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God! What does that mean?”
Furness was simply transfixed, watching a performance from his protege that he would later compare to some of the epic Olympic swims by Phelps or Mark Spitz. “Oh God,” Adlington says, blushing, when I mention their names, “I don’t know about that. But I’ve never swum as well as I did that day. After 400m Bill threw away the split times he had been writing on a scrap of paper. He said, ‘She’s got it!’”
That “it” was her second Olympic gold and a staggering new world record, two seconds faster than Evans’s time. So even if Hamilton or Hoy beat her tomorrow she will survive the fleeting heartache because this has been a year like no other for Adlington. Five months ago few of us had even heard of her and yet now, on every trip to the shops, she is besieged by people who think that they actually know her. “We went to buy our Christmas tree at B&Q this week and you would’ve thought I was bumping into my best friends. I don’t know a soul but they’re shouting, ‘Hiya, Becky, how’s the training?’ Weird.”
It’s easy to warm to Adlington and her stream of anecdotes, in which she relates how she button-holed the beleaguered Brown at No 10 and grilled him on the best method of insuring her gold medals, and how it was suggested that the soon-to-be renamed Becky Adlington Swimming Centre in Mansfield might be called “Becky Baths” instead. “I turned down ‘Becky Baths’,” she says. “It’s not got quite the right ring, has it?”
She is at her most effusive when describing how, on a dreamy day a couple of months ago, on October 7, she and Mayor moved into a flat in Nottingham together. “I live with a boy!” she yelps. Adlington and Mayor sound lost in both the first flush of love and the brutal realities of Olympic training. Getting up together every morning at 5am, to be flogged by the decidedly unromantic Furness, might sound an unusual way of cementing a 10-month-old relationship. But having missed out on Olympic qualification in Beijing by a second, Mayor has moved down from Newcastle upon Tyne to live with Adlington and train with Furness.
“Andy might be 22 but he complains that he looks like he’s 12,” she says. “He doesn’t. He’s lovely and he’s working incredibly hard, just like me. We both can’t wait for the London Olympics. We’re swimmers after all.”
Adlington might be a celebrity now but, above all else, she remains a supreme athlete. For that reason alone, Healey owes his greatest fan at least 12 votes tomorrow night.
Life and times of an Olympian
• Born in Mansfield on February 17 1989, Rebecca Adlington is the youngest of three daughters of Kay and Steve
• At four she shocks her parents by jumping into a pool on holiday and, despite never having swum before, paddling safely to the side.
• Adlington and her sisters, Chloe and Laura, swim together at the Sherwood Colliery Pool in Mansfield
• The three girls are good enough to swim at national level but they all badly affected by glandular fever - with Laura ending up on in intensive care. Adlington’s sisters never swim competitively again, she recovers but fails to qualify for the 2006 Commonwealth games
• Further disappointment occurs when she suffers “a psychological meltdown” at the 2007 world championships
• In Beijing Adlington becomes the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908
• The Yates Bar in Mansfield briefly renames itself as The Adlington Arms. In September 2009, the Sherwood Pool will be reopened as the Becky Adlington Swimming Centre.
Swimming pool heating specialists
Boy drowns in swimming pool - New Straights Times - Adib Povera - 2008/12/13
LANGKAWI: What was supposed to have been a family vacation turned into a tragedy when a five-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool at a rented apartment at Kelibang here on Thursday.
In the 6.30pm incident, the body of Ahmad A’fif Iskandar Zulkarnine from Taman Seaview, Port Dickson in Negri Sembilan, was found floating in the pool.
The victim’s grandfather, 74-year-old Norehzan Maah, said his grandson and 10 other family members had earlier gone swimming in the pool.
“I was standing far from the pool when I saw my grandson floating. I immediately alerted my family members.
“A few workers of the apartment performed a cardiopulmonary resuscitation on my grandson, but it was to no avail,” Norehzan said.
He said his grandson was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after arriving at the Langkawi Hospital here.
Swimming pool heating specialists
Making Use Of Robotlike Swimming Pool Cleaners - December 13th, 2008 by Ada Denis
n the first place, note that in spite of how well you presume its possible to clean your pool physically, there are numerous things swimming pool cleaners get rid of when sanitizing swimming pools that you cant when you clean your swimming pools physically.
If you are anyone that does not always like sanitizing your swimming pool, whether physically or making use of robotlike swimming pool cleaners, then procure a swimming pool cover which you can utilize to cover your swimming pool, therefore cutting short the time you ought to clean your swimming pool.
I wonder why lots of folks still hire professional pool cleaners to clean their swimming pools when there are robotlike pool cleaners nowadays which they can utilize to attain similar quality sanitizing that swimming pool cleaners will achieve.
One of the fine things about Internet discussion groups where owners of swimming pools share thoughts concerning how care for their swimming pools is this - it is likely to come upon a pool owner there who might perhaps need to sell his or her pool cleaner at less expensive price; move and shop from such individuals, but see to it that the cleaner is compatible with your swimming pool. The very best method to do your own independent investigation on the particular kind of swimming pool cleaner to procure would involve visiting as many swimming pool cleaner review web pages as possible; from these kinds of review web pages its possible to learn a lot about what other people who have used these swimming pool cleaners have to say.
