Tomorrow's Home Pool
The principal difference between today's home pools and those of tomorrow is that most of tomorrow's pools will be expansive lap pools inside the house. Home pool systems will become integral and functional parts of the home - not just pretty ponds in the backyard. Another major difference is that tomorrow's pools will receive far more use than today's pools. In most of tomorrow's homes, the pool will be used daily for exercise and hydrotherapy. And, in addition to its use as a swimming and conditioning facility, the pool room in the home will be an observation center, a control center, a communications center, a work center, a recreation center, and a learning center as described in "The Home of Tomorrow" and "The Expansive Pool."
Size: Pools will usually be about 8' x 16' (one swimmer pools), 16' x 16' (two swimmer pools), or proportionately larger for multiuser pools.
Location: Most pools will be inside the home or will adjoin the home. The pool will be an integral element of the home's heating/cooling, humidification, and irrigation system. When installed in existing homes, the pool will often be enclosed in what was formerly a carport or garage - or in a room added to the exterior of the home. In new homes built with expansive pools, the pool will usually adjoin three other elements in the home: the home's communication center, its greenwing (greenhouse), and a shower/dressing room. [Or, if the home has an existing exterior pool, the pool may be enclosed with quadrispheres or comparable covers, with air flow and communication lines - and perhaps a greenhouse or covered walkway - extending from home to pool.] With regard to geography, home pools may eventually become more commonplace in cold and temperate climates than in warm climates.
Temperature and heating: Users will have full control over the pool's water temperature. Users may provide advance instructions or programs for varying the temperature or may have the pool maintain a constant temperature. Initially, various methods will be used to heat expansive pools but, in the long term, most will be heated with a combination of hydrogen heaters and solar hot water heaters.
Lighting: Expansive pools, particularly the indoor pools, will employ special lighting systems to enhance user satisfaction. Full-spectrum fluorescent lamps will be used to illuminate expansive pool areas. Such lamps provide the kind of feelings of well-being that people experience when they are bathed in sunshine - while, at the same time, avoiding the risk of sunburn and the need for sunscreens. Such lamps help reduce the depression felt by many whose exposure to sunlight is limited because of climate, season, weather, or living or working conditions. Full-spectrum lighting has been shown to be helpful in treating the "winter doldrums" suffered by those who go through extended periods with limited exposure to sunshine.
Usability and functionality: Most of today's home pools receive limited use because of their small size, exposure to weather, and/or unheated water. They often go for days, weeks, months, or years without a swimmer. But, because of their ready availability and convenience of use, the majority of tomorrow's home pools will receive daily use. The new home pools, particularly those constructed as expansive pools (as opposed to conventional pools that are converted to expansive pools) will also serve as hydrotherapeutic facilities. The new pools will have a massage table and seats or benches separated from the swimming area by hinged baffles (see attached sketches). Pool users in the hydrotherapy area will be able to employ a wide variety of massaging, exercising, measuring, and medical paraphernalia that can improve their health and comfort.
Universality of use: With the appropriate tools and accessories, tomorrow's home pool will allow individuals with any kind of infirmity or disability to use the pool with little or no assistance. For example, through the use of a simple motorized or manually-powered overhead crane, anyone will be able to hoist themselves into and out of the pool. Further, the computerized support and suspension apparatus that will be an integral element of the system will permit anyone, from infants to completely disabled adults, to swim safely.
Interactivity: The expansive pool, the pool user, and the pool environment will continuously interact through various kinds of input, processing, and output devices. These devices will enable the user to monitor the pool and the other elements in the home and to effect any changes desired, as described in "The Home of Tomorrow," "Tomorrow's Household Mainframe," and "The Expansive Pool." The devices will enable the user to optimize the pool's benefits as a swimming, fitness, and hydrotherapeutic facility - and as an observation, communications, work, training, entertainment, and control center.
Multiuser pools: Traditional lap pools are large and require much water. They are costly (1) to heat if they are outside and (2) to house if they inside. Such cost, space, and water requirements make group lap pools unfeasible or impractical for most organizations. But the relatively small construction and operational costs of expansive lap pools will bring them into much wider use. Multiuser expansive pools will become common in health clubs, nursing homes, apartments, and in condominium and home clusters.
A world of swimmers: Swimming is the best all-around exercise for most people. Carried out properly, it is the most beneficial form of aerobic exercise. The support and buoyancy of the body in water minimizes the frequency and severity of injuries to the muscles, bones, and connective tissues. Weightlifting, resistance, and other muscle-building tools are more safely and effectively used in water than on hard, dry surfaces. Add to those advantages the privacy, security, and 24-hour availability of indoor expansive pools, and swimming is likely to become the most common fitness activity around the world.
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