Little Mountain sits back from the water on clay, above the salt line, with bushland edges and established gardens. Its pools cop the storm season rather than the sea air — and clearing what a storm brings in takes longer filtration cycles than a beachfront pool needs.
That is the part that makes pump choice matter here specifically. A pool that regularly needs extra hours of filtration is running those hours at whatever setting the pump has. On a single-speed unit that is full draw, every time. A variable-speed pump does most of the same work at a fraction of the power, stepping up only for the parts of the cycle that need it.
With 95.5% of dwellings occupied and 38.9% mortgaged, these are households watching household costs. The honest answer to "should I upgrade" depends on the pump's age, the tariff and the hours it actually runs — which is exactly what a free check works out, rather than a brochure figure.