It is certainly true that those folks who utilize swimming pool cleaners, specially those folks who take care of the germs in the pools, are bound to enjoy a lot better physical healthiness than those men or women who dont; this is because numerous germs in the swimming pools can affect folks making use of the swimming pool and make them unwell. I always love putting my robotic swimming pool cleaner to function then staying aside to view it do its wonders; at such moments I am filled with a type of awesome feeling of surprise and applaud the tremendous efforts of the creators that produced this.
If you are amazed about the requirements of any swimming pool cleaner before purchasing, take a long look at the manual (which you can read on the Internet from the makers site).
I prefer to procure the add-ons and also replacement parts for my swimming pool cleaner from the exact same dealer or source that I ordered the swimming pool cleaner from; this makes certain they give me the add-ons and even replacement parts which are compatible with the precise kind of swimming pool cleaner I have.
From all the foregone its clear that the very best swimming pool cleaner you will get depends upon you; if you certainly take the time to search you will uncover the very best swimming pool cleaner to utilize; dont be like those persons who just settle for and utilize any kind of swimming pool cleaner without doing numerous searches.
Swimming pool heating specialists
All About Swimming Pool Design Ideas - Pool Paradise - Sawan - Saturday, December 13, 2008
When it comes to deciding to bring a pool into your yard, there is no bigger decision to make then the design of it. The design of the pool not only affects the beauty of the entire pool but also how well it will work within the yard space that you have available. The first thing you want to do is to think about how much of your yard you want covered by a pool and then you can work from there. It is also a good idea to think about the swimming pool maintenance that will be involved with the pool you pick out.
The bigger the pool, the more work that you are going to have to put into it. This is another reason why it is so important to think over several swimming pool design ideas.
design ideas that you think of should be thought about carefully so that you do not make any snap decisions and then later on end up regretting your decision. Also make sure that you talk over any and all of your swimming pool design ideas with your family to get their input. Not only could they have personal opinions to share with you but also they may think of something about the design that you did not.
Where To Find New Ideas For Your Pool
If you at a complete loss for any swimming pool design ideas, it is important that you start to look around for a little help. If you have any neighbors or friends that have had to come up with their own swimming pool design ideas on their own before, you could always ask them for a little help. If they are not able to help you or your simply do not like their ideas, there are still other ways to come up with some excellent swimming pool design ideas.
There are a lot of books, magazine articles, and Internet web sites that could give you plenty of swimming pool design ideas that you could think over. Take a little bit of what you learn from those places and you could then create your very own swimming pool design ideas. You do not have to sue exactly what you see everywhere else but by taking a look at someone else’s swimming pool design ideas you could come up with some excellent ones of your own that you could put in your own backyard.
Swimming pool heating specialists
Swimming Pool Heating - Posted by admin On December - 13 - 2008 - Hi-Temp NZ blog.
The Hi Temp Solar Pool Heater works as follows: pool water is pumped from your existing pool pump to the solar panels. The sun’s rays heat the water in the panels, then the heated water is returned to your pool. Seems kind of simple, right?
And it is. Check out their website for more information or read further
When considering a heat source for your pool, you only have to look up to realize the primary benefit of solar heat - it’s free heat from the sun! With uncertainty and rising costs in the power markets, the price for solar will not change. It will be free for life. Using your existing pump and filter, our easy-to-install solar pool heater ensures warmer pool temperatures, no monthly heating bills, and is proven to be the most cost effective way to heat your pool. Get the most out of your pool by extending the swimming season and have more fun–courtesy of the sun!
Our solar pool heater is so versatile, it can be put anywhere the sun shines. The ‘do-it-yourself’ kit is easily installed on the roof of your home or pool change room, off the deck, beside the pool or on the ground. The most durable and longest lasting solar panels on the market, our Santoprene® rubber is completely resistant to pool chemicals, harsh U.V. rays, cold Free State winters and the hottest Northern Cape summers.
Pool water is pumped using your existing pool pump to the Hi Temp Solar Pool Heater panels. The sun’s rays heat the water in the panels, then the heated water is returned to your pool.
Hi Temp Solar Products Inc.’s exclusive ‘12 Year Extended Warranty’ against defects in the solar collector panels, assures you many years of worry-free, low maintenance pool heating. When compared to heat pump warranties, our solar warranty provides long term coverage and ultimately, peace of mind.
Swimming pool heating specialists
Is Your Dog Likely to Jump into Your New Swimming Pool? - Free Pet Care Advice, Tips and Information - 13 Dec, 2008 -
All breeds of dogs can swim, but that doesn’t address the dangers of pools. When the pool isn’t filled with people, the dog will very likely join them, muddy feet and all. When no one is in the yard, the dog may decide to go for a swim, and won’t be able to get out of the pool unless there are steps provided that it can handle. Empty pools are especially hacardous to dogs that may not realize the depth of the hole into which they might jump. If your pool doesn’t have a dog-proof security fence, make sure the pup is confined in its run or in the house when not on a least.
So do deciduous trees, which are conveniently bare when you need lots of sun, and green when summer is hot. Also, the sun angles are different in winter/summer, so you can design fixed barriers which will let in more sun selectively in a single season.