How to Choose the Most Economical Pond Pump
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Article by: Keith Davitt This article is not about what size of pump , Create a Hummingbird Garden Habitat to choose, it is about comparing costs between pumps , Traditional Wisdom or Old-fashioned Nonsense? of the same size, in terms of their up-front cost and running costs. To read about what size pump , Tulips: Anything But Typical to choose, see the article on Filtration and Pumps. , Lazy Fish Worries The cost of running a pump , Economically Design Your Own Landscape Lighting is dependant on how may watts it uses as electricity , Organic Solutions For Pest Control is measured in terms of kilowatt hours, or the quantity of watts, in thousands, used in an hour. The larger the pump , Landscaping - A Recreational Activity for Kids the greater the watts it uses, however pumps , Dog Damage to Lawns of the same pumping power , Birdfeeders & Birdhouses - The Perfect Outdoor Accessories can differ considerably in their watt usage. An energy , Planning Your Flower Garden efficient pump , Tick Removal that delivers 4200 gallons per hour may run at 550 watts while another that delivers the same volume of water , Designing an Edible Garden may run at 850 watts. Does that mean that over time the 550 watt pump , Online Flower Shops will save , Specialty Trees - A Beginner's Guide money? Not necessarily. Pumps , Online Flower Shops are only warrented for one or two or three years, generally. If you live in an area where electricity , Automate Your Lawn Work is cheap and the pumps , How To Choose a Storage Shed you are considering are warranted for a year or two, then the added cost of the energy , How To Choose a Storage Shed efficient pump, , Gardening for Wildlife and its replacement, may be greater than the energy , Organic Solutions For Pest Control costs it will save , Bottle Gardening or Terrarium - Design and Maintenance over the same time period. If, on the other hand, you live where the cost of electricity , Abatement Regulations Often Confuse and Do Not Make Sense is high and you are looking at a pump , How To Choose a Storage Shed with a three year warrenty that uses significantly less electricity , April Gardening Tips - Southwest Region than the other, then the energy , How To Find Cheap Flower Delivery In Your Area efficient pump , Save Your Fish -- Heron-Proof Your Pond may more than pay for its extra up-front cost over the long term. How to know? A Life Cycle Cost Analysis. Find the cost of electricity , Automate Your Lawn Work in your area, figure how long the pump , The Endearing Language of Flowers should last, (generally at least two times the warranty), the number of watts it runs on and do the math. Here's an example. Say your pump , Winter Gardening uses 550 watts/hour and you plan , How to Grow Bananas to have it running continuously. It has a warranty of two years, so figure it will last four. 550 watts per hour in one day amounts to 13,200 watts. Divide that by a thousand to get kilowatts; 13.2. Multiply that by 365 days in a year = 4,818. Multiply that by 4 years = 19,272 kilowatts over its lifetime. Multiply that by the cost of electricity , Small Backyard Mini-Ponds are Low on Maintenance and Easy to Install in your area, say $.20 = $3,854. Do the same for the 850 watts/hour pump , Growing Great Potatoes and the result is $5,957. There is a difference in energy , Specialty Trees - A Beginner's Guide costs of usage over their lifetime between the two pumps , Automate Your Lawn Work of $2,102. The difference in purchase price of the pumps , How to Water Your Houseplants Wisely will be in the vicinity of $200.00. Does this mean the energy , Planning Your Flower Garden efficient pump , Winter Gardening is the most economical over time? In this scenerio it does, which assumed a twenty cent energy , Hydroponics Gardening - An Introduction to Hydroponics Gardening for Beginners (part 19) Soil Based cost, a lifetime of four years and continuous running for all of that four years, yes. If the pump , Texas Drought Well Documented in the Past is run half that time, say 12 hours a day or six months of the year the energy , Handcrafted Garden Bridges Builds Traditional Arched Span Bridges with Modern Flair differential would drop to $2,901, still a considerable savings. Reduce the life time to two years or run the pump , Lawn And Garden Detergent, or Garden Soap, or for less often and the difference will be still less. In some areas the cost of electricity , Specialty Trees - A Beginner's Guide is much less so the cost of running the pump , Traditional Wisdom or Old-fashioned Nonsense? will be much less. Let's look at the same scenerio as the first example above, but instead of an energy , The Secret of Rooting Cuttings cost of twenty cents per kilowatt, we'll assume eight cents per kilowatt. We're looking at a pump , Save Your Fish -- Heron-Proof Your Pond that uses 550 watts/hour, running continuously. It has a warranty of two years, so figure it will last four. 550 watts per hour in one day amounts to 13,200 watts. Divided by a thousand to get kilowatts gives us 13.2 per day. We multiply that by 365 days in a year = 4,818, and that by 4 years = 19,272 kilowatts over its lifetime. Now we multiply that by $.08 (eight cents) per kilowatt and we have a total cost over four years of $1,541.76 for the 550 watt pump , Foraging In The Forest: Finding Materials That Link Your Home To The Great Outdoors and plugging in the 850 watt number in place , Gardening for Wildlife of the 550 we get $2382.00 over four years. A difference of about $840.00. Reduce the life of the pump , Online Flower Shops to two years and you have a difference in running costs over that two years of $427.00. As you see, the less the pump , Automate Your Lawn Work is run, the cheaper electrical energy , Automate Your Lawn Work is in your area and the shorter the life of the pump, , Texas Drought Well Documented in the Past the less is the differential in running costs between energy-efficient and non eneregy-efficient pumps. , April Gardening Tips - Southwest Region In some cases, when the pump , The Secret of Rooting Cuttings will not be run continuously, when it is fairly small and doesn't use a lot of wattage and the up-front cost of the pumps , How To Find Cheap Flower Delivery In Your Area is significant, it may make more sense to go with the less expensive pump, , Organic Solutions For Pest Control especially if you are trying to reduce up-front costs of building , Rugged Outdoor Elegance: All Weather Indoor / Outdoor Rugs a pond. , Growing Great Potatoes To know exactly which is the most economical way for you to go, do the Life Cycle Cost Analysis. It's just arithmetic, so once you've gathered the necessary data and got your head around the variables, plug them into the formula above and you'll know which way to go.  For more information , Specialty Trees - A Beginner's Guide on ponds , Growing Great Potatoes and water , Backyard Landscaping features of all kinds, visit us at www.water-features-online.com. For information , Birdfeeders & Birdhouses - The Perfect Outdoor Accessories on all other aspects of landscape , Tick Removal design, visit us at landscape-design-garden-plans.com |
  
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