I need a pump lesson please

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Originally Posted by gordonhyde

Mark:

Thanks for the great info. The link above is perfect!!

Where do you live? Your pool setup up is almost what I am getting?
I live in the Phoenix area.

THX again..

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I am in Northern California, SF bay area.

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Originally Posted by tphaggerty

I have solar as well. I will have to check the head loss.

But, the Superpump (2 HP uprated) (again, this is not a Superpump 2, just a plain old Superpump) is just noisy, compared to many other pumps. The pump motor itself is whiny, with lots of harmonics, has been from day 1. The pump part doesn't really seem to make much noise. In any case, it is being replaced with a multi-speed motor. The Ikeric will run at low speed when the solar is not on, but kick up to a higher speed/higher pressure/higher flow when the solar kicks on in order to meet the higher head of the 2nd story solar. The Ikeric speed/head settings are adjustable, so they aren't actually set until everything is installed and running (unlike a regular 2 speed motor/pump, where high speed is normally something like 3300/rpm and low speed is 1650 hard set).

Anyway, the Ikeric (1.5 HP full rated) is supposed to be close to inaudible running on low speed and much quieter than the "average" pump when running at high speed, plus it is supposed to be much more energy efficient all around. Not installed yet, so I can't confirm.

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If you are so inclined, you should be able to run the solar on low speed as well after the panels are primed. Once the pipes are filled with water, the head loss going up is negated by the head gain going down. Most controllers will take care of this by running at high speed for a few minutes and the downshifting to low speed for the remander of the cycle.

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Originally Posted by mas985

Most controllers will take care of this by running at high speed for a few minutes and the downshifting to low speed for the remander of the cycle.

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The Ikeric has a flow switch that governs when it goes into high speed mode (it doesn't use relays but a separate computerized motor controller of some sort). I'm not sure if it can be programmed to throttle back after a delay. I am using the Gold Line GL135 solar controller, which is a really simple unit. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to use the Ikeric flow switch or the 220V relay built into the GL135, I have to talk to the Ikeric guys.

I'm not really sure I want it to do that anyway, right now I have 8 panels (4x14) and am probably going to add more. The 8 can handle (max) 80GPM, more likely about 65GPM. If I add another bank of 5 (or even 8 maybe!!), I would need to pump somewhere between 65 to 100GPM through the panels (5 to 8GPM per panel), so that is going to take "high speed", even with 2" lines. The nice thing about the Ikeric is that "high speed" is adjustable, so I can dial it in to get exactly the flow I want and no more.