What does Watts Actually Mean on Pentair Intelliflow?

[keith075]

Hey folks! I've been reading this forum for years whenever I get in a bind with my pool, so I wanted to say thanks in advance for having a great forum! I finally came across a question that's not directly answered here though so I had to register and ask.

I recently bought an Intelliflow 3HP pump for my residential pool and a Pentair salt chlorinator. Everything is working great and I'm very happy so far, but I haven't actually messed with the timers yet because we've been getting our pool clean (our old pool pump died last Fall so we never closed the pool properly...so my last few weeks have been fun). Anyway, for the salt chlorinator to work, I need to be at a minimum of 1,250 RPM's, and the readout says I'm achieving that at 168 watts. But what does that number actually mean? It is 168 watts per hour? Per minute? I have read the guide from cover to cover and searched online for hours, but I can't find that answer anywhere.

I'm asking because my pool is 95% ready to go and I want to program it for the greatest possible efficiency. I'm in South Carolina so if it's really a huge cost savings, I'd consider just running it year-round and not even closing it. So if anyone can tell me what the actual Watts display on the screen refers to, I'd be greatly appreciative.

 

[Geebot]

Watts are reported to give you a relative measure of power usage. Your utility charges you for kilowatt-hours, which is the reported wattage as used for a period of time. A 168W pump used for an hour gets charged for 168Watt-hrs (or 0.168kWh).

 

[RobbieH]

Which Intelliflow do you have?

When my Intelliflow VF is at 168 watts, my water is just barely moving!

 

[pooldv]

I have the Intelliflo also. I run mine at 1100 rpm for skimming and making chlorine with the SWG. It uses 150 watts at 1100 rpm and works great.

Here is how the math works
168 watts x 8 hours run = 1344 watts ÷1000 = 1.344 kWh x 30 days = 40.32 kWh x 10.25c/kWh = $4.13 per month

 

[keith075]

I'm guessing mine is the VS- the title just says Intelliflow Variable Speed Pool Pump with Digital Time Clock, 3 HP max. 0011018

Thanks for the answers as well; that's exactly what I was looking for. So the 168 watts doesn't equate to time..I have to multiply it out to see the true kw usage. Now I can find the sweet spot in hours and efficiency to figure out what's the best speed. Thank you pooldv!

RobbieH, the pump doesn't turn a lot at 168 watts...it's probably slightly less than a 3/4 HP pump would produce. There is some flow there though and the water still circulates. I'll just have to figure out the math to see if I'm better off letting it crawl all day long or to hit it on a higher speed for just a couple of hours. I was assuming that the slower route would be better since I'm making more chlorine that way, but I have all summer to figure it out.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[danpik]

Watts is volts times amps. It is a measure of energy used over time. As was mentioned earlier, your utility charges foe electric usage based on a set price for KW/hr (1000 watts/hour) to make the math simple, lets assume a cost of $1.00/KWH at 168 watts, your cost to run the unit will be ~$.17/hr