Carbon footprint

This model for calculating the carbon footprint of a swimming pool comes from Futur.eco, taken from the publicodes model with its default values.

It is the only open model of the carbon footprint of an individual swimming pool published to date.

In this first version, we do not specifically take into account the use of the filter pump or heating, whose footprint is implicitly calculated as part of the home's energy consumption. At a later stage, it could be useful to separate the 2 consumptions to propose more personalised actions.

Note that the water consumption aspect is not dealt with here as a matter of principle (our calculations focus on carbon emissions), but it is obviously essential to pay attention to it.

To help you understand the calculation of the pool's footprint, here are a few points:

• The water footprint depends on both supply and treatment
• Water evaporation is not taken into account
• It is assumed that the pool is refilled every year: this is a strong assumption, but an acceptable one in the sense that people who keep their pool water in winter will use more chemicals.
• Construction takes many factors into account: masonry, waterproofing, technical equipment, etc. for "concrete" pools, etc
• Chemical treatment is now a constant. It could be made variable depending on the size of the pool or the number of months it is used.
• Any pool shelters and accessories such as play equipment are not taken into account for the moment
• For above-ground pools, the footprint of the chemical treatment is still taken into account, but an arbitrary factor of 2 is applied.

It is important to note that this calculation model is continually being improved (see https://github.com/laem/futureco-data/issues/97)