Pleasant Hill Recreation and Park District Commissions Solar-Thermal and Heat-Pump Pool Heating Array at PH Aquatic Park

District engineers with the Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park District and clean-building specialists from MCE commissioned a hybrid rooftop solar-thermal collector array and high-efficiency electric air-source heat pump plant on Saturday evening at the Pleasant Hill Aquatic Park at 147 Gregory Lane in downtown Pleasant Hill. Bordering Pleasant Hill Park and the Teen Center, the six-lane 25-yard municipal pool and instructional dive tank host more than 85,000 annual swimmer visits across adult masters lap swim, senior gentle water-aerobics, high school water polo, and youth learn-to-swim lessons.

To replace two aging atmospheric natural-gas boilers that consumed more than 42,000 therms of fossil gas each winter, mechanical contractors mounted 140 glazed copper-absorber solar-thermal panels across the south-facing locker room and shade-pavilion roofs. Filtered pool water circulates directly through the rooftop solar manifold during sunny and partly cloudy Diablo Valley days, harvesting up to 1.1 million BTUs per hour of free solar heat.

When overnight autumn and winter air temperatures dip into the 40s, four commercial CO2-refrigerant inverter heat pumps automatically stage on alongside motorized insulated thermal pool blankets to hold water temperatures at a steady 81 degrees Fahrenheit for lap swimmers and 86 degrees in the therapy teaching bay. Together, the solar-thermal and heat-pump loop cuts annual facility natural gas consumption by 74 percent and eliminates 195 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

The $615,000 aquatic decarbonization project was funded through Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park District capital reserves and an MCE Public Facility Electrification rebate. Swimmers can view autumn lap-swim lane schedules and water-exercise passes on the Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park District Aquatics Portal.