Costs & savings
How should I timer a pool pump for solar self-use in South Africa?
Run filtration through the PV peak where water quality allows, and keep the pump off the essential board unless you truly need Stage filtration — timers plus monitoring beat running 24/7 on a small hybrid.
Updated 27 October 2026 · Illustrative ranges — not a formal quote, credit decision or legal advice.
Answer first: Put the pool pump on a timer aligned to your PV curve and off the essential board unless chemistry truly needs Stage runtime — pool pump · pool heat pump · chlorinator · export vs self-use.
Timer patterns
| Season | Typical approach |
|---|---|
| Highveld summer | Longer midday window; watch storms |
| Cape winter | Shorter window; may need grid top-up |
| Stage clusters | Accept skipped hours; do not sink the battery |
monitoring · overload trips · essentials.
Measure first — then size — then buy
Clamp the evening essentials, log a week of bill data, and only then accept a bill of materials. Quotes written from a sales average miss your house. Bring the measurement sheet to every installer meeting.
When the quote ignores your numbers, discard it.
Bill maths before hardware
Pull three months of kWh and rand from your bill or prepaid tokens. Compare that to the quote’s self-use assumption at your metro’s published rates — monthly savings · fixed charges · export vs self-use · export credit vs self-use rand · metro tariffs · costs & savings · check a quote.
Pool timer aligned to PV surplus
Shift filtration into the high-PV window and you convert export/clipping into clean water. Smart relays driven by the inverter beat fixed mechanical timers when clouds move. Re-check water quality if you cut winter hours aggressively.
- Record kWh before/after for a month.
- Coordinate with chlorinator limits.
- chlorinator · self-use.