Insulating a swimming pool

Obviously popping some polystyrene board down the side of a pool as its being back filled takes care of the sides, but is there any thing strong enough to stand the weight of a pool 7 foot deep? I.e., is there a product that i can install in the hole that i can build the pool on?

any suggestions?

Steve

Reply to
Mr Sandman
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Few layers of Kingspan?

Reply to
MikeS

Risky question for DIY.

Reply to
John

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Reply to
John

Yes around the side i suppose. Underneath i don't know if it'd handle the compression. Can anyone work out the compressive load of 2 meters of water? i.e. using supabloc 7, could it cope with the weight?

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Reply to
Mr Sandman

Huh? That's easy. A cubic meter weighs near as dammit a tonne. (varies with temperature, but not enough to matter) so you are getting 2 tonnes per square metre, 20KPa or 1/5 of an atmosphere. 3 PSI even.

What? The blocks are in N/mm^2! that's a barsteward unit if ever I saw one!

One Pascal is one Newton per square metre, so 7.3N/mm^2 is 7.3MPa. Those blocks are easily strong enough.

Whether they'll still insulate when they've soaked up ground water for a couple of years I have no idea.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Surely a bit dangerous to disregard the forces on the sides. Could lead to a massive failure.

Reply to
John

Supabloc7. Expanded Polystyrene or kingspan would be more than adequate with >100mm of reinforced concrete slab above it.

The force against the sides at the bottom would be similar.

Reply to
<me9

Isn't earth a reasonable insulator by itself?

Surely the biggest heat loss, and the one most difficult to insulate will be the top surface?

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Evaporation from the surface *is* tha major loss of heat from swimming pools. Even bubble wrap will reduce this considerably. Trouble is you can't swim in it then.

Air temperature should be maintained 1degC above the water temperature to keep the air from saturation. Condensation has ruined the structure of many

60s swimming pools (which were designed for lower water temperatures than that which has since been used).

I think the temperature regulation system has been bred out of people in the last 50 years. Swimming pools 50s, 70F now 86F living rooms 50s, 55-60F now

70-77F.
Reply to
<me9

Not compared to PIR foam... 100mm under the floor slab and around the edges would make a massive difference,

You can float a thermal cover on top when not in use. It will actually add to the water temperature on a sunny day. It prevents evaporation losses (water and more importantly heat) as well.

Reply to
John Rumm

I got the impression, possibly erroneously, that it was to be an outdoor pool. In which case I'd guess keeping the air 1degC higher than the water could be very expensive... :-)

Reply to
Rod

Yeah, what he said. From memory, mine had a layer of some sort of plastic foam, about 10-12mm thick across the floor and the sides were covered with something like extra thick hessian wadding. I think both were put there more for protection of the liner than insulation. The greatest heat loss is at the surface, a solar blanket is an absolute must.

Reply to
The Wanderer

ta for this. So King span is strong enough? cool. Yes it is an out side pool situated in France. I will be heating it by solar panels and my aim is to make it useable for as much of the year as possible.

Ok, so i go with king span. Do i go with their thickest sheet or does it matter much? Obviously i need the pool to be stable over a good few years, so no movement in the floor is essential. Should i lay them directly on the bottom of the hole i dig, or add a concrete slab under it as well as the pool bottom slab over it?

Steve

Reply to
Mr Sandman

My thoughts exactly.

The actual m,ass of water in a pool is VAST. it is its own heatbank.

The volume of soil between it and the air is also vast.

Complete waste of time to insulate.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Going from nothing to 25mm generally makes a big difference. Increasing the insulation above that makes much less difference.

By far the most important area to insulate is the top of the pool, where the warmer water will tend towards, and heat loss by evaporation and wind-chill is significant.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

The presence of the insulating blocks (or kingspan!) will have little effect on the strength of the pool. You'll still need to handle a lateral force of one tonne (ish) for every running metre of wall length.

I should add I'm not a pool designer, but I do know a _little_ _basic_ physics.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

i think the kingspan would get damp and not be much use

[g]
Reply to
george (dicegeorge)

Check out

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they have government grants to insulate old and new swimming pools, we've just had our's done and got the insulation for free, they are really helpful our pool heats up so much quicker.

url:

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Reply to
Nigel Rose

If you really want to insulate your pool properly and receive a Government grant too, visit the Thermapool website at

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the research is eye opening and the product is guaranteed for 25yrs, you can also calculate how much money can be saved by using a calculator which has been approved by all relevant authorities

url:

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Reply to
kevin jennings

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