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Electric Bill too high???

15 years ago

We have a 35,000 pool/spa with 4 2hp WhisperFlo pumps and in floor cleaning system. Our electric bills have more than doubled since starting up the pool. Is this in line? We tried running pumps for 4hrs. to 6 hrs., but the pool looks best running 12hrs. We are new to this. Any advice would be appreciated.

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Comments (7)

barco
15 years ago
Four-2HP pumps for 12 hours is a lot of pumps...I would think a doubling of your electric bill would be about right. Do this. Get a stop watch. Turn your pumps off and go to your electric utility meter. Count the number of times the meter turns for a 2 minute period. Then turn all of your pumps on and count the number of times the meter turns for the same 2 minute period. This should give you an idea of how much your bill will go up relative to them off-- directly.
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repair_guy
15 years ago
Why?

4 pumps. With 4 pumps you must have water features but those would not be running daily. You should provide a few more details. 6 hrs to 12 hrs and a 100% increase makes sense to me.
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So, what's your typical monthly electric/gas bill?
Q
Comments (22)
KellyEng, this is the usage history since moving into this house January 2005. More details are provided when they were recorded in my records. Period 1/21/2005 to 2/xx/2005, 1,004 KWH Period 2/xx/2005 to 3/xx/2005, 696 KWH Period 3/xx/2005 to 4/15/2005, 727 KWH Period 4/16/2005 to 5/17/2005, 34 days, 655 KWH Period 5/18/2005 to 6/18/2005, 32 days, 1,296 KWH Period 6/19/2005 to 7/18/2005, 30 days, 1,471 KWH Period 7/19/2005 to 8/18/2005, 31 days, 1,521 KWH Period 8/19/2005 to 9/18/2005, 31 days, 1,651 KWH Period 9/19/2005 to 10/18/2005, 30 days, 1,384 KWH Period 10/19/2005 to 11/16/2005, 29 days, 833 KWH Period 11/17/2005 to 12/18/2005, 32 days, 1,263 KWH Period 12/19/2005 to 1/17/2006, 30 days, 1,103 KWH Period 1/18/2006 to 2/19/2006, 33 days, 1,083 KWH Period 2/20/2006 to 3/19/2006, 28 days, 760 KWH Period 3/20/2006 to 4/19/2006, 31 days, 831 KWH Period 4/20/2006 to 5/19/2006, 30 days, 1,075 KWH Period 5/20/2006 to 6/20/2006, 32 days, 1,523 KWH Period 6/21/2006 to 7/19/2006, 29 days, 1,756 KWH Period 7/20/2006 to 8/20/2006, 32 days, 1,877 KWH Period 8/21/2006 to 9/xx/2006, xx days, 1,476 KWH (haven't yet received this bill, but I know what is the usage) Note the significant increase in usage since the 5/20 period. My air conditioning had a problem in early June, a circuit board went bad and the blower wouldn't run. The repair tech wired the blower to run continuously while waiting a replacement part, which took about six weeks (fixed on 7/21). I expected the bills during that time (for periods ending 6/20 and starting 6/21) to be a little higher than usual due to the blower running, but not that much higher! AFTER the repair, usage increased even more. I even INCREASED my A/C setback period by a couple hrs per day. After some investigation I discovered on 8/29 that the system either had another problem that got missed the first time or had gone wonky again, and one of the HEAT STRIPS was running whenever the blower was OFF. The repair tech said it was stuck on continuously, but I don't think that's the case or usage would have been even higher. It'd run for a few seconds until it overheated (due to there being no airflow) and shut off from the limit switch, then when it cooled to reset the limit switch, it'd come on again for a few seconds. The longer setback period I used for cooling, there was more time during which the system didn't otherwise run which made for MORE time during which the heating element kept cycling on and off.
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Yikes! very high electric bill for nu bryant system.
Q
Comments (7)
Heat pumps often are installed with auxiliary electric strips for providing emergency heat to cover unit failure and supplemental heat to cover cold weather below the design point of the system. Turning on the electric strips can be controlled by the thermostat, perhaps when the set point is raised more than, say, two degrees above current temperature. It might be set up to go to auxiliary when the heat pump by itself is taking too long to bring up the temperaure. It also can be triggered by an outside temperature sensor. It all depends on how the system has been set up. As others have pointed out, the electric bill may not be unreasonable for a winter month, but if it really is higher than it ought to be then it could be that those backup strips are coming on when they shouldn't be, in which case the thermostat setup ought to be reviewed. You can look up the details of your thermostat controls online and see for yourself how it might be set up. If your backup heat system is propane, then perhaps you should check to see if the electric strips, if present, are enabled or not. There would be a separate breaker in the panel for that, as the current draw would be quite high.
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Very high electric bill--need help figuring out why
Q
Comments (3)
Where is the house located? Tiger has the right answer most likely. It is possible for a leaky house in the North to get that high even with low set temps. Sorry that your fixer upper is going to be big fixer upper. I'd probably talk to neighbors to see what they have done. You basically have 3 good options (assuming no NG) - geothermal, mini-splits or conventional Air source heat pump. The ASHP will be the least upfront cost but it won't be cheap since you need to install ductwork. Even a small house will be $10k+. Minisplits may not be that much more and will be more efficient and offer more control. There is much more visual units but there is little ductwork to install. Geo is probably 50% greater cost even with tax credit but will have lower run costs (WAG - the price varies a lot with locality). Or make the house a summer only cabin.
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high electric bills due to hw heater
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Comments (14)
HW heat is not that expensive. There are little efficiency gains to a new electric hot water. An electric heating element is an electric heating element. The insulation might be a bit better but I'd expect a 10% or less improvement. The national average for electric HW is about $450 annually. So it is unlikely that your HW bill is really that high. Generally electricity is more expensive than oil for heating hot water but the amount of heat needed is not that high so the switchover doesn't help that much. There are no tax credits for oil because I think the point is to use less oil. There are tax credits for geothermal which would be an option for you but it would be a large capital outlay. Your oil bill is not that bad so you can't save that much. 85% is not bad and not worth replacing. Solar hot water with tax credits almost always pays for itself over a reasonable time period. I realize you don't want to outlay the cash but it isn't a bad idea. We paid about $6000 for a system - between state, federal, utility rebates/credits - the net was $2000. (it was a new house and so it saved about $800 for conventional so the net was really just $1200) You might need a larger system so it would be closer to $8000. And then being in NY, it might be more...
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barco
15 years ago
Most of us are not running (4) 2HP pumps for 12 hours. You must have some way to reduce this consumption.... Thats a lot of water movement and/or a lot of water features....I would think.
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tcupp
Original Author
15 years ago
I made a mistake on HP of pumps. We have 2 2HP pumps, a 1HP pump, and a 1/2HP pump. The in floor cleaning system uses the 1HP. The spa and pool each have 2HP. Bubblers in pool uses 1/2HP. You are correct that the spa bubbles and pool bubblers are run around once a week. Thanks for the responses. I will try the stop watch test too.
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gorilla_x
15 years ago
Without knowing the models of pumps you have, Pentair lists the average amp draw for a 2 HP to be about 10 amps. And about 7 amps for a 1 HP. Assuming you are running the in-floor (1 HP) and pool (2 HP) 12 hours per day, that comes to the following:
2 HP: 230 Volts * 10 Amps = 2300 Watts per hour
1 HP: 230 Volts * 7 Amps = 1610 Watts per hour

