The benefits of a pool slatted cover

During times of ever rising costs and greater consumer awareness of the world around us, providing a simple way to save energy, reduce expenditure and help the environment is always going to be a good thing.

Utilising a slatted pool cover system as a water heating source, that harnesses energy directly from the sun, provides the most effective energy efficient and environmentally friendly method of heating a pool. 

In a 24 hour period where the sun shines for 8 hours, the average solar energy available equates to 164 watts/m². At peak times of year, this figure can reach as much as 300 watts/m². So, in a standard 10m x 5m or 50m² pool, there would be 8.2Kw of energy on an average day and 15Kw at peak times available to harvest and turn into heat energy to apply to the pool water. 

Taking this ‘free’ heat gain and combining it with an additional source of heating ,like an air source heat pump, gas boiler, electric heater, or other powered method of heating the pool, you can reduce the running costs significantly compared to using these powered heat sources alone.

Once up to temperature, preventing heat loss from the pool is an important factor and something which should ideally be considered at the design stage. The problem with heating water throughout the day, is much of the heat energy put into the water to bring it up to the desired temperature, can easily escape from the water surface in the form of evaporation. This is where a decent pool cover, like Hydrodeck, comes into its own; trapping heat, lowering evaporation rates and ultimately saving money. 

Evaporation accounts for around 85% of the heat loss from a swimming pool. Whatever modern material is used to insulate the pool shell during its construction, this only tackles a small fraction (15%) of the overall heat lost from the pool water. By installing a slatted pool cover and preventing the evaporation, you can reduce heat loss by up to 85% when the cover is in place.

It is estimated that over 70% of pool water lost is due to evaporation. In addition to water loss, this can also lead to an excessive consumption of swimming pool chemicals. A slatted cover system can prevent up to 95% of water evaporation from the pool which results in both less water wastage and less chemicals.