Ok first a little history. I bought a house with pool. Never owned a pool before. Booster pump and main pump failed at first opening. Pool company did a bad job of selling me on a variable speed pump. They basically said that it was going to cost 1000 more and may save me some electricity. So I didn't buy the variable speed pump and I bought the single speed in my signature. Cost me $700. Now two months later I know that my electric company offers me a $500 rebate for installing a variable speed pump and after much research I see that they can save me up to 80%! So now I'm trying to figure out if I should upgrade now and maybe repurpose the new single speed for the water feature where I'm sure the pump will fail soon. Couple questions..
1. If I program my single speed pump to only run for 4-5 hours per day, wouldn't this save me about the same amount of electricity? I currently run the pump 24/7 on recommendation of the pool company that installed it. Also if I do this is there any problem with priming I need to worry about with? Is it extra wear and tear on the pump starting and stopping every day? What about schedules. Any advantage to running it for an interval in the morning and then again at night vs all together?
2. I'm still having trouble understanding how a variable speed pump saves so much money. I get that if it's running at a lower speed then it is drawing less electricity, but isn't this at the expense of flow or are they just that much more efficient?
3. I've read that their big advantage is the ability to run at higher speeds for cleaners or waterfalls running at the same time, but I assume this advantage would be lost on my setup as there is a separate booster pump for the cleaner and another pump for the water feature.
Thanks for the help.
1. If I program my single speed pump to only run for 4-5 hours per day, wouldn't this save me about the same amount of electricity? I currently run the pump 24/7 on recommendation of the pool company that installed it. Also if I do this is there any problem with priming I need to worry about with? Is it extra wear and tear on the pump starting and stopping every day? What about schedules. Any advantage to running it for an interval in the morning and then again at night vs all together?
2. I'm still having trouble understanding how a variable speed pump saves so much money. I get that if it's running at a lower speed then it is drawing less electricity, but isn't this at the expense of flow or are they just that much more efficient?
3. I've read that their big advantage is the ability to run at higher speeds for cleaners or waterfalls running at the same time, but I assume this advantage would be lost on my setup as there is a separate booster pump for the cleaner and another pump for the water feature.
Thanks for the help.