That comes to 3910 Watts per hour * 12 hours per day * 30 days per month = 1,407,600 Watts (or 1407.6 KW). These two pumps will be the biggest expense of the 4 you have.

Multiply your KW rate from your electric bill by 1407, and that'll tell you how much these 2 pumps are cosing you. In Orlando, a KW costs around 10 cents I think, so this would cost me approx $140 per month.

-Gorilla
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trhought
15 years ago
Tcupp-

Are you using any timers or control systems. If not, I would recommend a timer at a minimum to save energy. The floor system pump only needs to run for about 2 hours per day. This will ensure the heads have cycled completely through one full rotation. Anything more than about 2 hours per day is just re-cleaning the pool floor.

If you really want to save money on utility bills, I would recommend a 2 HP 2 speed pump that will replace both your 2HP 1 speed filter pump and your 1HP floor system pump. This is the setup I have and during the summer, I run the 2 speed pump at low speed for 10 hours per day which cycles the floor system heads and delivers chlorinated water to the pool throughout the day at low energy levels (1/3 HP) and then switch to high speed for 2 hours at the end of the day for high velocity floor cleaning.

Hope this helps!
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tcupp
Original Author
15 years ago
We are using a timer for the pool pumps and one on infloor cleaning system. I couldn't do the time watch because we have a digital elec meter, but I will back off on the time infloor cleaning systems runs and ask PB about 2 speed pump. Thanks.
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