HI Pump Savings Calculator — The Complete Guide: Justifying an Efficient Pump with Numbers
The HI Pump Savings Calculator is a macro-enabled Excel workbook published by the Hydraulic Institute. It answers a question every mechanical engineer meets: does a more expensive, more efficient pump pay back the difference on the electricity bill, and how quickly?
HI Pump Savings Calculator
Hydraulic Institute
A Hydraulic Institute Excel workbook that calculates energy and life-cycle cost savings from choosing a more efficient pump.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Comparison by Energy Rating — pumps with different Energy Rating values under the HI programme.
- Life-cycle cost — the extra purchase price against energy savings over the operating years.
- VFD check — estimated savings from adding a variable speed drive to a constant-speed pump.
- Two routes — a site-specific calculation or a general estimate.
- Step-by-step guidance — the workbook leads the user through each stage.
A note for readers outside the US
The HI rating programme is American, and many pumps sold in Israel and elsewhere carry no such label. The workbook is still usable: enter efficiencies from the manufacturer’s datasheet, operating hours and your local electricity price, and you get a reasonable economic comparison. It needs Excel with macros enabled, and the download goes through the HI store at a price of zero.
Related tools
For a full energy assessment of plant pumping systems — MEASUR. For pipe and NPSH checks — HI Data Tool. For general life-cycle cost analysis — BLCC.
MEASUR
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the US Department of Energy
US DOE tool suite for industrial energy assessments: pumps, fans, steam, compressed air and process heating.
Get it from the vendor
HI Data Tool
Hydraulic Institute
An online Hydraulic Institute resource with pipe friction loss, unit conversion and tank volume calculators plus reference material on pumps.
Get it from the vendor
fluids
Caleb Bell
A Python library for flow calculations — pressure drop in pipes and fittings, pumps, compressible flow, control valves and flow meters.
Get it from the vendor
BLCC (Building Life-Cycle Cost)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) / U.S. DOE FEMP
NIST's life cycle cost (LCC) analysis tool for comparing building design alternatives, now a web application.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
A small, focused tool that turns an argument about pump price into a proper calculation. Especially handy when you need to convince a client or management to invest in efficiency.