Pool & Spa News article on Energy-efficient Pump Options

[Titanium]

This is a link to a Pool & Spa News article from May 2007 that does a decent job of summarizing the energy-efficient pump options currently available.

http://poolspanews.com/2007/052/052pumps.html

Ironically, this May 2007 article tells of a panel discussion happening later today.

Pump panel
To help clear up the confusion and controversy surrounding energy-efficient pump options, Pool & Spa News is sponsoring a panel discussion at the 2007 International Pool & Spa Expo in Orlando, Fla. “Peak Performance Pumps” will be held on Wed., Nov. 28, 3-5 p.m.

Moderated by Mike Geremia, president of Geremia Pools Inc. in Sacramento, Calif., the panel will discuss how these systems work, plumbing requirements, regional variations and interfacing the products with controllers.

Panelists include Steve Gutai, product manager for pumps, filters, valves and waterfeatures, Jandy; Ike Hornsby, CEO, IKERIC Inc.; Kevin Potucek, vice president of marketing, Hayward Pool Products Inc.; and Rob Stiles, product manager for pumps, Pentair Water Pool and Spa.

Titanium

 

[chem geek]

That's a great article. Thanks for posting it. The one thing they don't mention is that using a 2-speed pump mostly on the low-speed setting is great for filtration, but that makes any pressure-side cleaner with a separate booster pump stand out with inefficiency. At low-speed, the power consumption for the main 2-speed pump may be only around 400 Watts while the booster pump for the cleaner with its typical 3/4-HP motor will be more like 1500 Watts. It's true that it isn't run as frequently, but it still adds up. Replacing the booster pump with a valve to the main pump would allow a low flow pressure-side cleaner such as The Pool Cleaner to work, possibly at the lower speed on a dedicated line (it's kind of close -- in my pool, 15 GPM to the pool cleaner takes 2180 RPM and 540 Watts which is higher than the normal 1725 RPM low-speed setting of a 2-speed pump).

The other thing they neglected to mention were solar panels. Though they mentioned waterfalls and spas as water features requiring high speed at the pump, typical solar panels also require high speed since they typically recommend 4 GPM per panel so with a reasonable number of such panels one gets to high GPM rates that require a high-speed pump. The use of a variable speed pump has the significant advantage of being able to tune the flow rate to be enough to get decent efficiency from the solar panel, but not be so high as to be inefficient in terms of energy usage.

Richard

 

[Titanium]

chemgeek,

I agree that the article did miss addressing items such as solar panels and pressure-side cleaners with separate booster pumps that have a good chance of not working at the low speed of a two speed pump.

I think we on TFP recognize that two speed pumps are not necessarily the ultimate in energy efficiency - rather, they are merely more energy efficient than the old oversized single-phase pumps that have been used for decades. I think variable speed pumps will take over the market over the next 5-10 years, especially in high-cost electricity states such as California; the two-speed motors being mandated in 2008 should probably be viewed as an interim step on the way to variable speed pumps being on all pools.

The variable speed drives that are being used by Ikeric (Square D Altivar 11 drive) and Hayward (Emerson SK drive) are getting cheaper all of the time. It wasn't that long ago that a 2 HP or 3 HP variable speed drive would easily cost $1000 or $1500. I am seeing very low end models from TECO now costing between $100 and $150. Of course you would need additional components such as an enclosure, a fan, terminal strips, fuses, relays, and perhaps a smart relay or micro PLC (programmable logic controller) to make a complete variable speed drive panel suitable for pool pumps. Hayward's variable speed offering (TriStar Energy Solution), assuming that it ever reaches the market, is available for around $600, not including the pump or thre-phase motor. Ikeric's variable speed panel is supposedly available from Holiday Pools for $375, again not including the pump or three-phase motor. This price is not shown on Holiday Pools website, and was a verbal quote, so I can't guarantee that that price is actually real.

An interesting sidenote is that my Ikeric variable speed pump that I recently bought came with the same Hayward pump and three-phase motor (Hayward SP322063EEV) that Hayward is using for their TriStar Energy Solution variable speed pump. So Hayward must still be working on the variable speed drive panel part of the TriStar Energy Solution, since the pump and three-phase motor are obviously available.

I hope that the transcript of this panel discussion in Orlando becomes available.

Titanium