Farmington, Pa. is the closest city to the border intersection between Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. It’s an unlikely location for a five star resort. But the area provides a tranquil mountain retreat within driving distance of Pittsburgh. It’s ideal for world-class accommodation.
Since its inception in 1987 the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort has expanded to include a zoo and accommodations that range from single rooms to estates costing $20,000 per night. This level of luxury is usually only found in Dubai, or in the most luxurious penthouses of Las Vegas. But not in the rolling, timbered countryside of the Appalachian Mountains. Surprise…
The 2,200-acre estate is open all year, but from fall to spring, The Winter Wonderland is the place to see and be seen. The ski resort in Nemacolin has heated outdoor pools, spas and all the winter activities you could imagine, including dog sleds and snow tubing.
The Peak is the newest part of the resort. The grand opening took place over the 4th of July weekend in 2021. It is not surprising that the early part of 2021 was a challenging time for large construction projects. The need to reduce the number of workers on a site compounded the material and manpower issues.
“To further complicate the project, the deadline was extremely tight,” says Tom Soukup of Patriot Water Works. The pool heating specialist hired to design and implement the high-efficiency water conditioning system for four bodies of water in the property.
Professional Problem Solving
Dave Raabe of ROI Marketing, a manufacturer’s representative firm, referred Soukup to Nemacolin in late February 2021. Raabe discussed the project with Nemacolin’s aquatic designer who originally planned to heat up the pool complex using a pair commercial steam boilers.
Raabe: “I knew the facility would require a lot of heat and that their mechanical space would be limited. I also knew the design was critical to a proper performance.” “Because I had worked with Patriot before, I knew that they would be the best firm in the country for the work at Nemacolin .”
Patriot Water Works is a Mid-Atlantic company that provides new and retrofit installations of pool heating for retirement homes, condominium and apartment complexes and hotels.
Patriot’s Nemacolin pool complex may not be the largest project that Patriot has ever worked on, however, the amount of heating power required to maintain the set temperature of the water is likely the highest of any other Patriot project. This is because the entire water surface of the pool is outdoors.
The main 80,000-gallon pool has multiple grottos, as well as a swim-up-bar. The temperature is maintained at 87° Fahrenheit all year round. To save energy and avoid winterization, the 133,000-gallon “Lazy River” is lowered to 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the ski season. The larger spa, which is 2,500 gallons in size, stays at 101 degrees Fahrenheit all year round, while the smaller spa, 700 gallons in size, is cooled down for the winter. The pool is surrounded with 14,000 square feet snow-melted paver surfaces.
Soukup says that the resort’s original goal was to heat the pools all year round and have the system completed by early July. They knew that their natural gas usage would be enormous and wanted to minimize it to the greatest extent possible. We helped the resort achieve its energy goals by using modulating cascaded hydronic boilers instead of steam boilers and by reducing wintertime temperatures on one spa and pool.
Soukup also was very transparent in his timeline. Soukup said that despite Patriot’s experience and the resort using very capable subcontractors in the areas of plumbing, electrical and concrete, it was not possible to complete the heated pool and aquatic facility by the grand opening date, which is early July. He did however present a viable alternative.
He says, “I explained that the water temperature could be maintained for the grand-opening with a smaller temporary system.” The heat load for July is much lower than what would be needed in winter conditions .”
When designing a pool heater, there are many variables to consider. Those that affect heat loss include surface area, depth, ambient temperature outside, wind load, and precipitation.
Building Better
By the time Patriot arrived, most of the water treatment and filtration had already been installed. It would have been almost impossible to install large steam boilers, piping and other equipment. Soukup’s design used smaller, more frequent hydronic boilers.
He explains, “We use stainless steel condensing units on all of our installations.” This has been proven to be a great way to save money, reduce fuel consumption, and improve system longevity and controllability. This is a very different system from what’s usually used in the industry, which typically includes gas-fired or steam boilers for large installations. But it performs exceptionally well.
Patriot technicians assembled the permanent components after the temporary system had been installed. U.S. Boiler Company’s Alpine condensing 800 MBH boilers are stacked in twos. The various water bodies are served by ten E J Bowman Titanium heat exchangers ranging in size from 360 MBH up to 1.2MMBTU. These heat exchangers prevent pool water and its chemicals from entering the boiler loop.
Soukup says that the steam boilers of the original design had an efficiency rating of 82%. The Alpine boilers that we use have a 95% efficiency rating, which means a 13% savings right away. The steam boilers have only one firing speed: high. The proposed system included two boilers. This meant that the system was divided into two stages: either the steam boilers would be fired, or both. If only the small spa needed heat, the entire system would have been fired up. It’s a waste of energy and hard on the boiler for it to be fired up for such a brief period .”
The Alpine boilers that Patriot installs have five input stages, resulting in a system turndown ratio total of 40 to 1. The boilers can be ramped up or down according to the needs of the facility, but never exceed the actual firing capacity. This approach of multiple boilers and multiple heat exchangers also offers a high level of redundancy in the event that one unit fails or needs service.
The boiler system at The Peak provides hot water for domestic use as well as heating the pools, spas, and snowmelt systems. The system also provides domestic hot water for the family locker rooms, twelve individual lavatories, a galley-kitchen and bar. Patriot installed Thermal Solutions’ H2OMax commercial heat exchanger to achieve this. It boasts an energy saving of up to 40% compared with conventional water heaters.
Experience Leads to Agility
Due to the timeline, the impact of the pandemic and the unique requirements at the job, the work was more complex than other pool heating applications.
Rich Zalepa is the Patriot project manager at Nemacolin. He says, “This project has made me very thankful for our experience in remaining agile.” There were a few instances when we had to pivot quickly because the product was indefinitely on backorder. However, we could not let the change impact the product’s quality .”
Patriot would have typically used fewer and larger titanium heat-exchangers. It would have saved time on piping. Patriot made arrays for the smaller heat exchangers. This allowed them to be arranged neatly on the wall.
Zalepa says that using smaller, more numerous heat exchangers did not put us at an unfair disadvantage. They offered greater redundancy, and reduced pumping head losses. We were able, therefore, to use smaller circulators and save some electricity .”
A few control components, namely the expansion cards which allowed the heating system input from the water treatment thermostats were also not available.
Zalepa explains that they didn’t plan to have separate thermostats. Instead, they used Ranco thermostats to communicate directly with the boilers. The controls on the Alpine boiler can be extremely powerful if you understand how to use .”
Patriot balanced the temporary system four days prior to the grand opening in July. By Labor Day the permanent system was in place.
The resort is very pleased with the new system’s performance. Water temperatures are kept within a half-degree of the setpoint regardless of weather conditions. It is important to note that water temperature affects the amount of chemicals required for pool treatment. The new system also provides an estimated energy saving of more than $22,000 per year based on current natural gas rates.
Soukup says, “We worked closely with several skilled subcontractors to complete this project.” This is crucial for any design-build project, but it’s even more important here with the compressed timeframe. The ability to listen and help the client address their concerns and goals during the design phase is one of the most valuable attributes for any professional. This job is a great example of .”
Tom Soukup, the principal of Patriot Water Works Co. has over 20 years experience as a designer and installer in hydronics. He is an expert in green and high-efficiency technology, and brings this expertise to hydronic projects for pool heating, agricultural work and custom hydronics. Reach him at: [email protected]
