The fun part of having a pool comes after the necessary business of costings and research.

Remember that the cost to run a pool pump can quickly exceed the amount you bought it for. The foremost way to save electricity is to choose the most energy-efficient water pumps right at the outset.

Below is a guide on how to calculate exactly how much it costs to run a pool pump according to your own household electricity. We’ve also added an example for explanation purposes.

So, let’s get serious.

Step 1

Start by gathering the figures you’ll need to complete the calculation. You’ll need the actual pump and your electricity statement from Eskom.

  • Look at your pump, make a note of the amps displayed on the label
  • The voltage will be determined by your mains, usually a number such as 110, 220, or 240
  • Get your own unit cost per Kilowatt-Hour (kWh) from your electricity bill

Here are the figures for our example:

  • Our electricity unit cost per kWh is R1.59
  • Amps are 4.4
  • Volts are 240

Remember, electricity tariffs are subject to change and vary from one municipality to the next.

Step 2

Now multiply Voltage by Amps. Then multiply that by hours, so in this case, 24. Next, divide by 1000 and this will give you the Kilowatt-Hours (kWh) of electricity used per day.

Voltage X Amps X 24 ÷ 1000 = kWh (daily electricity usage)

Based on the numbers for our example, the calculation looks like this:

240 X 4.4 X 24 ÷ 1000 = 25,3 kWh (daily electricity usage)

Step 3

Lastly, you take the number you calculated in Step 2 for kilowatt-hours per day and multiply it with the unit cost and multiply again by 365. This number is how much it costs to run your pool pump every day for a year.

Unit Cost per kWh X Daily Electricity Usage X 365 = Annual Pool Pump Running Cost 

Example:

25,3 X 1.59 X 365 = R14 682,85 (annual pool pump running cost)

From our calculations, we see that running our pool pump every single day for one year would cost more than R14,000. Of course, you wouldn’t normally run the pump 24 hours a day. You should be fine with running your pool pump for at least 8 hours out of 24.

Counting Costs

There’s nothing quite like having your own swimming pool.

Now that you’ve crunched the numbers, and completed the serious business it’s time to have some fun. It’s easy to get caught up in calculations, but what really counts are the happy memories you get from your swimming pool.

If you need advice on how to best run a pool pump, speak to the friendly team at Poolspa today!