Pump run times and speeds.... am I running it way too much?

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Wow. I didn't realize how cheap electric is here in Chicagoland area. ComEd currently charges ~7.2 cents per kWhr fixed rate.

I'm currently on their hourly pricing program, so I can use off-hours for ~4-5 cents per kWhr. At peak times (hourly program), it typically goes as high as 15-20 cents per kWhr, but has been as high as 70 cents per kWhr.
 
Gocub:

You are running 7.92 Kwh daily, which is truly remarkable. Your figures add up for the month. How is your water with the low speed at 9.5 hours? Any problems with water clarity, algae, or passing the overnight test? Out of curiosity, how much chlorine do you consume daily? Texas is a lot hotter than NJ.

At the end of the day, wasting money is wasting money, be it $1 or $1000.
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You are correct! Maybe I should consider cutting down to 6 hours daily and running the pump from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
 
Catanzaro said:
Gocub:

You are running 7.92 Kwh daily, which is truly remarkable. Your figures add up for the month. How is your water with the low speed at 9.5 hours? Any problems with water clarity, algae, or passing the overnight test? Out of curiosity, how much chlorine do you consume daily? Texas is a lot hotter than NJ.



You are correct! Maybe I should consider cutting down to 6 hours daily and running the pump from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
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I have not noticed any issues with water clarity, algae and I'll be honest I didn't run an overnight test.

Chlorine is an issue, my SWCG is currently at 95% and it has 3.0 PPM. I did adjust my low speed up to 1600RPM, going to paying attention very closely to see how the pool gets affected. My pool has been crystal clear since the day I put water in it because of the fine folks on this forum (and the SWCG :cool:)
 
I have learned my pool's needs well and have dropped to only 3 hours of run time per day in the summer. I have four 1/2-hour duration 1200 RPM start times spaced throughout the day (when I also inject bleach) and two 1/2-hour duration 2200 RPM start times for the pool sweep. No negative affects and I can easily hit the buttons for extra bleach and pump run time if a storm blows through.
 
What if you ditched that cleaner and went with a robot instead? That's the only thing I could see that would make a dent on your electric bill, but your break even is probably close to 4 years, depending on your electricity usage and the $$ of the robot. Probably not a great investment.

I have a single speed pump that costs me about $20 a month to run, but my pump only needs to run for 5.5 hours a day (enough for the solar). 4.3amps @ 230v = 989w. My cleaner is plenty powerful and my pump is only a 1/2hp rated, 1hp pump. Perhaps you don't need to run your cleaner at such a high speed? What if you closed your main drain some and lowered the pump rpm, does your cleaner still work well?
 
gocubs418 said:
No offense taken, $25 a month is EXTREMELY cheap in my opinion as well. However, my A/C are pieces of junk and I need to offset my rising electricity bill somehow, that means taking the low hanging fruit.

At the end of the day, wasting money is wasting money, be it $1 or $1000.

And to be honest, I paid a ton of money for this pool (energy efficiency one of the reason), you better believe I want to squeeze every penny out of it.
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There ya go, that’s the truth!!

I refuse to give utility companies any more money then I have to. I would rather invest that money in energy saving equipment, then hand it over freely to them.
 
After this post, I cut my run time down to 8 hours. Was 10 hours. Long story, but in the next week, I will be down to 6 hours. Just trying to figure out at what time to start and finish. If I go from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., I would need my levels to wind up in the morning about 1 ppm higher than recommended based on CYA. This will provide a safety net.
 

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Megarms said:
I am brand new to this and running the pump 24 hours a day is what the installer recomended. If I cut it down, what other adjustments will I need to make? Anything to the SWG?
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You’ll need to find out what the minimum flow rate is for your swg. Once you know that, then you can adjust its % output to compensate for the shorter run times.
I don’t have a swg, so I’m no pro at how low you can go, but their are plenty of people on this forum that can better assist you on that.
Post up a new thread in the swg forum asking your specific questions, and the pros will guide you.
 
