Donna and Jeff Zariczny, the owners of Inscale are always looking for new ideas and construction methods to test. For their home, they chose an insulated pool for its ease of construction and energy efficiency. This type of pool system has actually been in use since the 80's in Australia, but didn't make it to the US until 1999.
Conventional concrete pool construction has almost no insulation (R-value). 70% of the energy lost in a heated pool is through the walls and floor, while only 30% is lost at the surface of the water. An 8" concrete wall has an R-value of R-0.68, the kit used at the Zariczny's has an R-value of R-20. The pool walls are constructed of Expanded Polystyrene Styrofoam (EPS) panels. The panels are set up and glued together, then coated with plaster on each side to give the foam walls structural stability. With the walls in place, the pool floor was sprayed with 1" of 2lb density closed cell polyurethane spray foam insulation, to provide a thermal break at the floor. Then concrete is poured for the floor and perimeter beam. Finally the pool is coated with an elastomeric variable membrane.
With all things considered, this environmentally friendly pool is 70-80% more energy efficient than a conventional pool. If you're interested in one of these pools, contact us. You can also visit their website here. Check back soon, we will be updating this with new photos.
