Use of variable speed pump with floor cleaning system

[Fuldo]

My daughter and son-in-law had a pool installed early this summer in NH. It's an in-ground, odd-shaped, vinyl lined 22K gallon pool with a maximum depth of about 8 feet. It has a single speed pump (maybe 2 HP or so with claimed "high efficiency") and SWG. It has a "floor cleaning system", a number of pop-up rotating heads on the bottom. The system has a manifold/distributor in the return line that automatically cycles the return flow to various return jets including the floor jets. The pool builder pretty much insisted on using a single speed pump saying that the continuous high flow was required for this type of system. The system seems to run fine but the downside is electricity use. Their electric bill has skyrocketed by an additional $150+ per month since the pool was installed. The pump has been running about 12 hours per day and the IC40 SWG has averaged about 80% during the season. One of the problems is that Eversource of NH has one of the highest electricity rates in the country.

Can a variable speed pump be used in this situation and if so how? Is there are minimum flow required to run the manifold/distributor so it will continue to cycle the discharge ports and about how much might that be? How much savings might be realized and is it worth the switch?

 

[Jimrahbe]

f,

You have discovered the downside of buying an in-floor system. They require a large volume of water to work, so a VS pump will have to run at almost full speed to make the in-floor system work.

Depending on how the system is plumbed, they might have the ability to turn the in-floor system off, and either not use it at all, or use it only when needed.

In my mind, having a SWCG almost "requires" that you have a VS pump. The IC40 is right at its limit for a 22K pool. We always recommend that the cell be at least 2 x the pool volume. To generate 3 ppm of chlorine in a 22K pool, the pump would need to run about 12 hours at 80%, so it seems the cell is operating just fine.

Not to rub salt into an open cut, but I run my 3 HP IntelliFlo at 1200 RPM, 24/7 for less than $20 bucks a month. I suspect my electrical rates are lower, but the real money saver is the VS pump itself..

My suggest would be to install a Pentair IntelliFlo (Not SuperFlo) and see what happens... I assume the in-floor system does not run for 12 hours.. Assuming the pump saves nothing when the in-floor system is operating (4 hours??) it will still save a lot of money the remaining 8 hours.

Personally, if I moved into a house with an in-floor system, I would turn it off and never use it. I have a robot cleaner that does not require any pumps to be running and it works like a charm.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Fuldo]

f,

You have discovered the downside of buying an in-floor system. They require a large volume of water to work, so a VS pump will have to run at almost full speed to make the in-floor system work.

Depending on how the system is plumbed, they might have the ability to turn the in-floor system off, and either not use it at all, or use it only when needed.

In my mind, having a SWCG almost "requires" that you have a VS pump. The IC40 is right at its limit for a 22K pool. We always recommend that the cell be at least 2 x the pool volume. To generate 3 ppm of chlorine in a 22K pool, the pump would need to run about 12 hours at 80%, so it seems the cell is operating just fine.

Not to rub salt into an open cut, but I run my 3 HP IntelliFlo at 1200 RPM, 24/7 for less than $20 bucks a month. I suspect my electrical rates are lower, but the real money saver is the VS pump itself..

My suggest would be to install a Pentair IntelliFlo (Not SuperFlo) and see what happens... I assume the in-floor system does not run for 12 hours.. Assuming the pump saves nothing when the in-floor system is operating (4 hours??) it will still save a lot of money the remaining 8 hours.

Personally, if I moved into a house with an in-floor system, I would turn it off and never use it. I have a robot cleaner that does not require any pumps to be running and it works like a charm.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks for your thoughts and insights on this Jim.

The pool builder dropped the ball in many ways on this pool and unfortunately the buyers weren't in a position to question many of the things they did. The SWG they installed is indeed barely adequate, at one point it was running 100% for 14 hours just to keep-up with chlorine need with CYA about 60. The next larger size would have been desirable as you mentioned. They didn't provided a waste drain so draining excess water is an exercise. The cleaning port for the DE filter is just a roll-up plastic hose so waste with DE ends-up on the lawn, clearly not ideal. The overflow port is too high, the water is so high at overflow condition that it's over one of the two skimmer openings. Not to mention they didn't discuss the cost of running such a floor cleaning system in NH with a single speed pump.

I'll look to see how it is plumbed and see if the floor cleaning can be avoided and still have adequate return flow. I'll also see if they have a spec sheet for the automatic water valve and get an idea on what minimum flow rate is required to drive it.