Thought I'd share some of the ways I was able to reduce our electric bill without adding solar panels. We have PG&E and folks on the Nextdoor forum with a pool are complaining of electrical bills coming close to $1,000/month and most are about half that. Our monthly bill is under $130/M.
- Variable speed pump. I went with a 220v Pentair Intelliflo and received a $200 back from PG&E at the time with their rebate program. Our cost ended up at around $800.
- Re-plumbed pool. When we had our plaster pool refinished, I had the plumbing redone to provide the shortest length run to the equipment pad and upsized the return pipes from
1 1/2" to 2". The equipment pad is 66' from the nearest edge of the pool and the distance to the return outlet on the far side of the pool is 140' from the pad.
- Installed a bypass on the heater. A major contributor to flow restriction is the heater coils. When the heater is bypassed, I see the spillway flow increase substantially. This allows a further reduction in speed of the filter pump. The pressure gauge on the filter does not register when in bypass mode and reads 3 PSI when flow is diverted through the heater.
- Installed Stenner chlorine and acid feed to the system. Used the Liquidator previously. Our pool chemistry is much more stable. Filter run time has been reduced to 10hrs a day during the summer months and 6 hrs a day in winter. I installed the chlorine system 3 yrs ago and the acid last summer. The pool has stayed the cleanest this summer than any summer I can recall and only had to shock once this season.
- Pool cover - The pool was covered 95% of the time to reduce evaporation (water rationing here). Usually having the cover on led to increased algae growth in the past, which caused the need to shock more and run the filter longer, but not this summer. I believe the Stenner system is the reason algae wasn't an issue. Dang our pool was warm this summer... about 89F
- LED bulbs - I changed out 90% of the bulbs in the house and yard lighting to LED. Under cabinet fluorescent lights in the kitchen haven't been changed.
Next upgrade:
- Change the pool and jacuzzi bulbs to LED. I haven't found an economical replacement for the 300w incandescent bulbs that are in the waterproof housings. Could any 110v LED flood light bulb be used for this purpose? I would like to use a lower output bulb in the jacuzzi than the pool so the light intensity is the same when both are on. Now the light in the jacuzzi is much brighter than the pool from reflection in such a small area.
- Variable speed pump. I went with a 220v Pentair Intelliflo and received a $200 back from PG&E at the time with their rebate program. Our cost ended up at around $800.
- Re-plumbed pool. When we had our plaster pool refinished, I had the plumbing redone to provide the shortest length run to the equipment pad and upsized the return pipes from
1 1/2" to 2". The equipment pad is 66' from the nearest edge of the pool and the distance to the return outlet on the far side of the pool is 140' from the pad.
- Installed a bypass on the heater. A major contributor to flow restriction is the heater coils. When the heater is bypassed, I see the spillway flow increase substantially. This allows a further reduction in speed of the filter pump. The pressure gauge on the filter does not register when in bypass mode and reads 3 PSI when flow is diverted through the heater.
- Installed Stenner chlorine and acid feed to the system. Used the Liquidator previously. Our pool chemistry is much more stable. Filter run time has been reduced to 10hrs a day during the summer months and 6 hrs a day in winter. I installed the chlorine system 3 yrs ago and the acid last summer. The pool has stayed the cleanest this summer than any summer I can recall and only had to shock once this season.
- Pool cover - The pool was covered 95% of the time to reduce evaporation (water rationing here). Usually having the cover on led to increased algae growth in the past, which caused the need to shock more and run the filter longer, but not this summer. I believe the Stenner system is the reason algae wasn't an issue. Dang our pool was warm this summer... about 89F
- LED bulbs - I changed out 90% of the bulbs in the house and yard lighting to LED. Under cabinet fluorescent lights in the kitchen haven't been changed.
Next upgrade:
- Change the pool and jacuzzi bulbs to LED. I haven't found an economical replacement for the 300w incandescent bulbs that are in the waterproof housings. Could any 110v LED flood light bulb be used for this purpose? I would like to use a lower output bulb in the jacuzzi than the pool so the light intensity is the same when both are on. Now the light in the jacuzzi is much brighter than the pool from reflection in such a small area.
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