Measurement and Analysis of Evaporation in Indoor Swimming Pools: Comparison with the ASHRAE’s Activity Factor

Abstract

The evaporation rate from the swimming pool is a main parameter influencing the energy use in swimming facilities. Quantifying this phenomenon is crucial when modelling the facility in Building Performance Simulation. This study investigates the accuracy of ASHRAE equation using field measurements. This equation is widely used and implemented in BPS tools, such as the pool model in IDA ICE. The investigated dataset was based on two different indoor swimming pool facilities in Norway. It includes in total 75 swimming lessons (i.e., occupied pool) and 477 hours of unoccupied operation. While ASHRAE recommend 1.0/0.5 for occupied and unoccupied pools, respectively, the average activity factor was found to be 0.7 and 0.8 for the investigated occupied pools, with a maximum at 1.1. Moreover, the activity factor was between 0.50 and 0.57 for unoccupied pools.