Don

Do you have a website yet? I would LOVE to visit it. I'm a pool owner in Seattle, WA and am investigating solar collectors and PV powered pumps.

Thanks,

Tania

Anone here have any information on stockists in or around Brisbane, Queensland, Australia?

We'll be getting our first pool within the next 3 months and we're really excited about it, the major concern we have is that our power bill is going to go through the roof. We have a PV energy system in use and feeding excess power back to the grid but we weren't too heavily involved in installing that system as it was completed as part of a government rebate scheme.

We get a lot of Western sun from midday til dusk and have a very large roof space facing that direction. My understanding is that North or NW facing faces are highly desirable for such systems in this state.

Bit long winded sorry but if anyone has any information or suggestions for an Aussie we'd appreciate it.

Other than the guy who posted here, I didn't get any good feedback about solar pool pumps. When you work it out, the first thing to do is get the most efficient pump you can, the Intelliflo. That is also good because it runs slowly all day so optimizes solar heating. Then we decided we are better off installing regular solar panels and feeding back to the grid. Then they can pay for the pumps or whatever other power need we have.

Yeah I guess simply adding more panels and feeding back into the grid makes sense too. The pool guy we had here today says that power consumption for the pump will average about a dollar a day. With the price of energy set to take off (like everything else) I was hoping a kit of some sort might exist which could be installed along with the pool or maybe retro fitted down the track. Australia and Queensland in particular seems to be lagging in this area - which is absolutely ridiculous when you consider the number of hours of sunlight here.

Considering how much power pool pumps use, there should be a lot more development going on in this area.

I'd check that $1 a day. Ours is more than that even if you only run it 2 hours a day, and that's only one of the two pumps. In order to heat the pool it needs to run for 6+ hours a day. 6 hours is about $4 a day for the 1 pump. That's at 35c/kwh.

A typical 1 hp pump will use just under 1 kw an hour. So if you run it 10 hours a day that’s 10kwh's. The US national average is $.11/ kwh so that would put you at $1.10 a day.

Now if you have a 1.5 or 2 hp pump it would be 1.5 or twice that and again depending on your local utility rate and how long you run it will vary as well.

We run a 2 speed, 1.5 hp pump in low 99% of the time and run it only off peak, about 14 hours a day. When running in low it consumes 240w compared to over 1000w in high speed. Most filters actually filter better running longer at a lower speed.

Yes, a two speed pump running in low speed is definitely better. Ours runs 1 speed only. That's why I said our first move is to go to a Intelliflo pump.

Isn't the intelliflow a variable speed pump? When we priced them out it was about $250 more for a two speed setup and about $750 more for variable speed. I figured we would end up sitting about where the low speed was on the two speed with a variable speed so we went the 2 speed option.

If you have a single speed one of the other advantage even going to two speed is the noise, it is SO much quieter. Also you could likely retrofit a two speed in to a single speed with a manual switch right on the pump for high / low without changing any of the existing pool controls.

It is a variable speed. There are some advantages to us. One is that nobody seems to know how big of a pump we need to pump our water to the solar panels on the 2nd story. And also to run the pool sweep once we convert it from it's own pump and make it the sunction side kind. The Intelliflo automatically sets itself to the lowest speed need to get the job done and to exchange the amount of water you want to exchange. It also can control multiple things (I think 4 things), so when we add a water feature, that pump could be run from the same pump.

Yes, we hear that the intelliflo is super quiet too. Since we were contemplating building a cave for the existing pumps, the intelliflo actually saves use money since we don't have to do that.

Are you trying to pump water through an open loop from the pool up through the solar panels? That is, the solar panels are empty during the night, and then during the day, you fill them with water from the ground up? If so, there are three elements of pressure that you need to consider. The first - the easiest one - is the height of the top of the panels; so, for example, if the top of your panels are 20 feet higher than the water level of the pool, you must have 20 feet of head for the elevation. The second thing that you need to consider the the pressure loss going through the panels. This depends on how your panels are plumbed (in parallel, or in series), how much water you are pumping through the panels, and what the characteristics of the panels are. Most panel manufactures publish pressure loss charts that relate GPM through one panel, and pressure loss through that panel. More GPM = more pressure loss. If you have that information for one panel, you can determine what it is for your entire array. The third thing that you need is the piping schematics for the PVC that run from the pool up to the panels, and back - size, length, # of turns. Also, any other things in this loop that might impact the difficulty of pushing water through it. Generally, though, I'd expect this number to be much smaller than the other two numbers. My guess, if your panels are on the second story, and the elevation from the top of the panels to the pool is about 20 feet, is that you will not find a DC pump to overcome the head loss due to elevation - you'll have to use a larger pump for that reason. If you have some data on the panels, and your array configuration, I could help you with that calculation. Jeff

That sounds like the perfect application for the intelliflo. As you said you could tweak the speeds once you see what you actually need and if you turn on a water feature it can automatically adjust the speed of the pump to keep the rest of the system at the same basic flow rate.

I think that is the best idea to save the electric energy.

All variable speed pumps involve design compromises that hurt efficiency . I'd look at using two pumps, a small one and a large one. Probably less expensive too.

Larger filters will also reduce pumping costs. Running at a lower flow but running 24hrs/day also minimizes pumping costs per gallon filtered.

The Solar Pool Pumps come in several different sizing systems based on your pool's capacity. With each system, the pump sizes are the same and can run on as little as 50 volts. The only difference is the additional solar panel needed to power the pump to drive additional volume.

Solar panels for sale, Solar Panels

Hi,

Solar power isn't restricted to just powering your home. Solar pool heat is a great alternative use for solar power on your property. Over the course of a typical summer, a pool on average may consume as much energy as an average home uses in three months.

So instead of shelling out an extra $2,000 or more in electricity bills for your swimming pool, why not tap into a renewable resource to keep that pool heated. Solar power can be used for three main pool systems: heating the pool water, operating pool pumps, and warming water for outdoor showers.

These systems have more benefits than just driving your enormous utility bill way down. They are easier to maintain than traditional systems requiring minimal maintenance vice a gas water heater that must be serviced yearly.

Michelle

.25 per kWh is double than what we are paying in AZ. We know not how lucky we are!

There is a floating, solar pool pump and filtration system that works with any size pool...claims to save between $30 to $150 per month,www.saviorpool.com

Not in love with the name but it received good reviews!

I've been tinkering with an idea for my Florida project.  Why not go DC and avoid any AC conversion loss and equipment expense.  1 Hp is about 740 Watts.  A 1.5 KW PV system should be able to comfortably drive a 1.5 Hp DC pump with margin.  No controller.  When the sun comes up the pump starts, when the sun goes down it stops.

Has anyone come up with a controller that you could tie a 500-750 watts of solar to an existing .75-1.0 HP pool pump (through an inverter of course..and I know...there will be conversion losses) so that on sunny days...the solar would take over for the the power source and on overcast/evenings..the grid would take over?

Thanks,

I have a simple relay wired to select between two power sources - ie, if power source #1 isn't working, switch to power source #2. You could call it a small automatic transfer switch.

Always account for the fact that an electric motor needs much more energy to start (except for variable speed controllers).

Jon,

So your using an A/C pump ?  Converting the Solar D/C to A/C with an inverter? (Modified Sine or Pure Sine?)
Did you build/design a "smart transfer" or are you just toggling it manual?

Based on comments here..500-750 watt should suffice for "most" home pool systems.

Any more data on your system.

Thanks