California to enforce energy efficiency standards

California has had Title 20 energy efficient laws since 2006, but only now is the legislature passing a law to enforce those standards.

Programming a Pentair EasyTouch controller to work with a Pentair IntelliFlow VS pump

First, there are some things you should be aware of before you start programming:
• The Filter Pump button will only work in the Auto mode. It will not turn the pump on in either Service or Timeout mode. For those familiar with EasyTouch controllers and single speed pumps, this is unusual. For this reason, it is nice to set up an Auxiliary button to turn the variable speed pump on to a speed that is appropriate for vacuuming or running an auto cleaner. Your pool service person will need this.
• The pump will often be told conflicting directions as to what speed it should run at. For instance, a program may call for one speed and the heater may call for a different speed. If there is a conflict between two different speeds, the pump will always run at the higher speed.

Conceptual programming strategies:
• You will want to program the “Pool” to run at the slowest speed that you want the pool to run at. If you do this, you will not need to set up an additional “low speed” speed/schedule.
• You will want to set up a “Feature” (Feature 1—for instance) to run at a medium to high speed. At scheduled times during the day, this feature will ramp up the pump to a sufficient speed to operate an auto cleaner for a couple of hours a day. You will set the time for this in Schedules and the speed in the Intelliflo menu.

Programming Steps


To avoid confusion, start by assigning circuit names:

• Label your auxiliaries (pool light, spa light, blower, etc.)
• Name one auxiliary “Manual Clean.” (Use one that is not connected to a relay or one whose relay is not being used.) In a later step, you will assign a pump speed to this auxiliary that is appropriate for vacuuming. Later, (in Schedules) you will also set this up to operate as an “egg timer.” You or your service person will be able to select this speed (by pressing its Auxiliary button when in the Auto mode) the pump will then ramp up to a speed appropriate for vacuuming. This is very useful for service personnel. Since this will be set up as an “egg timer,” the pump will revert to its normal settings after the egg timer has expired.
• Name one Feature circuit “High Speed.” Later, (in Schedules) you will program this to operate once or twice a day to ramp up the pump to run an auto cleaner.

Assign the circuit types:

• Assign the Manual Clean the generic type. You will be tempted to assign it the “Master Cleaner” type. Resist this urge, as doing so will result in a delay before the pump ramps up to your desired speed.
• Assign the “High Speed” the generic type.

Setup your Schedules:

• Set a schedule for the “Pool” to run for about 12 hours a day. Remember that this will be your lowest (and most economical speed).
• Set a schedule for the Feature Circuit that you have labeled “High Speed.” Set this to come on one to two hours once or twice a day. For small pools, one to two hours in the morning is enough. For larger pools or pools in windy areas, it may need to run twice a day (once in the morning and once in the evening). Your utility company prefers that you set this to run during off peak hours. This speed can either be programmed within the time set for the “Pool” speed (the lowest speed) or outside of that time. If it is programed within the “Pool” time, the conflict will be settled by the pump running at the higher speed that you labeled “High Speed.”
• Set up the Auxiliary that you labeled “Manual Clean” to work as an egg timer. You do this in the Schedule menu. I recommend setting the count down time between 3 and 8 hours depending upon the size of the pool and usage. You pool service person can use this speed to ensure that the water filters after chemical additions or use this for vacuuming or other clean up purposes.

Assign the Speeds in the Intelliflo menu under Settings:

• Assign the “Pool” speed the slowest setting that you want the pump to run (1200-1900 rpm). Make sure that this speed is sufficient to activate the flow switch on a chlorinator.
• Assign “Manual Clean” and “High Speed” a medium speed that runs the auto cleaner at a good pace (2400-3100 rpm).
• Assign the “Heater” a medium speed. Tying this speed to heater operation will ensure that the heater always has adequate flow, even if it happens to be turned on during a time in which the pump is running at a slower speed that would not otherwise give it enough flow.
• Assign the “Spa” the highest speed (3100-3450 rpm). When the valves are switched from pool to spa, the pump will ramp up to this highest speed so that the jets will give the expected action.

Use your smart phone to operate your pool

Zodiac (the makers of the Jandy Aqualink RS and PDA lines of control systems) is introducing an iAquaLink App in the first quarter of 2012 that will allow a pool owner the ability to control their pool equipment from their iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

Use of the app requires installation of the appropriate iAquaLink Web Connect Device (there will be three to choose from). This device upgrades the power center so that it can communicate with a router (either hard wired or wirelessly).

