Plunge into Savings with these Pointers on Pool Pumps

Summer sunshine means swimming season is here. If you’re a pool owner, that also means that your electricity costs can spike as your pool pump works overtime. We’re here to help.    

Long before the first cannonball splashes into your pool, you’ll need your pool pump to kick on. The job of a pool pump is to circulate water through a filter to keep the pool water clean. If it’s a conventional single-speed pump, it will use the same speed no matter what. This type of pump wastes energy, since a pool filtration system has multiple modes, and they don’t all need the same flow rate. A basic filtration mode, for instance, requires half the flow rate as a pool cleaner. A single-speed pool pump, however, will always run at the higher rate, wasting lots of energy in the process.

An ENERGY STAR® certified pool pump, on the other hand, will use as much as 70 percent less energy than a conventional pool pump. Certified pool pumps come in multi-speed and variable-speed models, which means they can adjust to the optimal speed for the tasks they need to perform. For example, before that first dip, you’ll want to make sure the pool chemicals added to the water are properly mixed. To keep the mixture balanced, it’s best to have the pool pump operate at a relatively slow speed. In comparison, once the pool party is over and the last swimmer has climbed out, it’s time to clean the pool. That requires running the pool pump at a faster pace.

If you have a pool, opting for an ENERGY STAR certified pool pump offers a significant savings opportunity. Using a certified pump that can adjust to your pool’s needs can save you more than $350 in electricity costs each year. That savings will pay for a new pump in two years or less. As an added bonus, variable-speed pumps run more quietly and prolong the life of your pool’s filtration system.

ENERGY STAR certified pool pumps also have a lower environmental impact than standard models. According to ENERGY STAR, if all pool pumps in the United States were ENERGY STAR certified, greenhouse gas emissions would be lowered by the same amount as taking more than 2 million cars off the road.

In addition to using an ENERGY STAR certified pool pump, there are other things you can do to reduce the energy use associated with maintaining your pool. These include:

• Remove debris yourself: Instead of using the cleaning function on your pump, use a hand-held skimmer to remove leaves or other debris.
• Shorten the running time: Instead of letting the pump run constantly, run it several times a day for shorter periods of time. A pool timer will let you program your pump to run in shorter shifts.
• Cover the pool: A simple pool cover can lower your heating costs by as much as 70 percent. It will also reduce the time you spend cleaning by keeping debris out and will conserve water by reducing evaporation. 

Ask your pool pump dealer about special offers on ENERGY STAR certified pumps, made possible by the sponsors of Mass Save. To learn more about ENERGY STAR certified pool pumps and to search for certified models, visit the ENERGY STAR website.