Australian Aquatic Centre Reports
Richmond Recreation Centre- City of Yarra
City of Yarra contacted us to prepare a case study for the Richmond Recreation centre in inner Melbourne. This site is the oldest aquatic centre in Melbourne starting out as a swimming pool in 1897 and the current indoor structure being added in 1936. The site is heritage listed so this presents issues with any upgrade, and the site is very limited for space with only a 2.4m laneway to the south of the building available for any plant.
Being an inner city site this aquatic centre has very limited space around the building and many visitors to the site will walk, ride or catch a tram.
The centre is currently using gas for heating and the pool water and HVAC system for the pool hall is also gas powered. The council was looking to ‘go off gas’ to see what sort of efficiency gains could be made and what it would cost.
Amna Abdallah the Sustainable Energy Officer was driven to get accurate data for the centre to enable the council to make decisions on what system to install. This attention to detail was of great benefit to the discussions as there are many variables to consider when attempting a retrofit on a site such as this.
Download the report – click here.
St Albans Aquatic and Leisure Centre
Brimbank Council is in the process of building a new aquatic centre at St Albans and we were asked to supply a report investigating the viability of high efficiency heat pumps for the centre. This report was to counter a previous report the council had commissioned that concluded that a gas system was the best solution for the site. The report that we produced is extensive and goes into detail about the changes required in changing over from a gas system and the also the integration of thermal storage tanks, solar PVT and other energy efficiency solutions.
Download the report click here.
Aquatic Centre Energy Reports
The rise in gas prices in 2018 for councils in Australia resulted in councils revisiting the question:
‘HOW can we reduce the energy consumption of our aquatic centre’
Aquatic centres using gas as a heat source consume large amounts of energy with corresponding large maintenance bills. There are better alternatives to gas systems and we have been working with councils to evaluate the energy efficiency of these centres and where savings can be made for existing and proposed centres.
We have also been working on some hypothetical ‘ultimate designs’ for aquatic centres with particular reference to the high efficiency aquatic centres that have been developed in Lunen and Bamberg 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.
Contact us now about an energy efficiency report for your existing or planned aquatic centre.
