The pool, what makes many make the decision to choose their hotel, also needs to be imposing and tempting, and to achieve this lighting has become a fundamental element.
by María Cecilia Hernández Ocampo
The pool of your hotel, by itself, is not an attraction enough to capture the attention of potential guests. As the rooms, the service and the gastronomic offer are taken care of, it is necessary to give the importance it deserves to the pool.
This is not only a space for leisure and fun, with a little effort it can become the great focus of attention, a therapeutic and relaxing place and a beautiful work of art that illuminates the gardens of the establishment.
"Nowadays there can be no pool without lighting, especially if the water has heating. In any corner of the planet we can enjoy a night bath or a delicious dinner at the edge of the pool without using any other light than a candle on the table and what the pool and its surroundings can give us, "says Oscar Susena, sales manager of the wholesale supplier Sudamericana, located in Uruguay.
Find out about the possibilities
When starting a process, which could be called, of renovation of your pool, doubts attack and for those who are not experts in the subject it becomes impossible to know where to start.
The first thing, as experts advise, is to seek the advice of those who know about this. But before that, you must have at least an idea of the result you would like to obtain.
Search the internet, learn about new technologies, go to those who know about lighting and set priorities focused on several elements: investment value, maintenance cost, aesthetic result, safety for users, quality of the luminaire and low energy consumption.
It is important to know that, depending on the installation project, other physical reform expenses must be incurred because it is necessary to break floors or walls for the electrical installation, but this will be established by the installer.
"At present we can talk about three main lighting systems for swimming pools; these are halogen lighting, Led technology and fiber optics. Another system used for purely aesthetic purposes is that of floating lamps, but without a doubt the one that is setting the trend is LED lighting, "says Emilio Castillo, commercial director of the Spanish company Aquazone Pools.
LeDs are the best option
Indeed, LEDs have become one of the best options to illuminate an aquatic space, part of the merit of their favoritism is their easy maintenance, their long service life and, according to Castillo, their increasingly competitive prices.
According to Susena "In Uruguay it is equipped with halogen or Led bulbs; the first ones have two things against them: energy consumption and that they can not be out of the water, these are exactly the two factors in favor of LeDs".
The expert also explains that these favorable conditions allow the pool and its surroundings to be illuminated with LED, maintaining a unified aesthetic concept, using the same sequence in the play of lights and allowing to play more with the imagination. In this way, the water mirror, the gardens and the spaces of common use in the surroundings of the pool can be illuminated with the same concept.
But in addition to the colors with which the designer of the lighting project can play, elements that help capture attention can be added to the proposal, movement is one of them.
Water games and color changes of lights can be combined with the available technology, to make your hotel pool the preferred place for guests.
The more technology and more additions, the higher the cost of the investment that will be made and in that sense the market offers countless options that allow you to design almost anything you can imagine.
It should be mentioned that Led technology also provides the possibility of automating lighting in any space. In this case, the hotel manager can program the effects and sequences of the lights and control them in an automated way.
According to the experts of the company Pentair Water Pool and Spa the possibilities are infitas, ranging from "coloring" the pool in a single color, to "creating a dancing light show. The lighting can be adapted with the aim of creating safety signals, for example, depth or proximity to the edges of the pool, among others."
A work of art for life
A delicate but at the same time very simple issue is the maintenance of this type of luminaires. "The care is nothing more than keeping the water clean, which ensures that the luminaires are in good condition, and once a week at least it must be verified that they are not loose, because they could hurt the user. There are cases in which due to poor quality of the anchors, and especially where there are children, they use them to affirm the foot when leaving the pool and loosen up, "explains Oscar Susena.
For his part, Emilio Castillo believes that there are very few maintenance actions that should be done to the luminaires, one of the most important, he says, is to take into account the time to change the bulbs, "since the Led offer greater durability, this will have to be done very occasionally".
Changing the subject, the experts were asked what should be the conditions that a hotel establishment must meet when it plans to implement a lighting system in its pool and surroundings or renovate the one that already exists. The following are some important aspects that should be taken into account:
The architect and the engineer in charge of the electrical part must be clear that all pool lighting should not reach the water with a load greater than 12 or 24 watts, counting on the transformers corresponding to the necessary load (W); the builder must check all cable outlets so that there are no hydraulic losses.
Likewise, the amure of the artifacts and the passage of cables through walls have to be very precise so that there are no water losses; ideally, each luminaire should have a junction box located no more than one meter from the edge of the pool, so as not to have to take out a very long stretch of cable in case the total change is necessary.
To highlight
The lighting models are many, some of the most used are:
Fiber optic lighting system: this model is characterized by providing maximum security for pool users, in addition to offering all the aesthetic and creative benefits of other systems. It also avoids the maintenance work of the lenses that were installed underwater, since it does not transfer heat or electricity in the cables.
Led lighting: this system highlights the lighting of intense and striking colors. We are talking more about Led projectors. It is a type of installation that can be controlled and programmed remotely and must be installed about 40 or 50 centimeters from the edge of the pool to access the projectors when it is necessary to make a change or maintenance.
Floating lamps: they are composed of a water-repellent material that prevents moisture and leaks; They are made of polyethylene, which allows to isolate the electricity, are kept in balance on the water and work by means of batteries of high durability.
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