Pool Pumps | Parkridge Apartments

Operational controls

This is a classic example of the immediate financial benefit of asking questions – and not assuming that what may have been happening for years is necessarily correct.

Historically 2 pumps - 1x1,000 watts and 1 x2,000 watts - operatedon a timer from 6am to 9pm daily i.e. 3,000 watts running for 15 hours every day of the year

After investigation and advice from our pool service company we realised that:

• The 2,000 watt pump was for the pool’s filter, and only needed to run long enough to filter the entire volume of water once a day i.e. 10 hours per day, not 15
• The 1,000 watt pump was for the heater. It only needed to run at those times the heater was in use, and for the same duration as the main pool pump i.e. 10 hours per day for 4 months of the year (the pool is heated only during the colder months), not 15 hours per day all year.
• The heater was set for 32 degrees. On advice that chlorine dissipates at 27 degrees, so the temperature was lowered to 25 degrees.

Overall, these simple, no-cost changes resulted in

• significantly reduced electricity consumption
• reduced gas consumption
• reduced chemical consumption

New pool pump

When our pump failed early in 2011, our pool service company said that we had no choice but to replace it with the same type. We knew however that there was a new Voluntary Energy Rating Labelling Program for swimming pool pumps and decided to investigate whether we did have other options.

We purchased an IntelliFlo VS-3050 intelligent variable speed pump. It is:

• Whisper-quiet
• Only needs to run for 8 hours per day to filer the volume of the pool (instead of 10 hours)
• Runs with lower energy consumption
• Only cost us $200 more than buying the same type that we already had!