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Solar Pool Pump


Gerald_db

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Jip, pump and panels and all that, easily comes to that.

Versus you power your existing pump (which is much cheaper) using your current solar panels and inverter when there is spare power, that is the ideal.

You just need to limit the pumps startup current, and I am sure there are ways to do that, with a inverter that can handle the pump.

 

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Hi,

Just curious why brand of pump was quoted? Capacity of pump, Also was it pump only or for complete solution and install? Was the pump a ac or dc type pump, special controller required etc. ?

I've heard that speck has brought out a solar "friendly" pool

Pump, which from

What I could figure is at least more energy efficient and has less startup current requirement, but I think it was still 220v ac based.

R27k maybe reasonable if fully installed and includes panels etc?

It's not uncommon for the supply only side of a borehole pump + panels to be in the region of R45k.

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The price for the panels seems market related at around R2900 per panel usually a 250 watt goes for around this if not more.

Grundfos pumps were more borehole related as far as I recall, usually they have a controller that one connects the panels directly to, and then onto the pump. Typically a borehole pump and controller would go for around R20k ?

Also this type of solution only works during the day and has no battery backup as far as I know.

What I did rather is added more panels to my existing solution which runs the house and then setup the pool timer to only run during daylight hours 9am-3pm summertime, 10-14:30 winter.

Did not change the pump and am running a 750watt speck pool pump. The inverter takes a bit of a hit when it starts, but provided clear skies it runs everything ok.

Are you looking to do a standalone solar pool pump only, or do you have an existing solar system you can add to ?

The only other option is to look for a more efficient pool pump, however the grundfos type solution seemed to have a variable speed motor and so would speed up and slow down depending on the quality of power being generated, whereas the other option would only work if enough power was available.

Regards,

Warren

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The sums I did, before I closed the pool, was that it is better to get a mother inverter and panels, than to change to a solar pool pump.

So if it is cloudy, don't switch on the pump, you then have ample spare power for the house.

An idea, to automate this, bar a timer, is to measure the power in over X time, switch on the pump. If below the setting for X time, switch off the pump.

Also a pump last X years, it is therefor cheaper to replace/repair a standard pump than a solar one.

My 2 cents.

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That is my plan. When summer comes around I,ll add a few panels to my installation and run a standard pool pump. I,ll put it on a timer so it runs in hours of max sunlight and if I get very clever, try a light sensor so it doesn,t run when cloudy. A normal,pool pump is very cheap, compared to a specialised solar pump.

 I drain my pool over winter, no sense in maintaining when no one is swimming.

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I have a 100 000l pool that use to have a 1.6kw pool pump that ran for about 6 hours a day. It added quite a bit to my electricity bill each month. I also looked at solar pool pumps with panels but it was really expensive.  Also, since its a DC pump its quite expensive to replace if it breaks, not to mention the fact that you can't just run down to the local hardware/pool shop to go and get one.

Then one day I was strolling through Builders Warehouse and saw the Speck Eco Touch pool pump for about R2500 (I suspect it was priced incorrectly). http://www.speck-pumps.co.za/badu-eco-touch.html  It has a variable speed drive so it does not have a high surge current at startup. It has 3 speeds (low, medium, high). I run it on low all the time so it uses less than 400 watts . At first I was concerned that it would be under powered to run the Kreepy Krauly. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Kreepy Krauly actually ran better on the low setting than it use to run on the 1.6Kw pool pump!

I have a 3Kw grid tied system so all I did was change the pool timer to run during the day.

 

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4 hours ago, DeepBass9 said:

 I drain my pool over winter, no sense in maintaining when no one is swimming.

The water to refill doesn't cost more than the savings in electricity/maintenance? How about just using a cover in winter? I'm sure you did the math, just interested in the result, as conventional wisdom says the water is more expensive.

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4 minutes ago, plonkster said:

The water to refill doesn't cost more than the savings in electricity/maintenance? How about just using a cover in winter? I'm sure you did the math, just interested in the result, as conventional wisdom says the water is more expensive.

Maybe a borehole is lurking :ph34r:

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4 minutes ago, viper_za said:

Maybe a borehole is lurking :ph34r:

That would make sense. In Cape Town now, above 50kl I think it's R80/kl. So your 100kl pool will in all likelihood cost you around 7k-8k to refill....

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4 hours ago, plonkster said:

The water to refill doesn't cost more than the savings in electricity/maintenance? How about just using a cover in winter? I'm sure you did the math, just interested in the result, as conventional wisdom says the water is more expensive.

My swimming pool is an upcycled farm dam, right next to a wind pump. In August the wind fills it up in a few weeks, drought permitting.......

And I drained it onto my lucerne field.

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