OT – Variable Speed Pool Pumps

[jeeman]

ocrenter,

The SWG has been a God-send. I used to be out there, testing chemical levels and pouring in bleach to do the BBB method. The SWG has reduced that to twice a month. It comes out to equal cost over 3-4 years in money alone, but that time saved has put it way over the top.

I got Circupool for $800, and paid someone $100 to install it, and another $50 in parts. Electricity costs every day is around 40c/day.

jeeman

[scaredyclassic]

adding bleach is pretty easy.

you kind of know your levels without testing every day.

i love the BBB method i learned about on troublefreepool

[scaredyclassic]

adding bleach is pretty easy.

you kind of know your levels without testing every day.

i love the BBB method i learned about on troublefreepool

[scaredyclassic]

adding bleach is pretty easy.

you kind of know your levels without testing every day.

i love the BBB method i learned about on troublefreepool

[scaredyclassic]

adding bleach is pretty easy.

you kind of know your levels without testing every day.

i love the BBB method i learned about on troublefreepool

[scaredyclassic]

adding bleach is pretty easy.

you kind of know your levels without testing every day.

i love the BBB method i learned about on troublefreepool

[ocrenter]

Finally got my act together and went for the variable speed pump. Got the Pentair variable speed pump on ebay for $850. I called a bunch of places to install this thing. I would say 90% of the pool places refused to install pumps they do not supply. Going rate for pumps retail ranged from $1100 to $1500. Then on top of that they wanted to charge install and programming from $200 to $500.

Finally was able to find a few folks that were willing to install pumps purchased elsewhere. Prices ranged between $450 to $700.

Decided to watch a couple of youtube videos, got some additional supplies from home depot + amazon and installed the new pump myself. This is my first time playing around with PVC pipes so there was some apprehensions. Took about half a day, pump in, and all programmed. Going at 1000 rpm for 10 hours with 2500 rpm for the pool cleaner to run for 1.5 hours. Projected saving of around $70/mo. Counting the $200 SDGE rebate, break even should be about 10 months.

Just in time for the September SDGE rate hike too!

[CA renter]

Well done, OCR!!! 🙂

Please let us know how this affects your SDG&E bill going forward, if you don’t mind.

[an]

Great decision OCR. I’ve got mine switched out 4+ years ago and it saved me a lot of money. I got the same pump as you. I have mine on 2nd speed and have it run for 8-10 hours. I recently just put it down to 1st speed but have it run for 12 hours instead. I’ll see if that save me $ or not and whether it’s sufficient to keep the pool clean.

[ocrenter]

[quote=CA renter]Well done, OCR!!! 🙂

Please let us know how this affects your SDG&E bill going forward, if you don’t mind.[/quote]

would be interesting, will keep you up-to-date.

[ocrenter]

[quote=AN]Great decision OCR. I’ve got mine switched out 4+ years ago and it saved me a lot of money. I got the same pump as you. I have mine on 2nd speed and have it run for 8-10 hours. I recently just put it down to 1st speed but have it run for 12 hours instead. I’ll see if that save me $ or not and whether it’s sufficient to keep the pool clean.[/quote]

I ran a few scenarios on the pentair online calculator to get to my current settings.

http://www.pentairpool.com/pool-owner/resources/calculators/pool-pump-calc/

the pump makes a lot of sense given the cost of electricity goes up exponentially with the rpm. once you get control over the rpm, it almost becomes a hypermiling thing with hybrid drivers.

[ocrenter]

Just reviewed my electric bill over the last month. Our bill in September was exactly the same as our August payment, but this needs to be adjusted for the higher rate that kicked in for September and the exceptionally hot first part of the month. Given the first 2 weeks of September was essentially the 2 hottest week in the last 3 years, I ended up taking daily average electric use during weeks with no AC use before and after the installation of the variable speed pump.

Average kwh before the install was 23.7 kwh/day. Average kwh after the install was 19.7 kwh/day.

At 0.38 (new tier 4 rate) x 4 kwh x 30 = $45.6 per month saving.

After a month we just got the $200 rebate. So the pump after rebate was $600, translating to 13 month for the return on investment.

This is lower than previous projection on the ROI primarily due to the need to keep the pump at 2800 rpm one hour per day to keep the pool cleaner running and to keep the pool temp even and warm (at lower setting the water temp just under the pool cover is very warm while water at the deep end remained cold).

Still quite a worthwhile investment with the self install. ROI would be at 2 years if hiring an installer.

[CA renter]

Thank you very much for posting this, OCR. This is very helpful.

They always tout savings around $800-$1,400 per year, but that doesn’t seem to be quite the case. Still, not a bad investment.

[ocrenter]

[quote=CA renter]Thank you very much for posting this, OCR. This is very helpful.

They always tout savings around $800-$1,400 per year, but that doesn’t seem to be quite the case. Still, not a bad investment.[/quote]

CAR, it definitely still pays to switch over to a variable speed pump, there’s so much more flexibility with what you can do with the settings. The huge savings would be possible if the pool cleaner is not an issue and if water temp is not an issue. I’m thinking savings may therefore be more during the off season as we no longer need to maintain the water temp at 90 as my wife prefers, will reduce the 2800 rpm cycle from an hour down to 30 min. We had a lot of spa usage last month which will also likely drop down as we head toward cooler temp.

Definitely if you are thinking about solar the variable speed pump should go in first.

[Author]

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