How Efficient are Pond Pumps

[mgmine]

I stated what I use in my thread. I enjoy a life comfortably lived and that doesn't include sweating in my own home or hanging clothes out to dry in the pollen caked air! Our ACs have been on for a month now. I have 2 Teen daughters and a wifew and the clothes washer and dry get run close to a dozen full loads a week,dishwasher runs every night along with 4 people taking showers daily . I'm proud of my TRex sized carbon footprint.

I'm with you Smaug. Use what you need to use.

 

[sissy]

I want money for other things I want .Where you live mrtrumpet do they have a program that can help .I know here anyone over 65 gets an energy rebate .I will see what that is next year because hubby turns 65 .It does not go on income but goes on age .

 

[Smaug]

If you really want to be comfortable..... Insulation is the answer. My father spent thousands on it, their house has about a 4 degree temp fluctuation from morning to night. They rarely run the A/C. Yea, I wish my home was as air tight.

It would cost me 10s of thousands of dollars to do all that to my house I would not be able to install venting and ducts in the place in a fashion I would be happy with. What I am happy with is the way I'm doing things now. I have a mortgage that is less then what people pay for monthly car payment and that includes my home insurance. Life is awesom,I don't pay attention to the things that don't matter.

 

[sissy]

Don't have a mortgage and didn't from the day I bought the house .Saving pays off .insurance through Brethern in Maryland for 450 thousand to cover contents and house and have them for my vehicles also .House plus I got replacement cost on anything that break downs is 388 a year and auto I have towing and rental car if needed and that is just over 500 a year for 3 drivers .It pays to shop around .I can understand smaug that retrofitting a house is expensive since I have remodeled 3 homes from top to bottom .These days houses are not worth what they used to be .Down here houses can sell for as little as 14 thousand on 2 acres .There is one on Axton Rd here for that with all offers considered an estate sale

 

[Smaug]

Well sissy maybe since everything is so cheap down there maybe your electric rates are low as well. In any case remodeling houses is out of the question for me as I simply don't spend my free time with work after 10 hr days doing real work. That's good too as I love my job. Things seem pretty cheap down there in Appalachia sissy,do you by chance play a banjo?

 

[mrtrumpet]

Thanks guys. I'll check with Duke Energy (a subsidiary of Koch Brothers, Inc) and see if they offer any services. The "helpful" brochure they sent saying we were double similar size homes didn't list any service like that, but the website may offer more.

I think there may be a bigger problem somewhere if it's not the pond pump. As mentioned we are mostly conserving and don't think are lifestyles are that much more extravagant than other "similar sized, blah blah blah." But the Kill a Watt product may be helpful too.

Oh, and my home is only 18 months old, so it's up to spec on windows, insulation, etc...

Dave

 

[sissy]

Could be your meter is off also .Our energy costs are cheaper than Appalachian Power and Duke .I got my tester at Harbor freight .I had the blower door test done on my house and when new heat pump was put in I had them do the duct sealing .Any little leaks where sealed off .

 

[mrtrumpet]

Could be your meter is off also .Our energy costs are cheaper than Appalachian Power and Duke .I got my tester at Harbor freight .I had the blower door test done on my house and when new heat pump was put in I had them do the duct sealing .Any little leaks where sealed off .

Thanks, Sissy. Just ordered my Kill-a-Watt meter from Amazon. Hoping it helps solve the mystery!

 

[sissy]

Check out Duke energy online they offer a lot .I know here they give you rebates on upgraded appliances .I got money for my heat pump ,washer and dryer ,fridge. range ,hot water heater ,freezer and they give rebates for upgraded insulation .Seems Duke gives even more stuff .to help you save money .They even have calculators for the appliances .I will have to suggest some of this stuff to my utility company .

