Save money - use 2 submersible garden pond pumps instead of one

When it comes to efficiency and electrical costs, it's almost always cheaper to run two submersible pumps instead of one in your garden pond.

This is especially true if you plan on adding a waterfall to your garden pond system. Waterfalls can be noisy, and a nuisance to you and your neighbors at night when you're trying to get a good night's sleep. One solution to this is to install two pumps -- one to run the waterfall, and the other to feed water through your biofilter. This biofilter pump doesn't need as much power to circulate water and oxygen through the filter, and thus costs less money to operate.

If you've read some of the other articles on this site, you may remember this warning: never switch off your pond pump for more than a few minutes, especially if you keep fish in your pond. Your biofilter is a living organism, full of beneficial bacteria, and it depends on a constant stream of water and oxygen to survive. Think of your pond pump as the heart of your system, providing fresh oxygenated water to the biofilter and keeping your pond ecosystem alive.

Now, the reasons that 2 pumps are better than one is simple. In addition to reducing noise when the waterfall is turned off, you will also notice a big reduction in your energy bill. After all, the major ongoing cost with a pond is the electricity to run the pumps.

The basic formula for calculating your annual cost starting with amps is as follows:
The voltage x amps x 24 divided by 1,000 gives kilowatt-hrs (units) of electricity consumed every day.
The amperage values are always shown on the pump, or the pump box. Voltage will normally be 110 in the US, or 220, or 240 in most other countries.
You will find unit cost per kilowatt hour on your electricity bill or account statement. Multiply this value by the unit cost and then by 365 to get annual cost. Here's an example:
Amps x voltage = watts
So in USA if amps = 0.5 and voltage is 110 the watts = 55
If unit cost is 8.3 cents then pump costs 55 x 8.76 x 8.3/100
= $39.98 per year

The basic formula for calculating your annual cost starting with watts is as follows:

To calculate your usage this way, look on the pump box and see if you can find watts consumed. Multiply this value by 8.76, and this will give you the units in kilowatt hours (kWhrs) of electricity that your pump consumes year.

Now look at your electrical bill again and find the cost per unit, and you can work out running cost of the pump.

This cost is far more important, in the long run, than the purchase price of the pump itself. Many pumps consume more than 400 watts of electricity, and are overkill for the pond's needs in the majority of cases.

But two pumps, if selected correctly, are often no more expensive to buy than one large unit. And the advantage of being able to switch off the waterfall pump will more than pay for the second pump within a year or two's time, and save wear and tear on the pump itself.

And don't worry about your fish. They won't mind the waterfall being turned off most of the time, and if you're asleep or at work you can't enjoy the sights and sounds of the waterfall anyway, so why waste electricity? And another advantage to having two pumps is if one breaks down, you have the other to use in it's place, thus keeping your critical biofilter alive.

Read more about biofilters. And click here to read further about submersible pumps.

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