Worth it to upgrade to EE motor?

[Dunedin1]

Just curious if moving from a Hayward Superpump 1 HP (15amp) to a new AO Smith 1 HP UCT1102 EE pump (11amp)would be worth it? Local rate is around 18cents. At some point I want to upgrade to a dual speed but, not this year. I have several other repairs first.
Pool has solar and spa overflow.
Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

Motors should last for more than a few years. Is there a problem with your current motor?

I would opt to upgrade to a 2-speed for a little more money if you are already thinking of changing the motor, than spending $$ on a motor that will save you very little and the spend $$ in the near (?) future again for a 2-speed that will easily save you electricity use.

Does your filtration/solar pump also run the spa jets? I am guessing not as a 1HP seems pretty small for a spa.

 

[mas985]

EE motor will save around 5% in energy but a two speed around 50% reduction in energy. To me, the choice is pretty clear. An EE would take a very long time to pay for itself while a two speed would take about a 10th the time.

 

[Dunedin1]

For some reason, my reply got lost...

anyhow, yes the pump does it all. (its a small pool)

I wasnt considering a dual speed at this point because I havent figured out how to deal with the solar (GL-35)
controller and only having 120volts at the pad. In a year or two, after I upgrade subpanel and run 230v I was thinking of upgrading pump/filter. Just trying to save a few bucks between then and now.

 

[jblizzle]

There are 2-speed motors that run on 120V ... a little harder to find. Running a motor on 240V will not save you any power costs, just will lower the amp draw over the wire. Although you need to make sure you are not trying to pull too many amps over too long of a distance. But, if you are currently running 15A .... the 2-speed will not be any higher.

You can either have a manual switch for the speed, then when you would typically want solar, leave the pump on high speed and the timer on during those times. And when you know you do not need solar, put the pump on low speed with the solar off ... that will be when you save the most money as running the solar on low speed may not be possible ... and the heating is more efficient at higher flow rates anyways.

Or you can add a timer to select the speeds.

Some of the solar controller automatically will switch to high speed when solar is needed (not sure about the one you have though). So you would set your pump to run on low during normal solar hours and if the solar was called for, it would automatically switch to high speed.

 

[Dunedin1]

OK, thanks.