Anybody flicking through social media feeds or a pool and spa installer’s portfolio will rarely see a pool or spa cover. Why? Because for the most part they distract or outright destroy the aesthetic the designer and client have sought to create. There are of course discreet pit mounted automatic pool covers such as Roldeck or Coverstar that do away with unsightly pool rollers, though what if the pool or spa design is intended to be a feature in its own right when not in use? This was the challenge presented to Aegean by a London based architect for a custom black mosaic swim spa with black Corian overflow channels that had to maintain its striking appearance at all times yet not break the bank or the planet with excessive energy use from being uncovered.
image credit: Roldeck.com
Coverstar image credit: Remco.com.au
Anybody flicking through social media feeds or a pool and spa installer’s portfolio will rarely see a pool or spa cover. Why? Because for the most part they distract or outright destroy the aesthetic the designer and client have sought to create. There are of course discreet pit mounted automatic pool covers such as Roldeck or Coverstar that do away with unsightly pool rollers, though what if the pool or spa design is intended to be a feature in its own right when not in use? This was the challenge presented to Aegean by a London based architect for a custom black mosaic swim spa with black Corian overflow channels that had to maintain its striking appearance at all times yet not break the bank or the planet with excessive energy use from being uncovered.
The architect asked about a liquid pool cover solution however, our past experience and immediately available literature on manufacturers websites led us to believe this would not be a suitable option for a deck level pool with the assumption that the cover would continually break and spill off the pool edges. We went back to the drawing board to redesign the pool without the overflow channel, however, skimmer filtration was ruled out on aesthetic grounds by the client and Aegean ruled out low suction only filtration on maintenance and water surface aesthetic grounds.
Stuck again, I called Brenntag, the UK distributors of HeatSavr to discuss our problem and was delighted to be told that HeatSavr would indeed work on a deck level pool if dosed in higher concentrations. HeatSavr works by covering the water surface with an invisible, odourless and tasteless layer of biodegradable molecules that prevent heat loss through evaporation. The structure of the molecules allows them to be easily broken apart when bathers are in the water but very quickly level out and lock back together when the water is calm. In order to function on a deck level pool, one simply has to increase the daily dosage rate to allow sufficient coverage of the water surface AND an amount that will be travelling through the filtration system. In this way, the number of molecules returning into the pool equal those that are being lost at the pool edges. Back to our original design then!
In the spirit of continuous improvement we are pleased to say we learned something new and wanted to share this knowledge that we ourselves were unable to find from online published materials. Aegean are happy to say that the HeatSavr liquid pool cover system is available on all of our custom swimming pools, swim spas and hot tubs. Even deck level projects!
View the HeatSavr leaflet here.