Innovative, Smart Solutions for Canadian Pools

Welcome to the inaugural post of True North Perspectives, Trane Canada’s new blog dedicated to exploring innovation, sustainability, and connected solutions for Canada’s unique markets and climates. Powered by insights from Trane’s Canadian subject matter experts, this blog will bring you the latest thinking on climate control, artificial intelligence, utility trends, geothermal advances, contracting excellence, and much more—empowering leaders, builders, and communities nationwide. In each post, we’ll dive into real-world applications and challenges facing Canadian buildings across a variety of sectors.

For this inaugural blog posting, we’re going to deep dive into discussing Canada’s community pools. If you’ve ever wondered how to build or retrofit a pool that can maintain an enhanced swimming environment while keeping energy costs in check, you’re in the right place. We’ll discuss the building solutions you need to help keep your indoor commercial pool environment ideally conditioned, no matter the season.

Tackling multiple climate zones

We’ll start with the wealth of climate variation that is the Canada we know and love. If you wonder whether the weather matters, it absolutely does. Let’s jump into the infrastructure you need to support your swimming pool in this vast country that features it all: from mountains to forests, prairies, plains and coastal regions.

Trane is uniquely qualified to address your needs based on our depth and breadth of experience. When you tap into one Trane location, you leverage nationwide experience from our team throughout Canada. We function as ‘one Trane” to help our customers meet their pool needs, wherever they are in Canada. Additionally, our account managers, many of whom are engineers, undertake extensive education to learn about “all things building” (including “all things pool”).

Here are some key considerations and approaches we consider when it comes to all things pool:

Make the most of heat waste

Consider incorporating a heat recovery system in your commercial pool. These systems capture and reuse waste heat, which can significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce operating costs. “These systems can work well with pools, especially when a pool is located in a community recreation center next to a gym or even an ice rink, which is common. This allows you to take the heat — a byproduct of cooling — from an adjacent gyms or ice rink and put it into the pool environment,” said Chase Hayden, account manager for Trane.

“In those environments, a heat recovery system can prove a perfect ecosystem for sharing thermal energy,” said Hayden. They also help decrease greenhouse gas emissions, lowering the facility’s overall carbon footprint. “Managing energy use is so important because more and more, we’re seeing that pools are the biggest energy users in a municipality’s portfolio,” he said.

Trane also can help identify whether there are grants or other funding available to improve the energy efficiency of your pool.

Work from your objectives: controls + equipment

When it comes to the controls and equipment solutions that will help you achieve your objectives, we start with your end goals in mind, ranked by priority. These objectives can include energy efficiency, ease of operation and maintenance, keeping guests comfortable in a large spectator area, and even understanding how humidity works to help ensure that the air temperature is comfortable when swimmers step out of the pool.

“We understand the importance of dehumidification and the equipment and controls needed to achieve it, which can represent a pretty significant factor in some places in Canada,” said Hayden. “We also understand how to address it differently depending on the local climate,” he explained. “Your unique situation doesn’t come off a shelf so the solutions we offer are tailored to your needs based on your ranked objectives,” he added. We know the questions to ask – you just give us your input, and we’ll collaborate with you on a solution.

Stay ahead of pool trends

We also keep a pulse on the hottest pool trends so you can stay ahead of the curve. We know that even young kids have likely seen online photos of the latest and greatest pools, so we understand the pressure you feel to add more “splash and sizzle” than ever before, and we can help make it happen.

We can even help you embrace the wellness trend driving the opening of Nordic spas. Typically, these spas mean some combination of an outdoor pool + a plunge pool + a hot tub + a sauna.

“Pools today look vastly different than they did 10 years ago,” said Hayden.

So, there you have it—a quick overview of the ins and outs of providing building solutions to help things go swimmingly in pool environments in Canada. This complex, yet fascinating topic combines state-of-the-art technologies with practical offerings to meet the unique challenges posed by our diverse country. If you’ve enjoyed this blog, watch for more. And, as always, stay comfortable, Canada!