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Attached is a proposed piece of climate change legislation which
could be passed statewide by the California Legislature or could
be passed in a modified form by a municipality or county for local
enactment.

Heating a swimming pool exclusively with natural gas or propane is
a luxury we can no longer afford.

A Hybrid Solar Swimming Pool Heater provides

A. The most convenient swimming pool heater: Natural gas or
propane for “anytime heat.”

B. The most cost effective swimming pool heater: Solar pool
heating for “free heat from the sun.”

C. The most Global Warming (Climate Change) friendly swimming pool
heater: Solar pool heating for “CO2 emissions-free heat. 

Background:  A typical gas pool heater uses around 8 therms per
square foot of pool surface per year to maintain a constant
temperature of approx. 80 degrees F (this varies depending upon
local microclimate conditions.

CO2 emissions from gas pool heaters are around 11 pounds per
therm.

Municipal (Olympic) size pools generally have about 12,000 feet of
surface area and are typically heated for daily use, year round.  A
solar pool heating system can reduce 40% to 60% of the annual gas
used to heat a year-round pool (the solar contribution is higher
for pools that are NOT heated year-round).

In the case of an Olympic size pool, this would equate to between
35,000 to 55,000 therms per year of gas use reduction and CO2
emission reductions between 400,000 to 600,000 pounds per year in
this example.

Nitrous oxides emission reductions would be on the order of 400 to
600 pounds, relative to the CO2 reduction.

The reductions possible from smaller-sized gas heated pools would
be directly proportional.

There are approx. 67,000 commercial pools (including municipal,
governmental, educational, hospitality industry, multi-family,
etc) in California.  There are approx. 1,000,000 residential pools
in California. The majority are heated.