Systematic and Data-Driven Literature Review of the Energy and Indoor Environmental Performance of Swimming Facilities

During the last few decades, focus on measures for energy conservation in buildings has increased considerably. The European Commission implemented the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which gave instructions to the member states about how to reduce energy consumption in residential and non-residential buildings. In the process of making the building sector more energy efficient, the building codes generally have become stricter with some simplifications applied in the requirements. For swimming facilities in Norway, these simplifications are undermining the purpose of the code by excluding the energy use related to the operation of swimming pools, which is the main part of the energy use in this building category. In other words, the energy use related to operation of the facility is not regulated. Furthermore, guidelines for the planning and operation of these types of facilities are outdated and research for this building category is sparse. These three aspects mean that there is a considerable potential for improvement. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review with bibliometric and thematic analyses of the contextualized research in swimming facilities from a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning perspective. It maps the major trends during the past few decades, where areas like solar heating for outdoor pools, energy consumption, and air quality stand out. Except for air quality and disinfection by-products, research on these facilities is highly fragmented without any strong contributors to the various fields.