Pool Pump plumbing and Electrial question:

[Norminn]

Oops....replied to the wrong thread.

[DD_BobK]

Bob F covers all the important points....

A 2 speed pump will save way more money than an elbow replacement....

[harry]

I thought this thread was about swimming pools not garden/wildlife ponds. Entirely different problems.

[trader4]

Short

[krw]

F==Fahrenheit, Run it in the sunlight and raise the by two degrees. Run it at night and lower it 2 degrees. Four degrees total, which is significant.

[krw]

Tit mixes the water. Eradicative and evaporative cooling tends to cool only a top layer (~6", IME) of water. Running the filter brings the warmer water to the surface. The reverse is true during sunlight hours.

[Danny D]

Drat. I never knew there was a distinction! Until now. :(

I also didn't know enough to even think to ask about a distinction.

In hindsight, I would have used long-radius elbows had I known of their very existence, especially since I had tons of room:

It seems, upon looking just now at my original professionally installed plumbing, that there were no long-radius elbows used:

That's odd, because there was plenty of room, so, I wonder why the builders opted for short-radius elbows instead of the more efficient longer-radius elbows (which can't possibly have cost all that much more, can they?).

[gfretwell]

From my experience most pool installers are ambivalent about pool hydraulics and if they end up having to much head, they just use a bigger pump or tell you to run it longer. They just go for a compact jumble of pipes that looks pretty. There were several good web sites that had hydraulic calculators when I was building my pool. (google pool hydraulics) I ended up using 3" pipe with sweeps for the curves on the long trunk runs, necking down to 2", then 1.5" at each return and minimized the number of elbows in the "pack" area. I used 45s to get into the ground and back out, That saves you the "price" of less than half of the head calc vs a pair of 90s. The end result was I could turn over a 15,000 gallon pool with 1hp less than 5 hours. I get the spa turned over for free. I spent another $50 on the bigger pipe but I got that back in electrical savings pretty fast and my pump cruises at 4-5 PSI with a clean filter.