ANS SWIMMING POOL
After having initially considered renovating the former swimming pool which had been built 40 years ago, the town of Ans decided to build a completely new building located next to the E40 motorway, one of the most heavily used transport routes in Europe. The new swimming pool consists of an administrative building, a reception area, changing rooms, technical facilities and two pools of 25 x 15 metres and 15 x 15 metres respectively. Its primary purpose is educational, with school children making up most of the visitors during the day. Several aquatic sports clubs also use the facilities in the evening.
The building was designed by the French architect Jean-Michel Ruols in collaboration with Delphine Bodin, the architect for the town of Ans. Functionality, aesthetics and operational costs were the driving factors in the design. The well-being of users and the long life of the facilities were also critical factors in the technical choices, such as the stainless steel pool linings. The absence of joints is a major bonus for maintenance and water-tightness in the long term. Stainless steel also offers hygienic benefits as fewer chlorinated products are used to keep the water clean.
The building was designed to reduce costs in the long term with particular attention paid to energy consumption.
The choice of an LED lighting solution was logical for reducing operating costs and minimising the environmental footprint.
The Schréder ‘LED controlled by nature’ solution
Benefiting from a large south facing bay window, the building is designed to be bathed in gentle natural light.
Nevertheless, the temperate climate in Belgium and the pool’s long opening hours (from 9am to 7pm or 10pm from Tuesdays to Saturdays) means that a significant amount of artificial lighting is required to achieve the average lighting level of 600 lux throughout the 1200 square metres of floor space at all times.
Schréder offered an ‘LED controlled by nature’ solution consisting of 36 OMNIstar luminaires (144 LEDs), four luminosity sensors and a control system. The control system interprets the data received from the sensors and transforms it into DALI commands to adapt the intensity of the lighting automatically based on the natural ambient light.
Discreetly integrated into the architecture, the lighting solution proposed by Schréder cuts energy consumption by 67% compared with a conventional installation. Based on the energy consumption alone and not taking into account the maintenance gain, Schréder’s solution offers an return on investment in less than four years.
Conclusion
After several months of activity, AnSports, the public corporation in charge of operating the swimming pool, is completely satisfied. Although equipped with a manual mode, the lighting system continually operates in automatic mode as it guarantees the required lighting levels and uniformity at all times.
Never overlit – but never underlit either – Ans swimming pool provides a comfortable environment for users while only consuming the energy that is absolutely necessary. As the variations in lighting intensity are subtle and progressive, they are imperceptible. They do not intrude in any way on the activity of the staff and swimmers – who can thus make the most of their leisure activities in a perfectly lit setting.
