College begins using warmth from Earth’s core to make swimmers comfortable.
FARMINGTON – After more than a year out in the cold – literally – the University of Maine at Farmington pool, also the town’s only public indoor pool, is warmed up and back to normal, UMF Aquatics Director Jeremy Hatch said Wednesday.
Though the pool was never closed, Hatch said that after its heating system broke down in the winter of 2004, both the water and air temperatures had fluctuated wildly, rising to 88 degrees this summer and decreasing gradually this fall until, at one point, the water got as cold as 70 degrees.
Optimal pool temperature is 84 degrees, he said, which “is on the low end for people with arthritis, and on the high end for someone with multiple sclerosis. It’s the magic number for a multiuse pool,” he said.
When the pool’s old heating system stopped working last year, UMF Director of Facilities Management Bob Lawrence and others decided to install a geothermal heating system, costing a little over $300,000, in its place. The system pipes water 900 feet, or the distance of three football fields, down into the earth, and lets it be heated with heat from the Earth’s core (to about 50 degrees).
Then the water is piped back into a heat pump beneath the pool; the heat from the water is compressed and used to heat the chlorinated pool water. The environmentally sound system should save the college money on heating fuel and furthers the University’s goal to build a greener campus, Lawrence said.
Workers demolished the old system and started installing the new one in October, he said, finishing in early February.
UMF students, faculty, and Heath and Fitness Center users from across Franklin County are ecstatic the pool is warm enough to enjoy swimming in again, Hatch said.
The Fitness Center offered aquatics classes in the pool all of last year and throughout the summer. But this fall, the water temperature got so low that all classes were canceled. Children and senior citizens were the most affected by the colder temperatures, he added, but now that water is back to normal, an increasing number of people have started coming to swim.
“Historically, on average, we had anywhere between 150 to 200 people a day,” at the pool, Hatch said.
But during the worst of the cold this winter, only five to 15 people swam per day.
Now, Hatch said, “Our numbers have averaged between 80 and 100 swimmers a day.”
“We’re extremely pleased with the new system,” Hatch said. “And we’re excited about bringing people back into the facility.”
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