Pools

[Travis Evans]

How do I model variable speed pool pump recommendations?

[Gamaliel Lodge]

Hi Travis – Sorry for the delay.  The person who would normally cover this topic has been unavailable.

Pool pump controls are located at the bottom of the Lights&Appl tab (standard mode) or the detailed mode of the Lighting/Appliances page in the Wizard.  The controls should be pretty easy to understand.  We don’t have detailed costing information, so please review the cost in the control to the right and adjust as appropriate for your situation.  If you have further questions, feel free to ask them here.

[Andy Bardwell]

Travis – I”m back in the saddle, and want to add a little more detail to Gamaliel’s answer.  The Pool Pump analysis can be used with three different levels of detail in your inputs, from one click, a simple selection from a listbox, or using a detailed pump specification analysis:

1. Pool Checkbox: checking the “Pool” check box provides the simplest way to add a pool pump and electrical heater to both the base and improved side (with no improvement).  Checking adds a Single Speed electric pool pump in the Misc Electric Loads and Major Auxiliary Electric Loads tables accessed via the Major… and Detail… buttons.  You can edit the hours of use and watts on these tables. Note that if the number of units is changed on the table, this checkbox is no longer checked. There are Pool check boxes on the Appl & DHW / Lighting & Other tab or, if you aren’t in Wizard mode, on the Owner / Building / Other tab. 
2. Pump Type: Selecting the Pump Type from Single Speed, Two Speed, or Variable Speed (or No Improvement or None) will make an input for HP or Turnover visible.  Enter the HP (or use the default for a Single Speed or Two Speed pump, or Turnover for a variable speed pump. Wattage of variable speed pumps depends on the speed the pump is running, and the speed will depend on the turnover, so electrical usage is determined by turnover (number of times all the water in the pool circulates through the filter in a day).  The Variable Speed Pump analysis includes an optimization routine that calculates the minimal electrical usage for a variable speed pump for the selected turnover. Therefore proper setup of the pump is required to achieve these results. The [Pump…] button will open the detailed pool pump analysis screen which shows the defaults being used for pipe size, filter type, presence of a cleaner, turnover, etc.
3. Detailed Analysis: The [Pump…] button will open a detailed pool pump analysis which is adequate for specifying the size of a pump including pipe size, filter type, presence of a cleaner, turnover, etc. The same optimization routine is used for variable speed pumps.

[David Lawson]

Is there an option to model heated pools? I have a customer with a Natural Gas pool heater. I also know of some that have heat pumps. There’s an option for Hot Tub.

[Gamaliel Lodge]

David,
Pool heaters can be modeled in OptiMiser, but the settings are buried a couple layers down. First switch the Appliances page to the detailed view, then scroll down and click the “Detail…” button to the right of one of the “Other %” controls. This will open a table that allows you to enter a variety of appliance end uses. The first section has rows for both electric and gas pool heaters. You can just enter quantities or you can set custom hours and power levels. Be sure to pay attention to both the Base and Improved columns. For heat pump pool heaters, you will definitely need to set custom power levels. Let me know if you have trouble finding these settings and I can post pictures.

[Author]

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