I was over at my parent's house for the Fourth of July.
A few years back, my Dad, (with the help of several of my siblings) hand-dug a gorgeous little pond right next to the patio.
It uses an AC electric motor pump to move water from the bottom pond back to the smaller top pond, and runs 24 hours a day, all summer long.
We got talking about energy use, and my cheap uncle, who happened to be in town, ran back to his RV to get his new Killawatt.
We plugged it in and saw the pump pulled 245 watts. We killed the pump, checked for any water back-flow and then plugged it back in to see if it pulled any more power at start-up. It really didn't. The pump just uses 245 watts all the time.
I suggested that by adding a timer, a lot of energy could be saved, automatically turning the pond pump off at night.
Lets round 245 watts to 250 for E-Z math. 24 hours a day times 250 watts is 6 KilowattHours times 30 days a month is 180 KW! That's $18 if your electric charge is 10 cents per kwh.
Did I mention there is another, bigger, pond in back? So double that number. That's well over 300 KWH a month to run the ponds! That's about the same as my entire electric bill!!!
The other day, I stopped by and gave my dad an outdoor time I have. It's a nice heavy-duty one with a protective cover. He said he was just thinking about going out and getting one - so at least I saved him the gas of going to a store.
When I stopped by today, I saw the the timer was installed on the big pond in back. It was set to a 12 hours on/12 off, so it's saving half the power used on that pond.
Don't get me wrong, the ponds are great. Nothing is nicer than drinking lemonade and listening to the water fall. But it sounds even better knowing it's not wasting power when nobody is listening anyways.