Energy Efficient Pool Pump

[Jack]

what exactly is an energy efficient pool pump? browsing google links, for example, this is a sample list of pricing for a pump:

1 1/2 H.P. Motor $119 Heavy Duty $139 Energy Efficient $169

as you can see, the energy efficient model is $50 more than the regular model

I also looked at this page

where it appears they have a "Capacitor Start", meaning (?) it reduces the LRA or power surge at startup?

if anyone has replaced a standard Sta-Rite inground pump with one of these, please tell, what did you find and was there a difference in power consumption and did all your filters & pool cleaners continue to run normal?

there appears to be also incentive programs for installing a two-speed pool pump? anyone done this? how did the program work? can you purchase a qualifying pump over the web and install it yourself and still qualify?

[gfretwell]

They are usually just a pump with a better power factor. You don't think about it since they tend to be water cooled but a lot of heat energy gets transferred to the water.

[HeyBub]

[...]

A contradiction.

Somebody who owns a pool cannot, by definition, be energy efficiency devotee. It would be similar, in concept, to an SUV owner who refused to run the car's A/C or insisting on a diet drink at the donut shop.

[Dale Eastman]

Hee, hee. That's funny.

What about solar collector for heating the pool, and pv to dc circulating pump?

Would that fix the contradiction?

[Harry Chickpea]

Hey Bub, you're a twit. The house we bought already had a pool even though we didn't want it. Taking it out would lower the property value. FWIW, I ran the pool pump two weeks ago for a few hours, but I use a 75 watt pool robot most of the time. This email is being sent from a solar powered computer, so stuff it.

[Astro]

ok, back to the original question. I finally got fed up with my pool pump causing about a huge increase in summer electric bills and got a two speed pump. My original one was 1-1/2 hp. but I think much of that power was wasted due to turbulent flow in the 1-1/2 piping they used throughout. I purchased a quiet two speed pump, Pentair Whisper-flow

and replaced all the piping I had access to with 2", removed the heater that was rotted out anyway, and cleaned up the runs. Anyway, the pump is wonderful. On low speed, I still get plenty of flow for water circulation/filtration and you can't hear it. The old one was so noisy we usually turned it off when we were in the pool. I run it 12h/day to get the desired turnover rate and my electric usage has dropped substantially. Before I ran 4 hours a day and that wasn't enough and it used much more energy.

As for pool cleaners, I long ago rid myself of the polaris that runs off the pool pump and got a Tiger Shark, self powered unit. Works much better and doesn't rely on the pool pump.

That's it for now. I have to get back to drinking my diet coke and eating my steak....

[Jack]

do you now run it only on 2nd low speed and do you have to hit a manual switch or can it be programmed to select 1 or 2?

what's the amp/watts at low speed?

[Craven Morehead]

Hey gfretwell,

Pool pumps are NOT water cooled.

S>

[gfretwell]

Where do you figure all those watts (AKA heat) go if it isn't into the water?

[Harry Chickpea]

Uhhh, into the air? The only connection between my pump and the motor is the shaft and a four bolt mounting bracket. Pool pumps can get hot enough to burn your hand if you touch them. Yes, I understand your idea that the movement of the water eventually is expressed as heat, but a considerable amount of heat generated at the motor coils never makes it to the water.

[Dave]

The original replier had it right. You don't have a clue as to what is being discussed.

Dave

[Dave]

My pool is 100% solar heated and has been for 26 years. Another poster with no clue as to what they're saying.

Dave

[Astro]

On slow speed, it's adding 300w to my home base load. I didn't take the time to meter it for amps, power factor or anything else. On high speed, it's 1600w. Wattage measurements made with a TED device, which very closely matches my home electric meter readings.

As noted, the piping on my pool is undersized so the head pressure is quite high. That would help the low speed condition even more as the turbulence should be much lower on low setting.

I run it low speed 12h/day. The only time I switch to high now is to backwash and it's keeping my 28000gallon pool crystal clear. Much better than when I ran the original pump full out for 6 hours/day. The manufacturer rates it as: 7.8A/3.0A (230v) at full load. so VA would be 1800w/690w so this it telling me based on the specs that my suspicion is pretty much correct - the pump is nearly fully loaded at high speed and has a low load at low speed. I'm figuring that my old pump was using something like 2kw * 4 = 8kwh vs. the new one at .3kw *

12 = 4kwh per day. It may have been worse. Based on the flow curves, I'm guessing that I'm getting something like 20gpm at slow speed and 50gpm at high. So for .19x the watts, I get .4x the flow.

To be conservative, I'm saving about $0.60/day using the new pump longer and getting significantly better filtration. Will it pay off? That comes out to be something like a 9 year simple payoff, so it's not huge. But I haven't experimented yet to see the minimum number of hours I can run and get adequate filtration.

As for the two speed switch - it just has a toggle on the back. However, you could wire it up to use a relay/timer to switch between modes.