Ask Al

BY ALVARO G. MENDOZA

COMMERCIAL ENERGY SPECIALISTS, INC.

AS A 21ST CENTURY BUSINESS OWNER AND A SWIM SCHOOL OWNER WITH A LOT ON THE LINE, WE HEAR A LOT OF NOISE ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY. WHILE WE WANT TO HELP SAVE THE PLANET, WE ALSO DON’T WANT TO PUT OUR SCHOOL IN A BAD FINANCIAL POSITION OR SPEND A LOT OF UNNECESSARY MONEY. CAN YOU HELP DECIPHER WHAT MEASURES MIGHT MAKE SENSE FOR OUR SCHOOLS?

Welcome back to our “Ask the Expert” feature, designed to assist you with issues related to swimming pool water, mechanical equipment, space conditioning and code compliance. Ask a question, and we will try to answer to the best of our ability.

Glad to help. You’re right. It seems that every major corporation and municipality is trying to jump on the sustainability bandwagon, sometimes with some pretty ridiculous measures that really don’t substantially preserve resources. Sustainability can be defined as “the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.” We get it, but the “noise” level makes the entire sustainability movement confusing.

The good news is that there are 4 major reasons why swim school owners can confidently pursue sustainability measures in their schools.

HELPS ATTRACT AND RETAIN EMPLOYEES:

This may be a bit of a surprise to many, but research shows that a strong sustainability effort helps attract and retain employees, especially millennials. Employees of green or sustainable companies tend to feel better about their roles, and a green mindset has been shown to motivate employees as they generally feel more respected and part of a team. Generally, sustainable businesses are felt to care more about their customers and employees, and there is a heightened sense of fulfillment. Human nature dictates that when you enable fulfillment and you do good things, your team feels good about themselves, leading to higher job satisfaction, a leading driver for attracting and retaining staff. We can speak on this from personal experience with a substantial number percentage of senior employees having tenure from 15-40 years with the company.

SAVES SUBSTANTIAL RESOURCES:

Properly executed sustainability programs in swim schools can save substantial natural resources. This goes well beyond installing low flow showers or toilets that may save half a gallon per flush or installing LED lights, which operate at a substantially lower cost than traditional technologies. Besides these two proven technologies, there are substantial resources that can be saved in the mechanical equipment room too. The major categories for savings include: Water, Power, Gas, Chemicals, and Labor (yes labor).

OPERATES BETTER AND MORE EFFICIENTLY:

The optimum strategy is to provide energy saving technologies that improve operations at the same time. There are a couple of proven examples of these:

• Chemistry (mechanical system)

Control: Over the past 20-years chemistry control has evolved into a more complete resource for the swim school owner. The most popular solutions not only control chemistry, but also monitors system flow, operates the pool pump, provides precise water level control, monitor filter soiling, and monitor water consumption to avoid water-borne irritation, offering more savings and better operations.

• Pump Controls: Pool pumps are generally oversized by health codes, and one can save significant power by maintaining ONLY the precise flow required. Reducing pump output by 20% saves almost 50% of pumping costs. Better systems monitor filtration flow rate, and apply minimum power to maximize savings 24/7/365, adapting to soiling filters, dirty strainers, etc. Additionally, systems can be programmed for night-time off-peak flow reductions and can help the filters super-polish the water overnight, while auto-adapting to any issue that could cancel a morning lesson (cold pool, cloudy water, out-of-range chemistry, etc.)

• Permanent Drinking Water-Grade

Filtration: One of the more exciting technological breakthroughs in recent years, a simple switch to an “activated” glass media – made from recycled brown and green bottles – can convert a simple “sand-type” filter into a drinking water-grade filter system. Depending on the flow rate through the filters this gets the pool into a “sub-micron” filtration mode, unheard of in a simple-to-maintain filter vessel. Also, water savings from an efficient 1.5-minute backwash cycle normally exceeds 50% of normal water consumption, providing savings with better operations.

• Making Your Own Chlorine:

Pandemic-related events and extraordinary demand for PVC and consumer products – all made from chlorine – have dramatically increased the price of chlorine by as much as 100%. Pricing for muriatic acid, also made from chlorine, has exceeded 200-300% in some markets. Several proven technologies to make your own chlorine have been successfully used in leading swim schools for many years, and are based on saline technology, making the water softer while saving a lot of resources. • Recycling Heat: Heat in a pool doesn’t want to stay in the water and will consistently transfer into the pool room making it humid. A dehumidification system will recycle the warm, humid air putting the heat back into the water while removing humidity.

The owner can dial in direct set points for optimum air temp, pool temp, and relative humidity, and the system does the rest.

• Pool Covers: Pool covers, while they can be a pain to use, serve a great purpose in that they reduce evaporation to near zero during their time of use. This means that the dehmidification system run time is greatly reduced and that can save big money on electric and gas bills.

SAVES MORE MONEY THAN IT COSTS:

Many if not all the measures above pass the quick “does it make sense” test, in that they can pay their own way monthly out of savings they generate. That means that you could theoretically go the bank, take out a loan, install the measure, and more than pay for the loan out of savings in Power, Water, Chemicals, Gas, and Labor.

CONCLUSION:

Does it make sense for the swim school owner to pursue sustainability in their schools? There are hundreds of leading owners that will say it does. Careful implementation of the above measures has helped provide a “feel good” aura with patrons and staff alike, while the owner can also enjoy better water quality and simpler more streamlined operations at a fraction of the cost of a typical and more manual mechanical system. Caution, not ALL systems operate at this level of success, but the owner can carefully research alternatives, and proceed with proven technologies. Owners, patrons, and employees alike will be glad they did.

Please feel free to forward your questions and comments through the USSSA office, or directly to me via email at amendoza@ceswaterquality.com.

Best Regards, Alvaro G. Mendoza