The Brief

Kinross Wolaroi School required a complete dehumidification and ventilation upgrade for the indoor pool at its Orange campus. The 25 m × 10 m pool hall had been enclosed for more than 25 years, and its original air-handling system had reached the end of its serviceable life, no longer able to reliably maintain humidity, temperature and ventilation conditions.

The project scope required Pine Group to remove the existing air-handling unit and internal ductwork entirely and design a new purpose-built pool environmental control system — delivered around the constraints of an operating school calendar, with all major works confined to the Easter and June holiday periods.

The Challenge

Indoor pool halls present a uniquely demanding air-handling environment. Warm, moist, chemically-treated air interacts continuously with cold external surfaces, glazing and structural steel, and the system had to manage several risks at once:

• Preventing condensation on windows, walls and glazing as pool hall air (typically 28°C / 60% RH) meets colder surfaces below the ~19.5°C dew point.
• Protecting the building envelope and structure from long-term moisture damage.
• Distributing air evenly across the hall without blowing directly over swimmers or the water surface, which increases evaporation and discomfort.
• Replacing corroded, obsolete equipment with a system built to withstand a corrosive pool atmosphere (C4 corrosion classification).

Our Approach & Solution

Pine Group removed the existing air-handling unit and ductwork and installed a Dantherm DanX XWPS 12/24 dehumidification air-handling unit — a system purpose-built for swimming pool environments, with C4-rated corrosion protection, an epoxy-coated crossflow heat exchanger, protected coils and corrosion-resistant fasteners throughout.

The unit combines outside-air ventilation, recirculation, heat recovery and refrigeration-based dehumidification in one package. Its crossflow heat exchanger delivers greater than 75% heat-recovery efficiency, with a built-in heat pump providing a second stage of heat recovery, dehumidification and supply-air heating. An integrated mixing section varies outside air from 0–100%, introducing only what’s needed to hold pool hall conditions and minimise unnecessary heating.

New insulated galvanised-steel ductwork was run through the plant room, transitioning to stainless steel where it entered the pool hall itself. The supply duct splits into two spigots feeding Aerotextile fabric ducting, engineered to wash warm, dry air continuously along the external walls and glazing — protecting the coldest surfaces first — while distributing air evenly across the hall without disturbing swimmers or accelerating evaporation.

Outcomes

The completed system gives Kinross Wolaroi School a modern, energy-efficient pool environmental control solution that:

— Maintains controlled pool hall humidity and temperature
— Delivers balanced outside-air ventilation and exhaust
— Recovers heat from warm extract air via a 75%+ efficient heat exchanger
— Reduces condensation risk on glazing and external walls
— Improves comfort for students, staff and pool users
— Protects the building structure and internal finishes long-term