On Friday, May 23, 2014 12:46:31 PM UTC-4, Oren wrote:
On Thu, 22 May 2014 17:17:09 -0700 (PDT), trader_4

wrote:



On Thursday, May 22, 2014 4:31:23 PM UTC-4, Oren wrote:

On Wed, 21 May 2014 11:37:20 -0700 (PDT), trader_4



wrote:





Trader,



I'd be curious if your conversion to dual-speed could get you a local

rebate for your utility company?

No rebates for anything to do with a pool here. I think CA gives
rebates, but I think only for variable speed pumps, not dual speed.
And you're right, if you can get a rebate for the variable speed, that
also makes them more cost competitive.

I did some more calcs on the power used. The pump running at full
speed cost 25 cents an hour to run. At low speed, it's 6.5 cents.
Assuming you run it long enough to move the same amount of water,
I'd save about 1/2 the cost of electricity. And with solar, where
I was running it longer than needed to just keep the water circulated,
filtered, etc, I'll be saving 3/4 the cost.

As an example, when running solar, it was running about 10 hours
a day. That's $2.50. Now running it at 1/2 speed, it will cost
just $0.65. That's a 74% savings, $55 a month. Should pay off the
$230 cost quickly. I'll see how it works out as we go.

I just ordered the final solution, which is $20 for two relays
to make it always start up at high speed for a couple minutes, get
it primed and running, then go to low speed.