I blogged before that our Utility company is moving towards billing based on the time of day that we use our electricity. One of the biggest electricity eaters they cited in the reading material was the good old pool pump. Up until two days ago we ran our filter 24/7 and even on equal billing this is still quite expensive. We run our pool for maybe four months of the year depending on the weather.

I did some research on how many hours a pool pump needs to run to be effective. Basically it needs to turn over the water once to keep it clean. There was no definite answer on how many hours because it depends on the size of the pool, use and how much sun it gets. The majority of the sites I looked at agreed somewhere between 10 hours and 12 hours a day. That is alot of extra hydro and money being wasted.

The blurry picture on the right is what I picked up from the hardware store for $15. Your pool pump plugs into it and you set the hours you want it to run on the dial. Simple as that. It took less than five minutes to install and I am already saving money on the hydro bill.

If you install one just keep an eye on your pool for the first few days and see if it is keeping it clean. If not adjust the hours it is running until you find a time that you are happy with. Right now I am running it for about 11 hours and the clarity of the water is fine.

Why run your pump for 24 hours a day if you don't have to.