Big Energy Saving Week at Atlantis
We recently ran a social media series for Big Energy Saving Week where we lifted the lid on what energy efficiency means at Atlantis. We explain some of the innovative approaches we’ve taken to increasing our energy efficiency as well as highlighting the uncertain and challenging times that lie ahead. We’ve pulled the series together into one place, so you can read it altogether below:
It’s Big Energy Saving Week this week so we thought we’d use the opportunity to let you know a little more about what it takes to run Atlantis. We think it’s important that we explain some of the steps we take to ensure your community-run facility is as energy-efficient as possible. As a charity, heading into this winter is even more worrying than usual as we contend with rising prices and difficulty of supply. So to kick things off, here’s what the Pools look like after everyone heads home! We renewed our pool covers earlier in the year, covering the pools with them each night. They are amazing at keeping the pools warm overnight, meaning there is less energy required to bring them back up to temperature when we fire everything back up each morning. Join us for the rest of this week as we lift the lid on Atlantis each day.
The Plant Room at Atlantis houses the crucial tech and plant that keeps the Centre running
Today we continue lifting the lid on Atlantis for Big Energy Saving Week by taking you beneath the pools - welcome to the Plant Room. At first, you might not think maintenance is the most glamorous aspect of sustainability - but it’s vital. The Operations and Facilities team work really hard to keep their knowledge and technical ability up to date. This then means that they’re able to tackle most of the problems thrown up by Atlantis’ plant and systems each week in-house. This is a crucial aspect of increasing energy efficiency for a few reasons. Firstly, it minimises the need for outside help to visit Oban, reducing Atlantis’ wider carbon footprint. Secondly, big building plant systems are just like machines you might have at home: the more you look after them, the better they work. Keeping Atlantis equipment and machinery in tiptop condition increases energy efficiency throughout the building. Tomorrow we’re going to take a look at some other pieces of kit we’ve renewed and invested in recently, including finding out how better WIFI helps us to be even more energy efficient!
Cloud and mobile technology have transformed how community facilities like Atlantis track energy usage
Did you know that you can run Atlantis from an iPhone? Ok, maybe not quite but advancements in mobile and cloud technology have transformed how we monitor various high energy usage components in our building. At a glance, we're able to see real-time readings of things like water health, pH levels and current treatment processes wherever we are in the building or indeed further afield. By combining the power of this information with cloud provision of environmental and other external factors, our systems can make automatic adjustments as required or trigger alerts so that we can react accordingly. Information really is power and, in this case, increasing the information we have and the speed with which we get it is helping us improve Atlantis' energy efficiency. We continue to the lift the lid on Atlantis for Big Energy Saving Week tomorrow where we shed some light on the impact LEDs are having at the Centre.
LED technology has had a huge impact on energy efficiency at Atlantis
Let’s talk about lights. Since Atlantis was built, the Centre was mostly lit by halogen lightbulbs. Some of you might remember needing to channel your ‘wait for the lights’ patience after asking for them to be flicked on. That all changed a few years ago when we undertook what has been one of the most impactful projects on Atlantis’ energy efficiency - switching to LEDs. The entire Centre now runs on LED lighting which has drastically improved our energy usage, decreasing Atlantis’ impact on the environment and, mercifully, making ‘waiting for the lights’ a thing of the past. Regardless of their impact however, the current worsening energy crisis threatens the very existence of Atlantis. We are a charity, run by an unpaid volunteer Board of Directors and with all profit reinvested back into running the Centre. As bills rise, all charities face an uncertain future - relying on the communities they support now more than ever.
Tea cosies? - no, these are valve and flange covers, using the power of insulation to save energy.
These funny tea-cosy-lookalikes are actually covers for the network of flanges and valves that connect the various piping and ducting that runs around our plant room and across the Centre. And they don't just look like tea cosies - they act pretty similarly too. In fact, they're so good at insulating the pipes and flanges that they're estimated to retain the same amount of heat that up to 1 metres of uncovered pipework would lose. When you add up all the valves and flanges they cover at Atlantis, that's a lot of heat we're keeping and a lot of energy we're saving.
As we wrap up Big Energy Saving Week, the truth is we need as many of these innovations and efficiency ideas as we can get. We heard today that colleagues south of the border are starting to see the first centres close due to spiralling costs. Atlantis faces the very same risks they've been unable to overcome. Atlantis is Oban's community health and leisure centre, that means it's yours. That also means as we head into even more uncertain times ahead, Atlantis needs your continued support now more than ever.