Firstly, the VS is the bee's knees, the cat's meow. Having that much control and flexibility over your system's pressure and flow rate really opens up a whole new avenue of coolness with one's pool. Hooray for technology!!!
An old hat I talked to at Pentair suggested I use my filter pressure gauge to set the pump's rpms. I have solar on my roof (purchased in 2005) and that, too, was/is very cool. With the solar off, my filter shows 14 psi with the pump chugging along at 2500 rpm. When the temps warm up, the solar kicks on (this is the ONLY automation I have on my pool and the actuator turns the Jandy 3-way valve) and my filter pressure gauge then reads 16 psi which is 1 psi higher than the tech at Pentair suggested. And in the winter when I close the pool (no freezing here probably like in AZ), he suggested I run the pump at 5 psi, which is about 1300 rpm. Of course, no solar will be on then...just the bare minimum.
As to automation, I can see where having a SWG and some automation to figure out the FC level might make a lot of sense but certainly, it can be done manually. For me to run my attached hot tub, for example, I need to flip one switch (solar), and turn 3 3-way Jandy valves (heater bypass off, suction to spa only, return to spa only). Then, of course, I have to reverse all that to get back into pool-mode.
I think the more stuff you have with your pool like the extras like spas, waterfalls, slides, infinity edge, SWG, booster pump for cleaner, chlorine injection, lights, etc., it probably is a lot nicer to be able to set up various programs through a controller where you can just hit ONE button to kick off a particular program of events. With technology, you certainly have such a luxury. However, it comes with a price and more moving parts possibly so more points of failure and perhaps a touch more electricity. I also don't know if you can tune your valves a bit. For me, I have the return valve set about 3/4 to the pool and 1/4 to the spa so that the spa spill way has water flowing over it. I'm certain you have this ability with automation, too, but something to consider as well.
Oh, another cool yet passive device you can add to your pool plumbing:
FlowVis flow meter. I'm pretty sure the IntelliFlo does NOT have any sort of a built-in flow meter although it would have been nice had they had that. I'm sure as part of the automation that you could insert flow meters and/or psi gauges that could be used to further tune your automated system.
Ahhh, technology....
