Using variable speed pool pump with SWG

[PoolDoc]

Motoman, it sounds like you may know how to *improve* the VS pumps on the market today, but that doesn't mean that the pumps currently available to pool owners have those improvements.

The fact that sacrificial lightning protection *could* be installed on those pumps is nice. But the relevant question is, has it been installed? I doubt it, since I haven't seen in replaceable "lighting protection modules" in the parts lists of any of the VS pumps I've looked at.

Varistors have been used in surge protection for as long as I've been around computers . . . and while they can stop ordinary power surges, they don't seem to stop lightning based surges. In California, an MOV may be adequate protection (and probably is already present), but it doesn't seem to be adequate in Florida or Louisiana. If there were adequate cautions with the pumps, warning of the risks of installing them in lightning prone areas -- fine. But the pool industry is back at its normal practice of selling the new gizmo to EVERYBODY, regardless of whether it's appropriate for them.

The whole "my pump is GREENER than your pump" pitch is unpersuasive to me. If you can point to clearly organized and well sourced data validating this, I'm willing to change my mind. But I'm sick to death of "green" alternatives that turn out -- like corn based methanol -- to be anything but 'green'. For God's sake, people in S. America went hungry by the 1,000's because of that particular debacle -- and US citizens are still paying MORE for gas that is LESS efficient and that apparently has a negative net energy gain!

I'm all for energy efficiency: the savings are real, when everyone drives a car that gets 30 MPG instead of 15 MPG -- or replaces a single speed pump with a 2-speed. But I don't think we need any more "Solyndra" projects, which wasted a half billion of taxpayer money OR hokey pool 'green' gadgets which waste an individual pool owner's money.

Your savings factors seem to be comparing VS pumps to single speed pumps . . . which I did NOT do. I've been advocating the use of highly reliable 2-speed pumps for years, and the data I've seen suggests that the savings of VS pumps compared to properly installed 2-speed pumps is small. I will concede that it's easier for the typical pool builder to install the one-size-fits-all VS pump correctly, than it is to size a 2-speed pump.

I don't doubt that the industrial VS controllers for non-fractional motors have the features you describe. But they don't seem to be present, or at least, don't seem to be effective on the VS pumps pool owners are buying.

I'm not opposed to VS pumps; I'm just opposed to the somewhat deceptive and hyped marketing that pool owners are being subjected to.

[Motoman]

Once I'm up and running, I will be happy to log some data and share it.

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Oh yeah, looking at the pump, one more protection that could be added is a heat shield to protect the module. Because of the module location they are prone to heat stress.