I replaced my old whisperflow pump about a month and a half ago. My electric bill was running about $400 in the summer months so I went with an Intelliflo VS pump and have it running on speed two for 4 hours and speed 3 for four hours each day. I was excited to get my bill today being that it would be the first full month with the pump. I was shocked to get my highest bill ever at $565.00, especially considering that we were on vacation and no one was home using electricity for 3 weeks out of the month. I am completely at a loss of what to do. Has anyone ever experienced this?
Electric bill skyrockets after installing vs pump
- Thread starter Earld
- Start date
How many hp was your old pump? Do you know how many watts it used when running? I run my VS pump at 1100 rpm for skimming, filtering and making chlorine and it draws 150 watts. I run it at 1950 rpm when solar heat kicks on and it uses 550 watts. I can run my pump 24x7 at 1100 rpm for less than 12 bucks a month.
The old pump was a 1 hp running at 3450 watts for 8 hours per day. The new pump is showing 2450 watts on speed 3 for 4 hours and 1000 watts on speed 2 for four hours. I'm tempted just to drop it down to speed 1 24/7 and see how it does. It shows about 110 watts on the lowest speed.
IMO, you might want to consider some other variables.
1. Was the meter read correctly? I personally have had issues with the electric company and water company "estimating" my reading. The last time it occurred just so happened to be the month I filled my pool. When I received my bill, it was 6,000 gallons. I knew for a fact that I put 13000+ into the pool. I went out and read the meter the day I received the bill, and in 6 days since their "supposed" read, I had used 19,000 gals. This is the first thing I would consider. Was your previous month bill abnormally low? On my electric bill, they actually have a code that signifies whether it was Read (R) or Estimate (E)
2. I am not familiar with the weather in your area. Where I am at, just because no one is home, does not mean no electricity is used. Especially in the summer heat. My house would be 90+ if I turned off my ACs
I ran my 1.5 hp pump on high speed for a month when the pool was first opened and I estimated it cost no more than 60 - 80
1. Was the meter read correctly? I personally have had issues with the electric company and water company "estimating" my reading. The last time it occurred just so happened to be the month I filled my pool. When I received my bill, it was 6,000 gallons. I knew for a fact that I put 13000+ into the pool. I went out and read the meter the day I received the bill, and in 6 days since their "supposed" read, I had used 19,000 gals. This is the first thing I would consider. Was your previous month bill abnormally low? On my electric bill, they actually have a code that signifies whether it was Read (R) or Estimate (E)
2. I am not familiar with the weather in your area. Where I am at, just because no one is home, does not mean no electricity is used. Especially in the summer heat. My house would be 90+ if I turned off my ACs
I ran my 1.5 hp pump on high speed for a month when the pool was first opened and I estimated it cost no more than 60 - 80
Welcome to TFP!
See this article, Determining Pump Run Time.
You are running at too high of speed for too long of a period which is costing you money. Eight hours at round 1000 RPMs is likely enough for most pools. If you add your pool information to your signature we can offer more advice per your pool.
See this article, Determining Pump Run Time.
You are running at too high of speed for too long of a period which is costing you money. Eight hours at round 1000 RPMs is likely enough for most pools. If you add your pool information to your signature we can offer more advice per your pool.
Thank you for the help. I will add my pool info to my signature. I was running the pump at lower speeds but when we got back from vacation, it was a swamp. It is 19000 gallons and I cannot remember the dimensions so I will ask my husband when he gets home. He takes care of the pool but I do all the programming for the pump. We live in the high desert so our summers are consistently 100 degrees daily. This is only our second year in this house so we are newbies with the pool. Where we are we use swamp coolers as opposed to air conditioners and they don't cost much to run. When I called Edison this morning they told me it may take a while for the pump to acclimate and be consistent. That doesn't sound right to me.
Swamp coolers. Grew up in El Paso and love those things.
Most be an awesome motor on that pump if it has the ability to "acclimate." btw, sarcastic does not come across in text. My statement was at the top of the charts in sarcasm.
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Most be an awesome motor on that pump if it has the ability to "acclimate." btw, sarcastic does not come across in text. My statement was at the top of the charts in sarcasm.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The Intelliflo VS should be able to tell you the # watts that are being used based on the run speed (rpm) you have set. You can then multiply that out with your electricty cost and come up with a monthly cost. Do you happen to have the Pentair Easytouch system?
I couldn't believe it when that gal from Edison told me about "acclimating". I thought that sounded ridiculous! We don't have the pentair easy touch system. I do see the watts on the control panel so I cannot possibly see how our bill this month would be so high since we were using far less watts with the new pump. I'm totally stumped. I'm going to check our meter every day and see how it is looking. The pump we bought is Pentair 011018 IntelliFlo Variable Speed
The swamp wasn't caused by running on low speed unless you have a SWG and it wasn't producing FC because the flow was too low. The swamp was caused by not having enough FC per your CYA level.
So interestingly, my husband came home and decided to double check our meter and the bill. They are off by 865 kwh on our bill so now Edison is supposed to be sending someone out to re-read the meter so we will see. I'm not sure how they could be so far off but I'm hoping it's just that and nothing going on with our electric or pool pump. Thanks for all the help!
hi and welcome
calculating your old pump equals around 27.6kw
your vs pump equals 11.8kw
so substantially less
just read your above post about incorrect meter read
anyway what i was going to add
any sudden increase in electricity bill is usually caused by refrigerator motor running too long due to losing pressure
calculating your old pump equals around 27.6kw
your vs pump equals 11.8kw
so substantially less
just read your above post about incorrect meter read
anyway what i was going to add
any sudden increase in electricity bill is usually caused by refrigerator motor running too long due to losing pressure
Glad to hear you might have a simple resolution. You invested in a great pump and have discovered a great website that can help in more ways than you can imagine. There is definitely some good reading and if you are interested in take control of your pool and saving some money doing it, this is the place with all the answers.
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- Jun 12, 2011
- 3,761
- Pool Size
- 19500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pureline Crystal Pure 60,000
You keep referring to speed 1, speed 2, speed 3, as if they are fixed speeds. The beautiful things about a VS pump (I have the same model pump) is that you can fine tune a specific speed for each task. I have dialed in exactly what speed I need to run for my solar heating system, a different minimum speed for the in floor cleaning system, and a minimum to keep the SWG working.
My pump spends most of its running time drawing less than 150 watts, vs my old single speed pump using 3,000 watts.
Do some experimentation and find at what minimum speed you need to run your pump.
My pump spends most of its running time drawing less than 150 watts, vs my old single speed pump using 3,000 watts.
Do some experimentation and find at what minimum speed you need to run your pump.
1 HP is 746 watts (you meant 3450 rpm). You need to run your pump at a much slower rpm to be equivalent to your old pump's power. Run your pump and start dialing down the rpms and watch the watts drop as well.
That is correct. I have reprogrammed speed 1 to 1100 rpm, speed 2 to 1950 rpm, speed 3 to 1500 rpm and speed 4 to 2500 rpm.
Your old 1 hp pump could not consume 3450 Watts. 3450 is the RPM of a single speed motor. My 2 hp single speed pump uses around 2450 Watts (11 amp x 220 volts).
- May 3, 2007
- 16,842
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
I suspect you mean 3450 RPM. A 1 HP Whisperflo would use 1800 watts maximum or about 14 kwh per day (which was too much run time to begin with). Your new pump is using about 14 kwh per day too. Your speeds are too high to realize any cost savings. Dropping the speed down will help but you really shouldn't need 24 hrs either. 4-6 hours should be more than enough.