Balancing environmental, economic and public health: The cost of swimming pool water circulation

• Published in: Building services engineering research & technology Vol. 46; no. 4; pp. 529 - 544
• Main Authors: Marjoribanks, Timothy I, Simmonds, Lester P, Wood, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.07.2025
• Subjects: carbon footprint; water treatment; Swimming pool; energy efficiency; circulation
• ISSN: 0143-6244; 1477-0849
• DOI: 10.1177/01436244251339721

Swimming pools are critical public health infrastructure that provide benefits to diverse user groups. However, they are also energy-intensive and expensive to operate. Therefore, national policies regarding swimming pool circulation requirements need to balance these factors to ensure multi-dimensional sustainability. We develop a methodology to gather quantitative information to support industry-wide policy recommendations. We use openly-available data from 6433 non-domestic swimming pools in England to estimate national-scale energy use, cost and carbon footprint associated with swimming pool circulation. Our results show that total annual energy use for pool water circulation, assumed to be operating within national guidelines, is 369,000 MWh at a cost of £100M. A further 109,000 MWh (£6.33M) is associated with filter backwashing processes. The combined annual carbon footprint from energy and water use is 98,400 tCO2e. We investigate three industry-recognised interventions to reduce energy use in pool water circulation, which would not typically compromise water quality or safety, and demonstrate these could reduce costs by up to 70%. Differences between national guidelines on pool circulation also suggest overly cautious requirements for certain pool types. The results demonstrate the substantial impact changes to policy guidelines could have on the financial and environmental sustainability of non-domestic swimming pools. Practical Application This paper provides building services engineers with evidence of how operational interventions within swimming pool pumping systems can substantially reduce energy usage, running costs and emissions.