The highest energy use will be if you run the dedicated line partially open with the skimmers. Reason being, you need to ramp up flow to get the suction needed for the cleaner. Depending on the cleaner, this could be anywhere from 30 to 50 gpm. As an example, you typically need about 48 on a Hayward Navigator with this set up. Install an actuator on the dedicated line and you suddenly need about 20-25. This is a significant savings that more than pays for the actuator. You would really have to know the system to set it up. It is a bit tough to put in writing but the best way to start is you need to know whats on the i5 now. How many circuits in use? To properly program, you also need to have the filter cleaned first. There are some initial setting to make before programming and a few software issues to need to work around if you are using any of the on board features. If you're not familiar with the button sequences on the pump, I can walk you though that but it will not be fun unless you address these initial questions.

Thank you for responding to my question. It is not freeze protection - I am past that season now (I'm in FL the temps are in high 80s now) and when freeze protection comes on it says "freeze" on the main display. I have the IntelliFlow wired directly to the 220V breaker and the control cable is wired to the IntelliTouch. The IntelliTouch is about two years old. It has been upgraded (firware upgrade) so it supports the IntelliFlow and ThemaFlow products. I wonder if the reason it won't maintain my schedules is because the IntelliFlow is calculating turnovers based on water flow and shutting off early (when the turnover is finished) rather than just running the full time I schedule it for. If I hear from anybody reagrding programing (or not needing to program) Filter Schedules in IntelliFlow - I'll post back. The manual seems to be geared to programming the IntelliFlow to control pool features (waterflalls, ect, start/stop times) so the IntelliFlow controls those things for those owners that don't have a programmable contol unit (like the IntelliTouch). Since I have the IntelliTouch I think I can skip all the programming steps in the IntelliFlow and let the IntelliTouch do the scheduling work - that is my real question.

Thank you, that will save me some time if I switch over. Since everything is glued together including the threaded fittings into the pot I would have to replace two 3-way valves. Not a huge deal just more time and money. I just installed a 2-speed motor and it seems to be adequate at low speed. However, as the filter pressure increases the flow dramatically decreases. I was thinking a little more RPMs would be nice maybe around 2,000 or so. I have been using PhosFree to remove the Phosphates, which are now low so the flow problem may go away and the 2-speed motor may be fine. I can buy a lot of DE for the price of a VF and Intellicom. I am a little hesitant to install a variable speed pump. I had my variable blower motor fail on my house heater. Fortunately it was just inside the 5 year warranty but it still cost $280 in service calls. Could have been $280 plus over $750 for the motor.

Personally, I would not trust any tool from a manufacture that is trying to sell you a pump. That is why I developed my own spreadsheet using the data published by the California Energy Commission. The manufacture tools generally use gross approximations and tend to use unrealistic scenarios plus they don't show you how the calculations are done. You can download the CEC data yourself or you can download the spreadsheet below and do the analysis yourself. Unlike the manufactures web site tools, I built a completely transparent tool open for full review so I am not trying to hide anything from the user. But it really only takes simple math to prove the case of a two speed pump in some situations. Assuming decent plumbing and using the CEC data from Curve-C, a Whisperflo WFDS-24 will produce about 42 GPM @ 380 watts while an Intelliflo will produce about 30 GPM @ 140 watts for a difference of 240 watts. This may seem like a big difference but the money saved is not all that great. In a 15k pool and a turnover per day, the Whisperflo requires 357 minutes on low speed while the Inteliflo requires 500 minutes for the same turnover. So the Whisperflo uses 2.3 kwh/day and the Inteliflo uses 1.2 kwh/day or a difference of 1.1 kwh/day. Again, it sounds big until you apply the electrical rates. So if your electricity rate is $0.07/kwh to make up the $500 cost difference between the two pumps you would need about 6500 days (>200 months) of run time before the Intelliflo starts to be more cost effective than the Whisperflo. However, you can make the case for the Intelliflo by changing some of the assumptions. For example, if the electrical rate is $0.30 like in CA and the user was running two turnovers per day, then the Intelliflo will become more cost effective than the Whisperflo after only 750 days (25 months) which makes the Intelliflo the better choice. However, some POs need to run their pumps at higher speeds for part of the day to run cleaners and/or solar so that can diminish some of the benefit. Even though we have high electricity rates here in CA, I chose the two speed because much of time I run the pump at higher speeds for solar so the benefit of the VS was not as great for me. You can see my situation in Scenario 3 of the spreadsheet. I modified a 1 HP Northstar pump to create a 1/2 HP two speed pump but was able to do that for only $120 so it would be hard for any pump to beat that lifetime cost. Anyway, you can run all of these different scenarios using the spreadsheet. Here is a link that might be useful: Pump Cost Calculator