$1,000 rebate for LA DWP customers

Now until June 1, 2011 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is offering a $1,000 rebate for customers who install a variable speed pump. This is much higher than So Cal Edison's $200 rebate.

See Pentair's announcement for details, or go to the DWP website.

So Cal Edison increases rebates to $300

For SCE (Southern California Edison) customers who purchase a qualifying variable speed pump between September 3, 2010 and the end of the year, the consumer rebate has been increased from $200 to $300.

This increase was announced in a September 2nd email by Larry Tabizon, Program Manager for SCE’s Home Energy Efficiency Rebate Program. Another email sent just a day earlier reported a $350 rebate, but it was later revised to $300.

The rebate application, according to Tabizon, is currently being updated to reflect this change.

Now is a great time to invest in a pump that will pay for itself in energy savings.

Pool motor efficiency

A couple of years ago, Pentair introduced a motor to the pool industry that is a great improvement in efficiency as compared to what we have been calling “energy efficient” motors. This motor is referred to as a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and it is used on their IntelliFlo line of pumps.
To truly appreciate why this style of motor is more efficient, one needs to understand what a power factor is.
First, all motors use magnets in order to turn a rotor. They work on the principle that opposites attract. Thus, the south pole is attracted to the north pole and vice versa. If you were to take a large horseshoe magnet and place a boy scout style compass in between its ends, the compass needle would spin to align itself with the horseshoe magnet’s magnetic field. If you could then reverse the polarity of the horseshoe magnet, the compass would spin 18o degrees and realign itself. If you could continuously reverse the polarity of the horseshoe magnet, the compass would keep spinning. This is the basic idea behind how a motor works.
So, how do you reverse the polarity of a magnet? One way is to use an alternating current to create an electromagnet. The following graph shows an alternating current. The current (and voltage) alternates from a maximum positive value down through zero to a minimum negative value and back up in a continual cycle according to the familiar sine wave pattern:

As the voltage and current alternate, so too does the polarity of the magnetic field. By using this type of continually reversing electromagnet, the compass needle (or rotor) will continuously spin inside the magnetic field.
An interesting thing happens when you pass an alternating current through a coil of wire that you use to create an electromagnet. The coil imposes a restriction upon the power. The voltage passes through faster than does the current. In other words, the current is said to “lag” behind the voltage. This means that the peak voltage no longer occurs in sync with the peak current. The peak current lags behind by a  small amount of time. This lag is indicated by the phase angle φ  in the following graph.  

This is very significant. From Ohm’s law, recall that Power equals voltage times amps (P=EI). This means that at any given time, you are to multiply the voltage value in the above graph times the current value to calculate the power value. Notice that when voltage and current are both positive, the power will be positive too. Similarly, since a negative times a negative is also a positive value, when both the voltage and current are negative, the power will again be positive.
But when the current lags the voltage, there will be times when one will be positive and the other negative. In these cases, the power will be negative. (Since a positive times a negative is negative.) This can be seen in the above graph where the power sine wave dips below the zero line. In these cases, the motor is no longer converting electrical power into mechanical power to turn a pump, it is turning mechanical power into electrical power. It has for this period of time, become a generator and is trying to feed power back to your power company. Your power company doesn’t like this, nor do they pay you for it. It pollutes the power in the neighborhood by screwing up their nice sine wave power and you simply pay for power that you don’t use.
To counter this problem, motor companies build “energy efficient” motors that capture this power that induction motors try to stuff back down the power company’s lines and store it in a capacitor so it can be reused by the motor. This is a small advance in efficiency.
A giant step forward was taken with the permanent magnet synchronous motor. With this style of motor, you don’t use a coil to create an electromagnet. You use permanent magnets instead. Since there is no inductive electromagnet, there is no current lag. This means that the voltage and current stay in sync. Since they are in sync, they will either both be positive or both zero or both negative. There will never be a case in which one is positive and the other is negative. Because of this, their product (the power) will always be positive as well.
The bottom line: efficiency
An induction motor is around 20-30 % efficient. An “energy efficient” motor (with a capacitor) is around 40-65% efficient. A permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is around 90% efficient.
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So Cal Edison’s 2010 Incentive Program

In 2010, Southern California Edison incentive program applies only to variable-speed pumps. (The two-speed incentive is now a thing of the past.) The program pays the home owner a $200 incentive and the participating retailer or contractor $100 when a variable speed pump is installed.

To participate in this program, pool retailers and contractors need to sign and mail a participation agreement to SCE.

Home owners just need to submit a rebate claim form along with a copy of their invoice to SCE.