Megarms there are so many different ways to run the pool pump and SWG. Ultimately it comes down to how your pool reacts, your comfort level and trial/error.

I would encourage using the search bar in the upper right which will give you plenty of opinions and different techniques. Also these links may help...

SWG Runtime Calculator | Github

Salt Water Chlorine Generators (SWG)

ABC’s of Pool Water Chemistry

Hope this helps...

Megarms said:
I am brand new to this and running the pump 24 hours a day is what the installer recomended. If I cut it down, what other adjustments will I need to make? Anything to the SWG?
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Megarms said:
I am brand new to this and running the pump 24 hours a day is what the installer recomended. If I cut it down, what other adjustments will I need to make? Anything to the SWG?
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My pool builder recommends running the pump 24x7 as well, and I have a single speed pump! Obviously I have not been doing that after the first two weeks but I am sticking to 8 hours per day. I am installing a variable speed pump shortly and will probably bump that up a bit longer because I like waterflow and a clean pool, but it will be at a pretty low RPM of 800-1200. One thing I have noticed and makes total sense is that the chlorine erosion feeder needs to be cranked up to keep the FC up because less water is flowing through it per day. I don't really use that as I manually put in bleach but the effect was greater than I anticipated.
 
Captchaos said:
My pool builder recommends running the pump 24x7 as well, and I have a single speed pump! Obviously I have not been doing that after the first two weeks but I am sticking to 8 hours per day. I am installing a variable speed pump shortly and will probably bump that up a bit longer because I like waterflow and a clean pool, but it will be at a pretty low RPM of 800-1200. One thing I have noticed and makes total sense is that the chlorine erosion feeder needs to be cranked up to keep the FC up because less water is flowing through it per day. I don't really use that as I manually put in bleach but the effect was greater than I anticipated.
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Jesus christ :eek:..... gives me heart burn.


So after reducing the cleaner from 3450RPM to 2000RPM, I noticed a savings of around 4 khw per day, .40 cents per day, $12.50 a month, $150 a year. I will be testing me pool this weekend to note FC levels and see how the pool reacts to the changes. I did change my pool to run 100RPM higher so that will add a few more khw but overall, I should have dropped from around 250 khw a month to just over 100 khw a month.

Good stuff, thanks everyone.
 
KilLogic said:
Sacramento California area PG&E is $.21 for the first 500 kWh and then $.27 after that. :mad:
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Mad is right. In June, my Kwh usage was 2,744. If I paid $.07 more, that would be $192 in additional expense. Double Ouch! Nothing in my home ever is shut down.

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Glad this thread was started. You can hear the pump manufacturers and electricity company's now cringing on how much money they are loosing, but pump life span and by pump run time!

- - - Updated - - -

gocubs418 said:
I have not noticed any issues with water clarity, algae and I'll be honest I didn't run an overnight test.

Chlorine is an issue, my SWCG is currently at 95% and it has 3.0 PPM. I did adjust my low speed up to 1600RPM, going to paying attention very closely to see how the pool gets affected. My pool has been crystal clear since the day I put water in it because of the fine folks on this forum (and the SWCG :cool:)
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Nothing that 1/2 of a gallon every 2 days would not fix, or maybe even less. A lot less expensive than the Kwh rate. Next week, I am going to cut my run time from 8 hours to 6 hours, but go from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and not 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. By then, the sun will have been beating down on the pool for a few hours, which means the heat pump will be more efficient as well. A lot of this is because of pool water heat retention overnight. The solar cover is a PIA and will only use in June and September.
 
Glad this thread was started. You can hear the pump manufacturers and electricity company's now cringing on how much money they are loosing, but pump life span and by pump run time!
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:laughblue: :laughblue:

You’re funny!!!

Have you ever noticed when more people switch over to energy saving devices, that the power companies raise their rates? The energy companies always get their $$$!!! :rolleyes:
 
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