Choosing pool pump

17 years ago

I am buying a bank repossessed home in central California.

The home has an old plaster pool, almost square that I estimate holds about 24000 gallons of water.

Someone has stolen the pump & filter system leaving just the suction and return plumbing (both 1 1/2 pvc) and the mechanical timer still in place.

The suction line splits into 2 valves, one goes to the pool drain and the other to the skimmer.

The pressure side splits underground to the various return ports on the pool walls.

Judging from the timer I am assuming the old pump was a single speed 220v motor.

From my research it seems that it would be wise to invest in a second timer and install a 2 speed motor for the main filtration system. I am planning on using a sand filter with Zeolite filter media.

My questions are, would I stand to gain an appreciable amount of additional energy savings if I chose the IntelliPro vs 3050 pump & motor combination instead of a 2 speed 1 1/2-1/3 hp motor?

And if so would I be able to connect the IntelliPro unit to the existing manual timer or is an electronic timer necessary?

I have not settled on the exact filter I will be buying but the models I am comparing all hold about 500 lbs of filter media.

Does this sound like an adequate system? There are no other systems to operate, just the water filtration.

Thank you for looking!

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Comments (4)

trhought
17 years ago
rat423-

Regarding your 2-speed vs variable speed pump question....here's what I wrote in a recent post asking the same question. Others here may chime in on this topic and some of your other questions.

Pump efficiency and cost to maintain the technology is a hot button for me. I guess it's because I've worked with this technology in the HVAC industry for over 18 years. Personally, I'm a fan of 2 speed technology because of simplicity and ease of maintainence. My experience with variable speed technology tells me the drive (electronics) is the weak link in the design and when the drive fails, the pump does not work and will require a costly new drive or an entire new pump.

From a recent post......"I would get a quote for a 2 speed installed plus rebates and compare to a quote for a variable speed plus rebates and then calculate how much money you will save annually with the variable speed assuming 300W/hour difference to see how long you're payoff will be and also look at manufacturer's warranties to help with your decision.

Example, if you plan to run the pump at low speed for 8 hours per day, the daily savings with a variable speed will be 8 hours x 300 watts = 2,400 watt-hours. Multiply the 2,400 watt-hours by your utility rate to determine daily savings...so if your utility rate is $.30/KWH (you said SoCal so this is a guess), then your daily savings with variable speed will be $.72 per day (not too bad) and the payoff will likely be less than 2 years, assuming no failures or drive replacements.

For me, at $.07/KWH, it would have taken over 10 years to recover my investment for variable speed technology. From my experience, relying on any high speed rotation equipment to last more than 10 years is a risky assumption regardless of variable speed or 2 speed technology. As you said, it will obviously be more expensive to get the variable speed technology working again when problems occur.

It's a personal preference but wanted to share my logic....you're mileage may vary as they say."
rat423
Original Author
17 years ago
Wow,I had no idea the variable speed was 300Watts per hour more efficient than the 2 speed on low speed.
I had planned on doing all the filtration on low speed (about 8 hours) and only use the high speed for vacuuming.

The price difference is only about 300 dollars between the two units but at 2400 watts a day in savings it sounds like I better get the variable.
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poolguynj
17 years ago
The Sta-Rite and Pentair VariFlow are equivalent. They both have built in timers. The VS-3050s do not and would require a timer or automation (preferred).

Scott
trhought
17 years ago
rat423-

The 300 watts difference was with my 2HP 2 speed compared to variable speed. I see you mentioned a 1.5HP 2 speed in your original post. With a 1.5HP 2 speed, the difference is about 150-200 watts at low speed or about 1,200 - 1,600 watt-hrs per day with 8 hours run time. At $.30 per KWH, that's about $.36 to $.48 per day. You're payoff at $300 difference will be about 2.3 - 1.7 years assuming your electricity rate is $.30/KWH. The relationship is linear, so if your utility rate is $.15/KWH then the payoff doubles and is 4.6 - 3.4 years.

This, of course, all assumes no maintenance problems with either the 2 speed or the variable speed.

Hope this helps!