Local group Low Carbon Kāpiti have revealed that fossil-fuel use at Ōtaki Pool has increased by 17% as a result of changes made during refurbishment and are calling on the Council to sort it out.
Low Carbon Kāpiti Chair and former Council energy advisor Jake Roos said “Gas use at Ōtaki Pool this year through to the end of September has gone up, costing council an extra $4,000 on the pool gas bill and causing about 30 tonnes of extra carbon emissions (CO2) so far. This is compared to the three years before the pool was closed for refurbishment. For context, 32 tonnes of CO2 per year is as much as Council would save from replacing 15 petrol cars with electric ones.”
“This waste has been caused by the higher airflow rate from the larger air-supply fan installed last year.”
“The pool needs an exhaust air system with a heat-pump to recover the energy and water which is presently being wasted. The heat pump could be used to reduce gas use even further, powered with emissions-free renewable electricity. This would be a similar set-up to that already used at the Coastlands Aquatic Centre.”
“An exhaust air system would also help prevent moisture damage to the new cladding by balancing out the air pressure in the building. The previous cladding failed partly because the building was (and still is) being blown up like a balloon by the air supply fan, forcing moist air into the building fabric.”
The gas use data was obtained by Low Carbon Kāpiti via an Official Information Act request. Low Carbon Kāpiti is advocating for Council to become carbon neutral by 2025 by cutting energy waste, using more renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels and planting trees.
“The world’s scientists have given us their clearest possible warnings – we only have a few years left to reject fossil fuels and stop runaway climate change” said Mr Roos. “We love Ōtaki Pool, but we’d love it even more if it was powered by renewable electricity and not wastefully burning fossil fuel. The sooner it is sorted out, the less harm there will be to the environment and to the brand-new building cladding.”
“Our 200-strong and growing membership will be following this and other climate change-related issues closely in the run up to the local body elections next year.”
Gas use and emission calculations can be found here: /wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Otaki-Pool-gas-use-2013-18-with-LCK-analysis.xlsx
Information on our ‘Carbon Neutral Council’ campaign can be found here.