Trying to lower electricity bill - pump run time?

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richierich

Bronze Supporter
Jul 12, 2013
748
Long Island, NY
I have a 1HP pentair pump that takes about 1400Watts :rant:

Should have researched it a bit more, but I got an amazing price of $340 for the pump AND 75 Sq ft cartridge filter combo.

My pool is only approx 5,300 gallons.

I was wondering if it would be ok to just run the pump for 3 hours a day to minimize electrical costs. We have some of the highest rates in the country here in Long Island, NY

My pump says its 4500 gallons per hour turnover. Thanks!
 
I only run mine 2 hours a day. But I don't have an SWG and you do.

You could start by reducing your usual time down by an hour and check
your chlorine levels to make sure it's producing enough chlorine.
 
Yeah, this is why single speed pumps and SWG's are not always the best combination. At this point, you are running the pump solely to generate chlorine. Studies have shown that "number of turnovers" for pools is bogus and most people can't tell the difference between a pool that has had it's filtration system running 2 hours or 12 hours per day (as long chemical sanitation is properly maintained). So, for the vast majority of pools, it really only takes a few hours of pump runtime (2-4 hours) to keep a pool clean.

You could run your pool more like a manually chlorinated pool where you cut the pump time down to 3 hours and then manually add whatever extra amount of FC is needed with bleach....that will likely cost you a bit more in chemicals (bleach), but it could offset a lot electricity use.

As a personal anecdote with regard to running a pump less, I have a much larger pool but I recently switched to a robotic cleaner instead of the suction cleaner I used to have. I now can run my variable speed at A LOT lower speed (300W of electrical consumption as opposed to 1kW!) and still produce all the chlorine I need in a few hours while the robot runs a couple of time per week to keep the pool clean (robot only draws 250W of power). It's been very positive change for my pool.

Good luck!

PS - I grew up on LI and lived through the Shoreham Nuclear Power Station debacle .... so I'm quite familiar with the crooks at LIPA and their ridiculous utility rates...
 
richierich said:
hahaha - After hurricane sandy LIPA is no more. It's now PSEGLI
Click to expand...

My parents left LI in 2014 to come live near us here; they couldn't be happier to be out of that cost-of-living nightmare. I remember my mom mentioning something like about LIPA being no more....well, they're all the same, LILCO = LIPA = PSEGLI = CROOKS!

All I remember from the Shoreham days are the politicians working overtime to force a brand new, unused, barely-ever-run nuclear power plant to shutdown and then, to pay for it all, then Governor Mario Cuomo works out a back-room deal with LILCO to pass a 30-year tax surcharge on electric bills to ALL Long Island resident...my guess is that it's more than 30 years past that and the tax was never repealed and people are still paying for it.

Anyway, I would say you should try running the pump less and manually chlorinating for a little while. You might get better savings that way as it shouldn't take too much bleach to make up for any loss of FC. A 5300 gallon pool only needs about 1/2 cup of 8.25% bleach to add 1ppm FC. A $3 gallon of bleach will go a long way for your pool and probably save you some money.
 
I'd look at installing a timer on the pump. We had an electrician do that and also run 240v to the pump. It uses less than half the amps at 240v and saves a bit of money.

I have ours set to run during the day when we'd normally swim, then for a little at night to circulate whatever chlorine I dump in. When the pool isn't used much I'll reduce it to 3-4 hours a day at most. Water remains exceptionally clear.

Only time I bump it is if we're having a party. If we have a party I dump jugs of bleach in before-hand, usually a jug or two when people eat and let the pump run. I've resigned myself to the fact that people are dirty, kids pee (even if told not to) and parties add a significant load to the pool. People somehow think it's ok to dump a beer in the water with an 'oh whoops..' I'm thinking about how long it'll take until it's perfect again.

Our pump doesn't add much to our electricity cost, but the hot tub..... let's not talk about that..
 
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