Why Use Fabric Ducts For Swimming Pool Ventilation?

Technical

Summer is here, and with summer comes sunshine, holidays and hot days. It’s the perfect weather to visit the local swimming pool, especially with life slowly returning to normal. Swimming pools are sure to be a favourite in the coming months.
For project engineers and facilities managers, that means more projects involving new installation, upgrades or maintenance of swimming pool ventilation systems. But achieving the right airflow conditions in a pool hall can be tricky, requiring a lot of effort and careful design to get it just right. At Prihoda, we anticipated these issues during the development our fabric duct and diffuser products. That’s why we designed them to be suitable and very effective for swimming pool ventilation.

What makes swimming pool ventilation tricky?

Swimming pool ventilation can be complicated for many reasons, but mainly because of two factors:

1. The air surrounding the pool is very rich in chlorine, which leads to corrosion issues with most metallic equipment, and

2. The skin of the occupants is very exposed. Every time they take a dip in the swimming pool, the pool users become more sensitive to the temperature in the pool hall.

These factors make choosing a ventilation method a delicate affair, especially when it comes to designing the air distribution for the pool hall. So any solution needs to be corrosion-resistant and provide low-velocity airflow that can keep the air highly mixed. We designed fabric ducting for swimming pool applications to do exactly that.

Design considerations

Beyond corrosion issues there are other factors to be considered when designing the ductwork for swimming pool ventilation. For instance:

Will there be access for maintenance? Positioning the ducting along the walls and directing the air into the middle of the pool hall makes future access significantly easier. While in terms of air distribution there is no impediment to having diffusers in the centre of the room, in terms of access it can make a world of difference.

Similar to the above, how will the installation be carried out? Luckily, installing fabric ducting is very simple, with no large, unwieldy pieces to keep at height during the procedure. Provided that there is reasonable access to the mount location, installation can be quick and convenient (even more so with our installation service).

Energy use and efficiency. Ensuring that the air distribution reaches all areas at the desired velocity and temperature makes for a more efficient design, as there is then no need to make up for any shortcomings by using a bigger energy input into the ventilation system.

 

Why choose fabric ducts?

With Prihoda fabric ducts, it’s very easy to achieve optimal air distribution throughout the pool hall. Textile ducting can diffuse the air through and along its entire surface area, and all fabric duct systems are designed bespoke. They can be made in many shapes and sizes, with different inlet and layout configurations or ways to mount them. This adaptability makes fabric ducting especially suitable for swimming pool environments, adjusting to the unique features of each individual application.

But there’s another feature that makes them ideal for swimming pools. We have several diffuser options which can be mixed and matched in each duct. For example, one section of a duct can have laser-cut perforations, while another might need nozzles. Or sometimes microperforations are combined with laser-cut perforations to adjust the velocity of the supply air until it’s just right. Size, location and distance from one another are some of the parameters we can change to engineer the air distribution and direct the air exactly where it needs to be. So we can design a system that prevents condensation on the windows, maintains uniform air temperature throughout the occupied zone and ensures swimming pool user comfort. All this in a durable, nonreactive material with a 10-year warranty.

Ready to know more?

Talk to us to discuss how we can help you create the perfect airflow conditions for your swimming pool HVAC project.