Need help, Swimming Pool Pump

[inetdog]

Here's an idea for you instead.
Replace the motor on your current pool pump with a 2-speed motor. This can cut your electricity usage in half.
Here's the information I learned when I did mine...

That sort of real life experience, with numbers, is a great contribution to the Forum. Thanks!
There are times when intelligent load reduction is a lot more economical than investing is solar.

[Texas Wellman]

Thanks. I was skeptical about the energy savings until I figured out how it really works. Since the pump is moving much less water, the energy required to move that water decreases exponentially. The motor should only cost ~$200 USD, add another $200 for the upgraded timer. I installed mine myself. Solar pump for your pool my guess would cost about $5,000 USD and you would still probably have to run it on the grid intermittently.

As a side benefit since the water is moving much slower it filters better. It's better to move your water slower for longer than it is to move a lot of water for a short period of time. Not to mention that the pump is almost silent at low speed and I anticipate the motor lasting much longer.

That sort of real life experience, with numbers, is a great contribution to the Forum. Thanks!
There are times when intelligent load reduction is a lot more economical than investing is solar.

[SunEagle]

Thanks. I was skeptical about the energy savings until I figured out how it really works. Since the pump is moving much less water, the energy required to move that water decreases exponentially. The motor should only cost ~$200 USD, add another $200 for the upgraded timer. I installed mine myself. Solar pump for your pool my guess would cost about $5,000 USD and you would still probably have to run it on the grid intermittently.

As a side benefit since the water is moving much slower it filters better. It's better to move your water slower for longer than it is to move a lot of water for a short period of time. Not to mention that the pump is almost silent at low speed and I anticipate the motor lasting much longer.

That is good info on a variable speed pool pump. I guess as long as you can get all foreign particles filtered out of the pool water it doesn't really matter how long it takes. It's not like you need the power of a jacuzzi. Getting the job done and still saving energy without a big investment sounds like a good plan.

[Texas Wellman]

Just FYI it's not quite "Variable speed". They make another model that will speed up/slow down through all the RPM ranges. I forget what the brand names are for each. I think Pentair calls theirs "Intelliflo". Hayward has their own also. It costs over $1,000 to upgrade and then you have electronics to deal with. It will save more energy, but costs much, much more. This 2 speed motor gives you MOST of the gains from the VFD without the extra cost and electronics.

That is good info on a variable speed pool pump. I guess as long as you can get all foreign particles filtered out of the pool water it doesn't really matter how long it takes. It's not like you need the power of a jacuzzi. Getting the job done and still saving energy without a big investment sounds like a good plan.

[SunEagle]

Just FYI it's not quite "Variable speed". They make another model that will speed up/slow down through all the RPM ranges. I forget what the brand names are for each. I think Pentair calls theirs "Intelliflo". Hayward has their own also. It costs over $1,000 to upgrade and then you have electronics to deal with. It will save more energy, but costs much, much more. This 2 speed motor gives you MOST of the gains from the VFD without the extra cost and electronics.

Thank you for clarifying to the other readers. I have a tendency to lump any type of multi speed motor application into the "variable speed" category.

I have first hand experience with 2 speed dual wound motors, electronic variable frequency ac drives, dc drives and adjustable mechanical drives to change the speed of the "process" even though the motor stays at the same rpm.

The ac variable frequency drives give you a lot of speed adjustments but also can cause the motor to overheat if you run them too slow. That is because the "cooling fan" blades on the motor don't spin fast enough to move air over the motor case.

I am glad to see the "mult speed" application has been incorporated into pool pumps without affecting the process.

Thanks again for the info.

[russ]

This 2 speed motor gives you MOST of the gains from the VFD without the extra cost and electronics.

Some percentage of the gains

[Wazza1152]

Here's an idea for you instead.

Replace the motor on your current pool pump with a 2-speed motor. This can cut your electricity usage in half.

Here's the information I learned when I did mine. My 1-HP Pentair Whisperflo pump uses about 8 amps and pumps about 50-60 GPM. When my motor went out I opted for a dual-speed motor that fits right onto the same pump. At full speed (3450 rpm) I get full flow, about 50-60 GPM. The motor consumes about 8 amps. At 1/2 speed, about 1725 rpm, the pump pumps about 1/2 the water but only consumes 1/8 of the electricity.

3450 RPM about 8 amps 50-60 GPM
1725 RPM about 1 amp 20-30 GPM

I have a BW flowmeter on my pump discharge that verifies this fact. Since you are not pumping as much water as before you will need to run the pump longer, but I found that I only had to increase my daily usage by 3-4 hours, which still cut my power usage by 50% or more.

You will need to upgrade your timer to be compatible with a 2-speed pump. Mine starts on high speed and then switches to low after a pre-set time. You need to start on high-speed to ensure that the pump is fully primed, it may not prime fully on low speed. The other negative is that my skimmers don't work quite as well so I plugged one and simply run off one skimmer now. The flow detector for the SWCG (salt water chlorine generator) is a switch that works off of flow and sometimes they won't work well when the pump is on low speed (it flutters).

Good luck!!

Appreciate your input, great ideas
Thanks

[ananthapriya]

I worked on the variable speed motor design for the Viron. There is a separate line where I've tried to explain how it works, it's over here if anyone is interested. Thanks.

[russ]

I worked on the variable speed motor design for the Viron. There is a separate line where I've tried to explain how it works, it's over here if anyone is interested. Thanks.

More nonsense from Tamil, Nadu India - caution with giving useless advice or you will not be allowed to post.

[ananthapriya]

More nonsense from Tamil, Nadu India - caution with giving useless advice or you will not be allowed to post.

Hey idiot i have that problem so i am discuss abt that if u know how to slove reply here..otherwise get lost frm here..........

[russ]

Hey idiot i have that problem so i am discuss abt that if u know how to slove reply here..otherwise get lost frm here..........

Mod note - By Dan - banned

Now you change user names to locksmith?

Later to Conradsparrow

[pmaru77]

HAhaha

Guy calling the moderator an idiot. Now, it is obv. that who the idiot is. I'm waiting for my pool pump to konk out so I can justify the change. But the way SDG&E is cranking up their costs for juice, I may have to act earlier. I'm not sold on filtering working better with slower pump, thus less pressure? I've got a fairly large filter, and when cleaning, I can see that it is not uniform. I wonder if anyone can verify that slower pump gives more uniform filtering.

[Texas Wellman]

Filtering is solely dependent on flow, not pressure. The slower the water goes through the filter the better job it does catching the small particles. If you circulate the same amount of water in 2x the time you have kept the water from stagnating and moving through your filter system.

Guy calling the moderator an idiot. Now, it is obv. that who the idiot is. I'm waiting for my pool pump to konk out so I can justify the change. But the way SDG&E is cranking up their costs for juice, I may have to act earlier. I'm not sold on filtering working better with slower pump, thus less pressure? I've got a fairly large filter, and when cleaning, I can see that it is not uniform. I wonder if anyone can verify that slower pump gives more uniform filtering.

[russ]

Filtering is solely dependent on flow, not pressure. The slower the water goes through the filter the better job it does catching the small particles. If you circulate the same amount of water in 2x the time you have kept the water from stagnating and moving through your filter system.

At the end of it you are looking for some number of "turnovers" of the pool per day - I use four as my plan.

This can be done at night as well as day if it helps the electric costs.

[inetdog]

Hey idiot i have that problem so i am discuss abt that if u know how to slove reply here..otherwise get lost frm here..........

Telling a moderator to get lost is never a good idea.