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I've had a Kill-O-Watt meter on my two pond pumps and other stuff (UV, space heater) since my pond was up and running 4 years ago. I've spent $971 in total on electricity over these past 4 years.
The thing about pumps is they can be all over the place with power consumption vs how much water they pump, and since they generally run 24/7 a more efficient quality pump can easily pay for itself in a year or two Or to look at it a different way, a poor efficiency pump can cost you more than the price of several band new quality pumps in just a few years in wasted electricity. But you'll never know until you look at the specs of your pump or get yourself a Kill-O-Watt meter and hook it up to your pump and do a little math. If your pump is pumping less than 20 gallons per watt, you might want to replace it. Anything over that and it starts getting harder to justify replacing.
For example, here are the relevant specs of two quality models Sequence® brand pumps. One has a max flow of 3,600 gph with a max power consumption of 142 watts. 3,600 divided by 142 = 25.3 which is pretty good. The other model on there has a max flow of 4,200 gph with a max power consumption of 154 watts. 4,200 divided by 154 = 27.2 which is even better.
What is the max flow vs the max watts of your pump?

If you have a head pressure (are you pumping your water very high) the formula does get a little more complicated, you'll want to compare the pump specs for that too by comparing their performance curves.
Here is an example of the two pumps I mentioned.

 

[sissy]

Some times you have to bite the bullet and spend more upfront to save in the long run .I never asked but guessing your pond was built for you and they provided the pump that would give you the head height needed and did not think about energy cost of the pump .Maybe they can switch it out for you at a lesser cost and you could get a more energy efficient one .

 

[mrtrumpet]

I've had a Kill-O-Watt meter on my two pond pumps and other stuff (UV, space heater) since my pond was up and running 4 years ago. I've spent $971 in total on electricity over these past 4 years.
The thing about pumps is they can be all over the place with power consumption vs how much water they pump, and since they generally run 24/7 a more efficient quality pump can easily pay for itself in a year or two Or to look at it a different way, a poor efficiency pump can cost you more than the price of several band new quality pumps in just a few years in wasted electricity. But you'll never know until you look at the specs of your pump or get yourself a Kill-O-Watt meter and hook it up to your pump and do a little math. If your pump is pumping less than 20 gallons per watt, you might want to replace it. Anything over that and it starts getting harder to justify replacing.
For example, here are the relevant specs of two quality models Sequence® brand pumps. One has a max flow of 3,600 gph with a max power consumption of 142 watts. 3,600 divided by 142 = 25.3 which is pretty good. The other model on there has a max flow of 4,200 gph with a max power consumption of 154 watts. 4,200 divided by 154 = 27.2 which is even better.
What is the max flow vs the max watts of your pump?

If you have a head pressure (are you pumping your water very high) the formula does get a little more complicated, you'll want to compare the pump specs for that too by comparing their performance curves.
Here is an example of the two pumps I mentioned.

Super explanation Randy. Thanks. I'll dust off my math skills (pretty rocky) and see what I come up with. And yes, the pump does push the water up a fairly steep incline (mountainside). Could you suggest a percentage to add in for the extra energy work involved in that?

 

[mrtrumpet]

Some times you have to bite the bullet and spend more upfront to save in the long run .I never asked but guessing your pond was built for you and they provided the pump that would give you the head height needed and did not think about energy cost of the pump .Maybe they can switch it out for you at a lesser cost and you could get a more energy efficient one .

It is a Savio pump, so I guess they're supposed to be pretty good, but I'll check. I'll also take a look at the Duke Energy site.

Thanks.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Super explanation Randy. Thanks. I'll dust off my math skills (pretty rocky) and see what I come up with. And yes, the pump does push the water up a fairly steep incline (mountainside). Could you suggest a percentage to add in for the extra energy work involved in that?

Generally it's not that the pump will consume more energy to pump up higher it's just that some pumps rapidly lose the ability to pump much water the higher you try to force them to pump. If you look at that graph neither of those pumps can pump water higher then 12 ft, and at 10 ft they are both pumping less then their max flow, although they are probably using the same amount of watts as they would pumping their max flow to a lower elevation. Notice the graph doesn't compare watts to height, rather it compares height to flow.
Best thing is to find out exactly what make and model pump you have and see if you can find the performance charts.