Leisure centres and recreation facilities are an essential part of every local community, promoting health and wellbeing through physical activity and exercise. For this reason, local councils up and down the country are committed to funding these centres to ensure a healthy and happy community from the youngest to the oldest.
A critical part of any leisure centre which is often overlooked is the maintenance of the indoor environment, especially the ventilation and temperature control within each space. This is controlled by various elements of HVAC equipment including air handling, heating and air conditioning systems.
Leisure centres pose a unique challenge for climate control, due to the many different areas and activities, all requiring their own unique environment - for example:
- Gyms and Spin Studios - typically these spaces need high levels of ventilation and air conditioning to keep them cool
- Swimming Pools - with heated water, condensation control is a challenge and requires carefully balanced ventilation.
- Yoga Studios - due to the nature of these activities, these areas may require gentle ventilation and heating for ultimate comfort.
This variation of environments, often all being used at the same time within a building, poses a challenge, to ensure that the various different HVAC systems are all working in cooperation to facilitate the variation of activities at any one time.
HVAC systems within leisure centres typically fall into three main categories:
- Air Conditioning – systems which utilise a refrigerant cycle to cool or heat the air within a given space.
- Ventilation – mechanical ventilation systems, normally in the form of an air handling unit, which is mounted remotely from the area that it serves. Used for the extraction of stale air from an area, and the supply of fresh, filtered air
- Heating – normally in the form of gas-fired boilers, but can also include other forms of heating such as air-source heatpumps
The Need For Ventilation
Understandably there are guidelines around the level of ventilation within gym spaces because the requirements for ventilation within these areas are significantly more than, for example, an office. Take for example a spin or cycle studio – often these will be within a leisure centre with no opening windows (so no natural ventilation) and are relatively small. It might have 20 people all exercising at a high intensity, which will mean there is a requirement for significant supply and extract ventilation to keep the users comfortable and safe.
It is common to see multiple air handling units on a leisure centre's roof, which all serve different areas. Sometimes these air handling units will have heating or cooling coils within them, conditioning the air before it being released into each area.
Air Quality
Another unique challenge in leisure centres, especially within gyms and studios, is the quality of the air, and the quantity of airborne matter. Air conditioning systems within gyms and studios regularly clog up with what is essentially a combination of dust and dead skin, meaning that they regularly require an in-depth ‘deep clean’. More information can be found about deep cleans here, but essentially this means that the unit has to be dismantled and systematically cleaned, a much more involved process than a standard service clean.
Plant Rooms
Nearly every leisure centre or facility will have some form of plantroom – this can range from a small cupboard housing a boiler or water heater to a large basement area housing large HVAC equipment. You would normally expect to find the heating equipment within the plantroom such as boilers, calorifiers, booster pumps, water storage etc. Often there will be air handling units in plantrooms as well, especially if roof space is limited to house them.
Critical Extraction
Another area which is unique to leisure centres with swimming pools is a chemical store, where the concentrated water treatment chemicals are stored and handled. Within these areas there will be mechanical extraction systems fitted, to prevent the build-up of airborne chemicals, which could pose a health risk if left to build up. It is critical that these ventilation systems are checked and maintained regularly.
Salix Mechanical Ltd have worked on over 70 leisure sites across the Southeast, most of which are on an ongoing maintenance agreement, so we have developed a significant understanding of these challenging and unique environments – book a free survey today for an expert to take a look at your leisure facilities and advise on anything relating to your HVAC systems.
The Salix Mechanical Ltd engineer was very informative, clearly knew his stuff technically and we will be requesting that Salix Mechanical Ltd carry out the further works resulting from the callout..
General Manager, Leisure Centre in Harrow
Since taking over the operation of 8 complex leisure centre buildings, Salix Mechanical Ltd has provided great support and service, responding to emergency call-outs in a timely manner, performing all routine pre-planned maintenance on time and supporting our larger, long-term projects professionally. The engineers are knowledgeable and really understand the nature of our business. They work closely with the site teams to deliver work quickly and with minimum disruption to our customers.
Leisure Operations Manager, London Borough Council. June 2024
What difference does Salix Mechanical Ltd make?
Increase Gym Membership
Not every Gym has air conditioning installed - make sure that your site stands out with well-maintained and effective cooling systems. Your gym memberships are bound to increase!
Reducing Energy Costs
An inefficient climate control system costs money and wastes energy – up to 40% more energy. At Salix Mechanical Ltd, we ensure that keeping your customers comfortable doesn’t cost the earth and that your HVAC systems stand the test of time.
A Fresh, Ventilated environment
Notice a fusty smell whenever your air conditioner is operating? Fluctuating temperatures and water combine to encourage the growth of bacteria on coils and filters. Regular servicing of your systems will ensure this is controlled.
Adapting with Your Site
Customer needs change and your site changes with it. When it comes to extending or transforming part of your site, we’ll be with you to advise on the best way to incorporate HVAC systems into this new or adapted space.
Minimizing Downtime
Gym users come to expect the comfort of a cooled and ventilated space - we understand the impact of any downtime, and work hard to ensure that this is minimised, offering 24hr callout and a 4-hour engineer response time.
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