Electrics in swimming pools

Lighting and heating for backyard swimming pools has been revolutionised in recent years. Here’s the latest technology and trends in swimming pool electrics.

• Smart installations now allow internal control of temperature and lighting for your backyard pool.
• There are now apps that can control all outdoor lighting and heating for both the pool and garden area.
• Most new pools will have an option to be heated.
• With advancement in solar, almost all pools are now heated by panels on the roof.

It’s the quintessential Aussie summer experience: lounging in the backyard pool, stubby in one hand and snag in the other.

But a lot has changed since the pools of your childhood – these days, people want brightly lit, heated pools that can be controlled by an app. Fancy, eh?

These developments mean opportunities for contractors are plenty.

Here’s the latest in swimming pool lighting and heating.

SMART TACTICS

Today’s pools are smart, explains Nick Fallace from Pro Point Electrical in Melbourne’s south east, who employs five staff and is a regular at Middy’s Rowville.

“We’re doing a lot with smart installations, which allows the customer to have an internal control inside their house where they can control pool equipment like lights and heating, as well as if there’s a spa attached to it,” says Nick Fallace from Pro Point Electrical.

“They can control it all from a central hub or, even better, via an app. It gives you a lot of flexibility with your install, but also makes things really user-friendly.

“The beauty of these things is that you can control garden lighting too. If you’re thinking about using your pool tomorrow, you can set it to heat up in advance so when you want to use it, it’s right to go.”

Chris Robinson, who runs CJR Electrical Group in Melbourne with a team of five electricians, says automation systems are an increasingly popular way to control lighting, especially among more affluent clientele.

“It’s definitely not a one-colour-fits-all type thing anymore. The multicolour LEDs that are controlled through your phone are very common – you might want to have the pool red one night and blue the next night,” says Chris Robinson from CJR Electrical Group.

WARMING UP

Especially in cooler climates, heated pools are all the rage, Robinson says.

“Pretty much every job we’re installing at the moment, you’ve got an electric heater going in.”

Using solar power to heat pools is becoming more common as it helps to reduce running costs.

“The buybacks on solar are pretty minimal these days, and there’s not a lot of use in having solar unless you are using it,” Robinson says.

“So people are putting solar systems on their roof and they’re running them straight into their pool.”

Depending on the size of the solar system, he says many people can heat their pool for free or very little cost.

For people without solar, Fallace says, “Electric heat pumps nowadays run a lot more efficiently than some of the older stuff that was out on the market”.

Ultimately, he says, it all comes back to automation. “You can link it all back to the app. When it comes to pools, everything is smart.”