Chief Engineer reports that Premier Fitness has added a heat recovery dehumidifier to the 6,000-square-foot aquatics room at the center of its new gym in Oshawa, outside Toronto, Canada. The room features two large swimming pools, a 140 square foot whirlpool, a 60-foot-long waterslide, and a six-foot-diameter water umbrella.
The dehumidifier not only maintains a 50-percent relative humidity, but also provides a steady temperature in the space of between 82 and 84 degrees, using compressor heat from the unit’s refrigeration process.
This equipment is more expensive than a conventional HVAC system, but the club expects the more efficient unit to pay off in three years. “After the payback period, Premier will probably reap hundreds of thousands of dollars in saved energy costs by using a heat recovery dehumidifier for the next 20 years and beyond,” said energy and equipment consultant on the project Jeff Kinble.
In addition to the dehumidifier, the club has a thermal pool blanket which reduces evaporation by 90-percent when the pool is covered, as well as a night thermostat and outdoor air shutoff which will cut room heating and ventilation requirements by 20 percent during unoccupied periods.