Pump/motor electrical question

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Originally Posted by cleancloths

How do you do that? Most residential areas do not have three phase power. Come to think of it I don't think I have ever seen a house with three phase power.

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The pump has a separate box that has an electronic 3 phase converter in it. The 3 "normal" 220v wires (2 hot & a grounded) get used/coverted to 3 hot wires in 3 phase. Of course, the motor is a 3 phase motor as well. The whole thing comes as a "system". The Pentair Intellipumps are based on the same prinicipal/engineering. One change is that you can't use a 220V GFI breaker anymore because the GFI always sees a differential to ground and pops.

The 220V single phase goes to the converter box, which changes it to 3-phase. Once it is 3 phase, you can control the motor speed easily by changing the cycle, anywhere from 0 (in theory) to 60Hz. All of this is done in a nice, pool ready package. The pump I have has 4 speed settings, but you can really only use 3 of them due to the controlling switch. The new models this year give you access to all 4 settings. I really only use 2 of the speeds - low speed for normal running (virtually silent) and "boost" for solar (runs at 55 hz, so about 90% of full speed for the pump). I have the "high" setting running at about 65% of full pump speed for when I want to get a little more circulation going (say after a party or heavy rain). According to the provided charts, low speed (as I have it set) uses about 1/4 of the electricity compared to high speed while providing about 1/2 of the flow.

The guy that installed my solar has a "real" job as a commercial power engineer (large backup generators and power systems for schools, mainly). He said the system was very similar, though much smaller, to commerical A/C and heating systems that he installs and inspects.

OK, I am very familiar with that setup for industrial equipment, had no idea anyone was making such a device for residential usage. How much does the "system" cost and how does that compare to the price of a normal pump.

They cost 2 to 3 times as much as a normal pump. I got my Ikeric pump directly from the maker as there are no East Cost reps/installers. As such, I think I got a really great price, but still expensive (lets say just north of a thousand). As I said, the Intellipumps, from Pentair, are very similar (although I think the electronics may be enclosed in the pump motor housing, not in a separate box) and I think they start in the 1200 range. (The Ikeric pump is a rebadged Pentair, they basically replace the motor and add the electronic box).

I was going to put in a 2 speed anyway because my 2HP Hayward Superpump was driving me crazy - too noisy. The cost difference between a 2 speed plus relays and the Ikeric wasn't that much, and I love that I can (and have) adjusted the various "speeds" to suit my needs make it a relatively painless decision. To me, it was much like my SWG decision, strictly based on cost it might not be worth it, but with the extra benefits (such as much lower noise), it was.