Do Variable Speed Pumps Save You Money?

The pool pump can be the highest energy hog in your house, passing your Air Conditioner and Refrigerator just by the sheer number of hours it runs each day. If you have a 1 ½ or 2 HP pump installed and you run it 8 hours per day, not to get into complicated conversions of kWh (Kilowatt Hours) and how your Electric Company charges you each month, imagine it as having 20-100 watt light bulbs on every hour. That is a lot of electricity each day, and if your bill is tiered by usage, the more you use, the more you are charged, and your account can get very high very quickly. On average, a pool pump in the Summer will be about 40% of your total electricity bill.

So, the best way to save money is to cut into your monthly electricity bill, and that is precisely what a VS pump does. Simply put, your standard pump runs at 3450 RPM (Rotations Per Minute) which is about 1800-2000 watts. A VS Pump can be set to different RPMs; at every lower RPM, the total wattage is lowered. So, dropping the VS Pump down to 2100 RPM cuts the watts down to 685. At 2100 RPM, the water will appear to flow as strong as a standard pump running at 3450 RPM. Cut it down even lower to 1800 RPM; you are down to 165 watts. So, instead of running 20-100-watt light bulbs, you only have a little over one light bulb running each hour. So, it is hard to see the VS pump energy savings, but if you look at the monthly drop in your electricity bill, you will see the savings reflected there.

You may notice that the pool doesn't stay as clean with a VS pump, which leads you to believe that the pump isn't working as well as your old single-speed pump. That is just one drawback of not running your pump at the whole 3450 RPM. One way to address this is running a short, higher speed RPM for 2-3 hours (2,800-3,000 RPM). That way, the surface debris can be pushed into the skimmer, leaving the pool cleaner each day.

Many consumers balk at the higher price tag of a VS pump, but that is due, for the most part, to the "Drive" on the top of the VS motor (some are now internal). This drive allows the pump to run at a different speed, and this is the brain of the pump. Many also have a controller mounted to the pump, which acts as the VS pump's timer. These extra components are what cause the price of the VS pump to be more expensive than a standard single-speed pump. It's not the manufacturers charging more just to make more money but that these pumps cost more to the manufacturer, which translates into a higher price tag for you.

A VS pump is a more significant investment that will save you 60-80% on your electricity bill and pay for itself in 2 years.

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