POOL SAVINGS
January 1st 2004 North Somerset Councils largest swimming pool has achieved a four-month payback on investment in energy saving equipment at its Hutton Moor complex.
Steve Hodges, energy officer, suspected the pools pumping and filtering plant were not optimally matched for the facilities.
He contacted the Melsmart Energy Centre run by Mitsubishi Electric for guidance. On inspection, it became clear that the pools filter pump motor, at 30kW, was hugely oversized for its duty. To reduce flow to the rate required for the filter, a control valve down-stream of the pump was set permanently at 80 to 90% closed.
The solution was to keep the control valve fully open and fit an electronic variable speed drive to the motor to slow down its running speed. This also means that backwashing the filters can be done automatically by having a plc in the control panel flip a few switches at set times. This saves a technician the arduous routine of manually opening and closing major flow valves. More articles from Mitsubishi Electric Europe: | 
