Pool pump above ground.

[Mhammel99]

I currently spend way too much on electric here in south Carolina. I put in a pool a couple of summers ago and noticed the pump almost doubles my daily electric spend. I was spending upwards of 450 to 500 dollars a month last year on electric so im wanting to reduce that cost. My pool pump is a dyn2 12 amp max 115 volt high performance 1.5 hp 60 hz pump. So when I did the math running this for 8 hrs a day I'm looking at over 11kwh. So according to what I've read I'll need more panels then will fit on a pool shed and a lot of batteries. Don't care for multiple day use I wanted to use an auto transfer for bad weather days but I get great sun from 10 am until easily 6 or 7 pm. So am I on target or way off? Would it be cheaper and better to just get a solar pump?

 

[FilterGuy]

Lets do some quick math.

I'll assume you get 5 hours effective of full sun. That means that to run your pump you will need 11000Wh/5hr = 2200 watts of solar panel
If we assume 300W panels you will need 2200wats/300w/panel=7.3 panels. Call it 8 panels. Yes, that seems like a lot for a pool shed... but are there other mounting options (like on the main house?)

On the battery side.... will you be running the pump during the day when the sun is shining? If so, that could cut down the amount of storage you need because some of the energy will go straight to the pump, not the battery.

I don't know the situation in SC, but if you have net metering you should look into a grid-tie system for the whole house. You might find that the economics actually work better than seperating the pool pump from the rest of the system.

 

[namesgolden]

you'll need a inverter that will drive the pump and can cope with the pumps huge startup load

find out if you can put a VFD on the pump -- this will help you with the startup load. some pumps have it built in (pentairs with the auto shutoff)

will the pump run from 220? could give the pump its own inverter -- since 110v gear is relatively uncommon across the globe, this might be a cost effective solution. bonus points if you can modify it to be switched on with a sonoff device.

find out exactly how much you need to run the pump. buy a clamp meter or something.

not running the pump much, even with some passive water mixing, will likely make you have to vacuum more--so balance that against water costs.

you can probably compare this to builds where people have wanted A/C -- basically the same load except they can't get a cheap VFD like you can.

 

[Mhammel99]

So after reading your posts And researching costs, I found a much more efficient and cheaper solution. A DC solar pump. For about 1500 to 2k I can get the whole set up and be 100% of grid with the pool. I've seen a few companies that specialize in it. Keeping my existing pump il need more panels than can fit on my shed. I also will need an $800+ inverter, mppt controller and lithium batteries toi do it right. All this will be somewhere around 5k for a good solid last for a long time set up. So thank you all for your input I appreciate it.

 

[FilterGuy]

So after reading your posts And researching costs, I found a much more efficient and cheaper solution. A DC solar pump. For about 1500 to 2k I can get the whole set up and be 100% of grid with the pool. I've seen a few companies that specialize in it. Keeping my existing pump il need more panels than can fit on my shed. I also will need an $800+ inverter, mppt controller and lithium batteries toi do it right. All this will be somewhere around 5k for a good solid last for a long time set up. So thank you all for your input I appreciate it.

Could you post a link to the pump..... Others might be able to use it.

 

[namesgolden]

as long as it can build the pressure and volume to pump through your sand filter that sounds awesome. please keep us updated.

 

[RLW]

I have come to the same conclusion and I am going to buy a dc pump. Which pump did you go with and after a year of running it do you have any other advice?