From automated pool systems to voice-activated lighting and energy-efficient designs, smart technologies (many of them driven by AI), increasingly are commanding a starring role in outdoor spaces.
Justin Reyes, pool marketing and training manager at Raypak, a Rheem company, notes that although automation and smart technology are not new to the pool industry, the collaboration among big-brand manufacturers and their collective focus on innovations around AI is evolving.
“As this happens, we’re going to witness the next evolutionary stage in the pool design space,” he says. “Consumers and builders continue to push the envelope when it comes to designing the perfect backyard oasis, and it’s only going to get better and smarter from here.”
AquaStar, Poolside Tech and Raypak/Rheem, aka “The New 3,” he says, have partnered to bring a better, integrated energy-saving system that improves efficiency and performance.
AquaStar’s PipeLine Pump and Filter, Raypak/Rheem’s Crosswind V heat pump pool and spa heater and the AVIA HD pool and spa heater with NiTek exclusive heat-exchanger technology and Poolside Tech’s The Attendant pool automation control, are, “on their own, revolutionary, but when combined in this new system, they’re groundbreaking, and it is starting to change the way builders and pool professionals are thinking about the equipment pad,” Reyes says.
Pool automation, he points out, has indeed, gotten better over the past decade, with a variety of all-in-one products reshaping the market and changing consumers’ expectations.
“Where these types of products/systems can go to the next level would be through AI integration to help both pool professionals and consumers program automation with ease,” he says.
Consumers, of course, are eagerly waiting to embrace this new AI-inclusive technology.
“Imagine firing up the spa heat by phone while stuck in traffic, so your spa is ready upon arrival home,” says R’nelle Lazlo, vice president of national marketing at Blue Haven Pools, which since the 1990s has been an early adopter of technology. “Or how about sitting down to dinner with guests, and with a single voice command, turning on some evening entertainment of dazzling pool lights, fire bowls and water features.”
One of the most dramatic new technological effects is the artful use of LED lighting. “For upscale pools, options like illuminated spas, laminars, bubbler fountains, rock waterfalls and color-changing light shows deliver a whole other dimension of visual appeal,” Lazlo said.
Ozone and Advanced Oxidation Process or AOP systems, which Lazlo says provide “silky soft, glistening water without the typical chlorine fuss like red eyes, dry skin and awful chemical fumes” are also popular.
Benjamin Lasseter, a partner and director of construction at Design Ecology in Austin, says that AI already is speeding the workflow of software modeling programs, including CAD and Building Information Modeling or BIM.
BIM, which Lasseter calls the “next wave of design technology,” creates a digital model that’s not only spatially and visually accurate but that also accounts for the physical and functional characteristics of the model.
BIM takes CAD one step further, providing more meaning to line drawings. “The system understands that the line, for instance, is a 3-inch PVC pipe, and it can contain all the properties of that pipe, such as size, flow rate and routing capabilities,” he says. “Even more advanced BIM modeling can incorporate concrete and reinforcing steel properties, speeding up the design delivery process from start to finish.”
Although the industry has been slow to develop comprehensive smart systems that work across proprietary brands, Poolside Tech, which is not brand specific, is leading the way.
“You can control just about any brand light or pump or other feature right out of the box,” Lasseter says. “This means that you can control a Hayward ColorLogic 80 – a really small light – in one area and a Jandy Infinite WaterColors Light in another area.”
Despite regulations that require homeowners to be at the pool to monitor the opening and closing of covers, advancements in technology have enhanced the features of these energy-saving, safety products.
Latham, The Pool Company, for example, has a touch screen controller that connects to a home’s WiFi system to send safety alerts to the homeowner that detail who accessed the cover and when it was done.
Jamie Long, director of product management, auto covers at the company, says that new technology has allowed “for an auto cover mechanism to be installed in a much smaller footprint, so it can go virtually unnoticed in a homeowner’s landscape. As poolscapes continue to evolve, we continue to develop solutions so homeowners can experience all the benefits of an automatic safety cover without sacrificing on design. We’ve done some really complex projects that involve hidden leading edges, infinity pools and freeform pools that have turned out beautifully.”
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