Check out this website from FPL that helps you calculate the energy used by your pump and how much you would use with a variable speed pump (versus single speed) Pretty interesting stuff....but the price of a VS pump may or may not return on your investment depending on how often you use your pump. Some food for thought. Anyone have any other energy saving ideas regarding pool upkeep?

Forgot the website...http://www.fpl.com/residential/energy_s ... _spa.shtml

Converting the pump to a two speed (swapping the motor) is the cheapest way to cut the pump energy use in half.

Better site - from Pentair's website

http://pentairpool.com/pool-owner/resou ... /index.htm

Neither of those sites works out accurate for my cheap chinese single speed .75hp pump with over size plumbing using a mere 223w/h. Other friends and customers tell me they are using 650w and in one case 750w/h

The 750w customer has asked/challenged me to reduce their consumption so I will see how I get on.

Monthly Pool Pump Cost
How much does it cost to run my pool pump?
Pool pump horsepower:
.75 HP

Hours per day run time:

8 hours

Monthly Pool Pump Cost $32 On my figures that's $6.42
* Note: Electric cost of $ 0.12 per kWh.

Is that on low speed? Otherwise that would mean the motor is running at less than 25% load. What is the service factor of the motor?

Mark, That's on it's only speed. I must take my tachometer with me to test the rpm when I open it for the year. No service factor data, I am running a new hi flow skimmer 10m3/hour and on 2-1/2" pipe, system pressure 7psi very low head, 2 returns in 2".
I was/am going to fit a variable speed pump (very efficient) to test for possible supply to my customers but on figures like mine even an additional 100w saving won't save me much.

Don't forget we are on 220-240v in Europe

When I went to that Pentair site I linked, and put in the settings for what I have available for pumps (Pentair Superflo 1.5 HP Energy Efficient and a Hayward PowerFlo 2 .75 HP) and was comparing the cost factor - do I use 1.5 HP for the SuperFlo or 1 HP ? As I recall from last summer, the Powerflo uses about 1KW running and the Superflo about 1.3KW running (better than the 1.5 HP Superpump that it replaced).

I currently don't have a strainer assembly for the Powerflo(but this is readily available for $60-$100) - I was wondering if it would be worth it to just use the Powerflo.

BTW - I'm on a Timeof use demand rate system that has $0.0676 /KWh on peak and $0.05386/KWh off peak. I used the Powerflo for acouple weeks (without strainer) for a couple weeks last summer inbetween the Superpump and the Superflo and it seemed like it worked just fine.