Changing Whisper Flow Pump from 1.5 to 1 hp

[grivera]

How do I go about downgrading my Whisper Flow pump to a 1 HP from a 1.5. Is this all electrical related or is there plumbing involved?

My plumbing is all 2" with the exception of the pressure side cleaner which is 1.5". Should I expect a significant savings?

I run the pump about 8-9 hours per day.

 

[Denali]

Are you replacing the whole pump or just the motor?

 

[mas985]

If you decide to replace just the motor, you will also need to replace the impeller. But everything else should be the same although you might want to get an impeller kit which includes all of the seals.

If you plan on replacing the entire pump, then yes, you will need to change the plumbing.

The least amount of work with the greatest savings would be to replace the motor with a 1.5 HP 2 speed motor. Just make sure the braking HP of each motor is approximately the same. This way there is no change in the impeller but you will save over 30% in energy savings by running mostly at 1/2 speed.

 

[grivera]

Thanks for the replies. I diidn't realize I could change just the motor and impeller. Is this pretty straight forward? Where should I shop frst?

 

[mas985]

There are probably lots of places to get motors and impellers. Poolplaza.com is a good place to start. You can also check here for just the motors. If you are going to the trouble of changing the motor, I would encourage you to look at the two speeds since they are not much more and change from 1.5 HP to 1 HP probably will take a long time to pay itself.

 

[grivera]

I run my pump about 9 hours a day, at .10 KW/hr. How much savings can I expect with a 2 spd 1.5pump?

 

[mas985]

0.1 kw/hr? That is only 100 Watts. A 1.5 HP pump is likely to use about1.5 kWatts/hr.

With the low speed of a two speed pump, you use about 65% less energy but need to run it twice as long so total savings is more like 30-35%.

 

[grivera]

I apologize for the confusion. I meant that my KW cost is about 10-11 cents per kw.

 

[Guest]

You might need to change the volute also. You will need to check the parts lists of both pumps and see which part numbers are different. Also, there are both uprated and full rated models in this line. Be sure to compare up rated to up rated and full rated to tull rated or you might end up comparing your pump to itself with a different label on it! (The full rated 1 hp is EXACTLY the same pump as the uprated 1.5 HP!)