July 16, 2008
Pool Companies, Boulder County Officials, Agree to Work Together to Achieve Energy Goals
Several pool companies, including APSP member Pentair Water Pool and Spa, met with Boulder County officials on June 11 for an open discussion to answer questions and address concerns about the county’s new “BuildSmart” building code that became effective May 1. The code requires all pool and spa energy use to be offset with onsite renewable energy generation. As a result of this meeting, it was agreed that the pool industry and county officials would work together to better define the code language to accomplish the county’s energy saving goals.
To address the problem of no pool building permits being issued since the May 1 effective date of the new building code, the county agreed to begin the approval of outstanding building permits with the understanding that issues would be resolved on an ongoing basis during the pool building and inspecting process.
Jeff Farlow, Pentair’s Program Manager of Energy Initiatives, who gave a presentation at the meeting, said there was much discussion on the variability of pools, their designs and construction methods, operational variances, and energy use. Other topics of discussion included utility incentives, legislative activity; energy saving potential through the use of green products such as variable speed pumps, and onsite renewable energy generation options and cost estimates for solar, wind turbine and hydro-electric generation.
