As part of the renovation of Bath’s Georgian Cleveland Pools the trust which owns the site which has attracted a £3.7million heritage lottery grant, is looking to heat the pool with renewable sources of energy.
They are looking a 3 options:
- Water Source Heat Pumps (WSHP) providing heating and hot water to pool areas and heated building spaces (using latent heat from the River Avon)
- Air source Heat Pumps (ASHP) providing heating and hot water to pool areas and heated building spaces
- A Hybrid system comprising an WSHP or ASHP combined with gas fired boilers
Each of the approaches has different pros and cons, this paper weighs up these including looking at capital costs, quietness, CO2 emissions, space and noise. Ultimately the report recommends choosing the water source heat pump option as it provides a payback of only 3.5 years.
Transition Bath would encourage the Cleveland Pools Trust to pursue installing one of the these options to make the pool as environmentally and economically sustainable as possible. Ultimately, to meet The UK’s climate change commitments we will need to start to replace gas based heating before 2030, so this would be a timely investment in a renewable source of heat.