Pool Pump Sizing

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Sizing your pool pump is critical to gain the most efficiency while spending the least amount of capital. Too big a pool pump and you have more upfont costs and increased montly electicity usage. Too small a pool pump and you have the potential for poor quality water and higher costs as the pump will run under too heavy a load. The variable speed pump solves the problem if you have enough horsepower so your best bet is to go with a verly slightly oversized variable speed pump and you can always slow it down. This will extend the life of your pump and use only the energy you need.

To determine how much pump you need first you have to know the size of your pool and how often you want to turn over the water in the pool. For example, if you wanted to turn over a 15,000 gallon pool every 24 hours, your pump will need to pump 15,000 gallons in a day. If you want to turn the water over every 12 hours then the pump will need to pump 30,000 gallons in a day. This would be referred to as turning over the water twice per day.

Unfortunately, that isn’t how pool pumps, or any pump, is sized. They are sized in gallons per minute. So let’s walk through an example using our hypothetical 15,000 gallon pool that we want to turn over twice per day.

15,000 gallons multiplied by twice per day is 30,000 gallons per day
30,000 gallons divided by 24 hours is 1250 gallons per hour
1250 gallons per hour divided by 60 minutes is 20.8 gallons per minute (GPM)

So, in order to turn our pool over twice per day using a variable speed pump we will need to install a pump of approximately 20 GPM. This will run the water constantly but it is cheaper than running on and off at higher loading. Why? Because it takes less energy to move the water slowly than quickly.

If you install a one speed pump you will need to turn it on and off (cycle the system) you will need to move the 15,000 gallons in a short time frame. If you do the same math as above you will find you need a much larger pump. This costs extra money and increases the energy you need to keep you pool healthy and algae free.

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