Snubber changes everything, that brake-only habit creeps up on everyone.

The part about the plastic trapping moisture against the drywall is what got me. I used to be all in on wrapping everything, did it on two rentals down in the South Valley, and both of them had that funky smell up in the attic by the next spring. Thought it was just old wood or something. Then a guy at the supply house told me the plastic makes a little greenhouse up there and our dry air means the moisture never gets a chance to dry out. Now I just foam the top plates and around any penetrations and call it done. Your bill drop sounds about right, sealing the leaks is where the real savings come from, not the wrap.

Dropping from 1800 to 1500 is only about 17 percent, that's not much at all. Pumps are built to run at different speeds, that's the whole point of having a throttle. If 1500 cleaned up your line for 6 hours straight and saved fuel, the material was telling you something, not the pump. The sluggish swing in hard pack makes sense, less rpm means less hydraulic flow, so you just bump it back up when you hit the tough stuff. Guys run variable speed on dredges all day long, you're not gonna smoke a pump running it a few hundred rpm under max.