Pond Tips for Saving Energy Part II: Energy Efficient Pumps
Have you checked the electricity that your pump is using lately? I was at a big box hardware store a couple of weeks ago and saw a 3000 gph waterfall pump that did not even have the watts that it used ANYWHERE on the box. When I got home, a quick search revealed that 3000gph pump took 700 watts or $50 a month to run.. Ouchhh! The Aquasurge 3000 gph pump takes 180 watts – only $13 per month to run.
As I mentioned in an earlier Blog, Los Angeles power rates are unbelievably high. My partner Les has a 5,000 gallon pond with 2 Aquascape Classic Skimmers and 2 Aquascape BioFalls that are each about 2.5′ high. Les has a very cool pond next to an awesome spa which nestles below an overhead grotto fed by yet another stream coming from 30 feet up his hillside. This summer his power bill climbed to over $800 a month. Ouch!
In the first skimmer in the small pond, Les had a 2500 gph pump. At 5′ of Head height he was getting about 2300 gph and using 250 watts with his current pump. By switching to Aquascape’s energy-efficient Aquasurge 3000, Les got out 2853 gph while using only 180 watts. No brainer – Aquasurge 3000 for sure!
In the Skimmer in the larger portion of his pond, Les had an Aquascape Pro 7500 which is a “High Head” pump designed to push water has high as 42′. Les was getting 6700 gph at 5′ while using 1200 watts running 24/7.
Les decided to go with two energy-efficient pumps to replace his one big 1200 watt energy hog. Aquasurge 5000 will get out 4280 gph at 5′ using 250 watts and the Aquasurge 3000 will get out 2853 gph while using only 180 watts.
By using an Aquasurge 5000 and 3000, Les is now able to get out 7,133 gph while only using 430 watts compared to 6,700 gph and 1200 watts for his old energy hog. Now Les is getting out more water and uses 770 watts less for the largest portion of his pond.
At 10 cents a kilowatt hour these 2 changes will save about 840 watts or about $60/month. Imagine the cost of leaving 8 or 9 100 watt light bulbs on 24/7. In the tiered pricing system we have here in Los Angeles, Les was actually paying 30 cents per kilowatt hour as he was in the 5th tier. These changes ultimately have saved about $200 per month on Les’ power bill each month. Talk about a payback!
Technical Note: In order to merge the 2 pumps that replaced Les’ one energy hog pump, he used a 2″ Y Slip Fitting to connect the 2 pumps to the existing 2″ Flexible PVC pipe going from the pumps to the waterfall.
Posted on: Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 1:47 pm 
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