ECO water treatment design from Devin

Swimming pool halls consume more energy per unit area than almost any other building type, typically using five times more energy than an equivalent office area.  A key factor is the energy required to treat the pool water.

As specialist designers, we recognise the opportunity to significantly impact the long-term sustainability of leisure facilities.  On our projects, we actively identify sustainability options, allowing the client to make informed decisions.

Through early identification and careful design, we can reduce:

• energy use
• carbon emissions
• water consumption
• chemical use
• human resource.

We are currently bringing our expertise on sustainable pool water treatment design on projects around the UK and Ireland, including at Blairgowrie, Alloa Wellbeing Hub, Samuel Beckett Sports Centre (Ireland), Harrow School and Farnborough LC.

To promote sustainable design and reduce utilities consumption, Devin applies its ECO water treatment design approach, taking full account of Passive House and PWTAG Net Zero guidelines. ECO is applied at two levels:

• ECO (Essential) – which is applied to every scheme
• ECO (Green) – which addresses up to 25 specific aspects of system design, including complete system head loss modelling, to provide for a fully optimised low-energy plant.

Over the next few months, we will publish a series of four concise articles that will look at the issues and approach to sustainable pool water treatment design, and then a fifth article on heat experiences sustainability:

• ECO water treatment from Devin – Targets, standards and guidelines
• ECO water treatment from Devin – Engineering
• ECO water treatment from Devin – Energy modelling
• ECO water treatment from Devin – Live project example
• ECO heat experiences from Devin – Sustainable design.

See our first article on ‘ECO water treatment from Devin – Targets, standards and guidelines’,  to be published on 28^th May 2025.