Swimming pools lower water temperatures – tougher measures could follow

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Rising energy costs
At the start of the season: swimming pools lower water temperatures

At the start of the bathing season, several indoor and outdoor pools announced that they would lower the water temperatures

© Remko de Waal / Picture Alliance

05/14/2022, 19:31

2 min reading time

Several swimming pools have announced that they will lower water temperatures. The reason for this is the rising energy costs.

At the start of the outdoor pool season, the first swimming pools announced that they would lower the water temperatures. Because the rising energy costs are causing problems for the approximately 6,000 pools in Germany. Heating up the pool water – often with gas or oil – is expensive for the operator.

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A few weeks ago, the German Society for Bathing (DGfdB) published a guide with recommendations for action for the baths. Turning down the heating is therefore the best and easiest way to save energy. Bathing water that is just two degrees cooler could result in energy savings of up to 25 percent for indoor pools, explains Ann-Christin von Kieter from the DGfdB to the “daily News“.

Swimming pools do not want to pass costs on to guests

Some spas have already followed this advice, for example in the capital. “In the 37 swimming pools we are reducing the temperatures by about one degree,” the Berlin pools said at the request of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungThis should save several thousand euros. In total, the costs for heating the pools in Berlin amount to 3.5 million euros a year. The recommendation is also being implemented in Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony.

Heated outdoor pool of a swimming pool

Heated outdoor pools use a lot of energy in swimming pools

© Jens Büttner / Picture Alliance

The city of Oldenburg, which took the measure, fears “massive effects on visitor numbers”. According to a city spokeswoman, the water in the children’s pool, learning and therapy pool is not affected, but the sauna facilities have to lose two degrees.

The approach in Bremerhaven is more reserved: “We don’t want to transfer the skyrocketing energy costs to our bathers,” explains the managing director of the bathing company there, Robert Haase NDR. Therefore, the temperatures in all indoor and outdoor pools are only reduced by one degree. This is hardly noticeable for the guests.

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Christin von Kieter describes heated outdoor pools as “big energy guzzlers”. To the “Editorial network Germany” She says: “There are considerations to keep them completely closed or to open them later when it’s warmer”. His Okeraue municipal pool has decided against both, but has cooled the temperature outside by three degrees. The manager hopes to high temperatures, which naturally heat up the pools.

power supply

Delivery stop for Poland and Bulgaria: Six questions and answers on Russian gas


Does Germany still get natural gas from Russia and is the supply secured?

Does Germany still get natural gas from Russia and is the supply secured?

More Russian gas should flow to Germany via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The project is now on hold. Nevertheless, the gas continues to flow via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which transports natural gas through the Baltic Sea from Russia directly to Germany. While the share of Russian gas deliveries in Germany was 55 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs it has now fallen to 35 percent. By the end of the year, it is to be reduced to around 30 percent, primarily through the purchase of liquefied natural gas, so-called LNG. By the summer of 2024, the federal government considers a further reduction in the share to 10 percent of consumption possible.
Is the gas supply secured in Germany?
Yes and no. It depends on what period of time you are looking at. “The security of supply in Germany is currently guaranteed,” says the Federal Network Agency. “The cessation of Russian gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria has so far had no impact on the security of supply in Germany.”
However, a report by the Ministry of Economics to the Bundestag on Wednesday speaks of an “acute danger that the situation will escalate further and that Russian gas suppliers will not fulfill their contractual obligations or will only do so to a limited extent”. This would be critical for the gas supply situation in Germany in the short to medium term. The background is Russia’s demand to process payments in rubles, which the G7 states oppose.

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The same applies in Brunswick. The city is not planning any changes in water temperatures, but will only open the outdoor pools later when the sun reliably provides pleasant warmth. In Kronberg, Hesse, they want to do without heating with natural gas completely. The city’s spokesman has announced that the start of the season will be pushed back by two weeks. Then it should be possible to heat the water exclusively with solar energy.

In the event of an intensified energy crisis, the pools could be forced to take tougher measures, and the DGfdB guidelines are intended to prepare the facilities for this. If gas supplies from Russia were to stop, the swimming pools could have to close at short notice to save enough gas for the winter. Should it come to an emergency, this will “certainly find acceptance among bathers,” hopes the DGfdB.

Sources: NDR“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, “daily News“, “Editorial network Germany“

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