The Pool Pump Affinity Law
The reason for the savings is because you reduce the motor speed. Even though you also reduce the flow rate you’re still cutting the power consumption drastically. The chart above depicts just that!
The pump affinity law for pool pumps shows how all of this is possible between the 3 main components; (1) motor speed (2) flow rates (3) energy consumption. Most of the savings is from the reduction of the speed of the motor RPM'S even though some of it is contributed to how efficient a permanent magnet motor is.
According to the law, what actually happens is if you cut the power(speed) by half, you also cut the flow by Alf, but that’s where the similarities end. The power consumption drops at a different rate (nonlinear) than the other two. In this example you actually reduce the power so drastically you’re only using about 1/8 of the original power you used with the single speed after cutting the speed in half. You can see with the chart above the slower you run the motor you exponentially lower the power consumption which is a savings of money for you.
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
It means a huge savings for you, In order to do so you need to install a pump like the PENTAIR INTELLIFLO variability speed Pool pumps. Then you can run your pump at a much lower speed and run it longer to get the desired turnover. You’ll enjoy the savings and a quieter equipment pad.
Below you’ll see the Pentair INTELLIFLO VARIABLE SPEED PUMP
Diagram showing how the INTELLIFLO will pay for itself
Variable speed pumps are the first of it’s kind to use permanent magnet motor technology. Because of this ow efficient motor, you’ll save around 30%. We can even lower the RPM’S to save even more money.
You can make this pump specific to your system. There are some pieces of equipment that need a minimum flow rate I order to function. Some examples would be a heater, salt cell or a waterfall. All you have to do is dial the speed to whatever component of your pool requires the highest amount of flow and your set.
Based on all this, here are some realistic annual savings you can expect too see when comparing the Pentair INTELLIFLO Pump to a single speed HP pump- in a 20,000 gallon body of water. The figures below are based on both 6 and 12 hour runtimes.
$0l.15.kWh you can expect to spend $620 to $1,360 more per year for a single speed pump
$0,20/KWh you can expect to spend $825 to $1,1810 more per us year for a single speed pump
$0.30/KWh. You c an expect to spend $1,240 to $2,710 more per year for a single speed pump
Of course there will be slight variances based on your system such s your plumbing (hydraulics) and other pieces of equipment like Siegel speed models, etc. You can expect to see your variable speed pool pump pay for itself between years 1 and 2. Then year after year you are saving a significant amount of money.