Many pool pumps are as noisy as hell – due to numerous factors:

1. No or little sound proofing in pump shed;

2. Pool pump too powerful – too many installers and customers think erroneously that bigger is always better;

3. Cheap, old pump with noisy bearings;

4. Pump too far from pool, hence outlet and return pipes too long, plus pipes too narrow (cheaper at installation) so more drag in pipes (and more noise) at any given volumetric flow rate (so more powerful, noisier pump needed at installation, see 2.)

5. No domestic pumps available in Australia are DSP controlled, brushless, with variable power output (instead use cheap crappy, old technology, brushed motors because most Australian consumers will only buy cheap pool pumps and most have never even heard of DSP controlled motors in any case).

The upshot is that many Queensland pool pumps are damned noisy, and therefore the Queensland EPA has this to say:

Swimming pool and spa pumps
7am–7pm — noise no louder than 50 decibels
7pm–10pm — no more than five decibels above background noise level
10pm–7am — no audible noise permitted

So think about your neighbours before you blithely switch to Tariff 33 and think you’ll run your pool pump all night. They may not be too happy about it.

I have had the following confirmed by Ergon in QLD – T33 has no effect on your T11, and your ability to export is determined by your T11 load only.

For example, this means if you are generating 1000W and using 400W in the house on Tariff-11 then you will have a net-feed-in of 600W to the grid (and getting 44c/kWh) no matter what you have connected on Tariff-33.

If you haven’t already, this is another reason to have your pool pump and air-conditioning connected to Tariff-33 along with your hot water electric boost.

If you have had your hot water replaced with a gas boost, then you can still use your T33 connection for other uses like pool pumps and a/c. It will need to be swapped over to the T33 circuit by an electrician and all equipment need to be hardwired to T33 (no plug connection) so you can’t swap it over to T11 in the off-peak period.

Many people complain that if they switch their a/c over to T33 then it will be off for hours at the time when they need/want it the most. Did you know that hot water on T33 goes off for long periods but there is a second relay in the T33 controller that is used non-hot-water equipment such as pool-pumps and a/c? This second circuit is only off for shorter periods.

Yes the power company can signal both T33 switches to be off but this would only be for extremely high demand periods. For our house our a/c is on T33 but is only ever off for 30minutes in the morning and another 30minutes in the afternoon, which is not an issue.

So as well as maximising the feed-in-tariff benefits you will also pay less than 12c/kWh for what you do use on T33, which is much less that the 18.9c/kWh on T11.