u/Party-Impress9249

opened april 12 this year instead of waiting for june. first time I've ever done that.

east tennessee, 21ft round, about 10k gallons, sand filter, small heat pump I put in last spring. power here is about 11 cents.

figured the bill would punish me for it. it didn't, and the reason wasn't what I was watching.

the heat pump was about what you'd expect. april and may it ran maybe six hours a day and added something like $70 a month. from june on it barely kicks on.

the part I didn't see coming was the pump. I borrowed a clamp meter and measured every speed instead of guessing:

3450 rpm, about 1250w

2400, about 430

1800, about 190

1500, about 115

half the speed is nowhere near half the power. flow only falls off in a straight line, so per gallon moved, slow wins by a lot.

I used to run 8 hours at full tilt out of habit, about $33 a month. it sits at 1500 for 16 hours now, closer to $6.

that $27 a month back covers most of the heating.

so the two extra months of swimming have run me under $90 so far. a little over a dollar a day.

one warning. I tried 1200 and the skimmer quit pulling, bugs just sat there. 1400 is my floor. btw mine's an aquastrong 1.5hp variable speed, so your speed steps probably won't line up with mine.

anyone else opening early? curious what it's costing you.

Did this last saturday. Posting because the youtube videos all gloss over the one thing that actually matters.

Setup: replacing a 10 yr old single speed pump with a variable speed one. inground pool, equipment pad in the corner of the yard, schedule 40 PVC plumbing, standard stuff.

The actual swap is 30 minutes of work. unscrew two unions, lift old pump out, drop new one in, screw unions back on. easy.

Here's the part nobody mentions:

The unions don't always line up. My old pump was set up so the suction side and return side were at slightly different heights than the new pump. I had about a 3/4 inch offset on the return side that I didn't notice until I tried to thread the union and it just... wouldn't.

Solution was a flexible coupling (like $9 at home depot) and one short piece of 2" PVC. But I didn't have one on hand and ended up making a 45-min trip to home depot at 7pm on a saturday.

Tools you actually need:

• channellocks (two pairs ideally, one to hold one to turn)
• teflon tape
• a flathead to pry the union o-rings if they're stuck
• maybe a flexible coupling if your alignment is off
• towels for the inevitable water

Don't bother with the "pool pump installation kit" they sell. it's just teflon tape and a brush in a $30 box.

Took me 90 mins start to finish including the home depot run. wife thinks I'm a hero, can finally hear the pool kids over the equipment.

If anyone's about to do this and worried, the actual swap is the easy part. it's the misalignment ambush that gets you.