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Grundfos advertises their Alpha 1 & 2 pumps (I'm not sure if they just call both versions Alpha now); that it will replace 30 other pump models.
I've been using a UP15-29SU for many years. I'm using it to circulate water for our domestic hot water that uses a 3/4" copper pipe which goes down a hot well. It works like a heat exchanger. The pipe goes down 190' into the well, makes a U then comes back out. The water comes from our subdivision and is stepped down to about 50 psi in my house; flows at about 2.5 GPM out of my faucet or shower or dishwasher etc.
When there is no demand on the open loop the water will not circulate thus a pump is necessary for those times. If there is no pump or the pump has been off, it take several minutes to get the hot water. With the UP15-29 it gets hot in seconds. The downsides to this pump is that it is slightly noisy especially where the pump resides. It also uses about 90 watts of power, but it does the job. I'm wondering if I really need that powerful of a pump. If it was a three speed I could experiment with lower settings, depending on the pump. I was looking at the comfort series from Grundfos but i'm afraid the UPS10-16 series would not be powerful enough.
I guess my question is: if an open loop such as I described is pressurized, wouldn't I be able to use a smaller and quieter pump to circulate the water when there is no demand? Once the water is flowing and is hot, I could turn off the pump and it wouldn't make any difference in the pressure at the shower for example
I've been using a UP15-29SU for many years. I'm using it to circulate water for our domestic hot water that uses a 3/4" copper pipe which goes down a hot well. It works like a heat exchanger. The pipe goes down 190' into the well, makes a U then comes back out. The water comes from our subdivision and is stepped down to about 50 psi in my house; flows at about 2.5 GPM out of my faucet or shower or dishwasher etc.
When there is no demand on the open loop the water will not circulate thus a pump is necessary for those times. If there is no pump or the pump has been off, it take several minutes to get the hot water. With the UP15-29 it gets hot in seconds. The downsides to this pump is that it is slightly noisy especially where the pump resides. It also uses about 90 watts of power, but it does the job. I'm wondering if I really need that powerful of a pump. If it was a three speed I could experiment with lower settings, depending on the pump. I was looking at the comfort series from Grundfos but i'm afraid the UPS10-16 series would not be powerful enough.
I guess my question is: if an open loop such as I described is pressurized, wouldn't I be able to use a smaller and quieter pump to circulate the water when there is no demand? Once the water is flowing and is hot, I could turn off the pump and it wouldn't make any difference in the pressure at the shower for example
