Tracking gas heater runtime?

[Nochka]

Is there a simple way to track the runtime of our gas pool heater?

Our gas bills spiked recently, and I suspect our pool heater is the culprit, so I'd like to track its usage going forward.

We use the heater during the winter exclusively to heat the spa.

I suspect that when we're done using the spa, the heater may sometimes be left in "Auto Control" (vs. "Off") mode, and the heater may be turning back on when the freeze protection mode is triggered. Or it could be that we just use the spa too much.

We have a 2-year-old Jandy heater with a Hayward Goldline control system. A way to program the heater to go into "Off" mode at midnight would also be welcome.

Thank you!

 

[kimkats]

I am not sure but here is a bump to get more eyes on your question.

Kim

 

[Geebot]

No need to suspect that it's your gas heater. I can confirm that it's your gas heater. My decent-size home has 4 heating/cooling zones to maximize efficiency and my Chicago winter heating bills are about $200 a month. That triples in months when we need pool heat (early/late season).

 

[Nochka]

OK let's say it's definitely the pool heater. We are still seeing a 3x increase in gas usage year-to-year, which doesn't make sense given our spa/pool usage.

If I could track the heater's runtime, I'd be able to check daily or weekly usage, and understand when the gas is being consumed. Once I know that, I can deduce what's causing the spikes (leaving the system in auto control, forgetting to turn the spa off, heating the pool, heavy usage of the spa during cold weather, etc.).

I know comparatively little about pool systems, but it seems like possible options would be 1) a more advanced pool control system with usage tracking (if that exists) 2) a flow meter attached to the gas line before the heater 3) a device that tracked the heater's electrical usage and used this as a proxy for gas consumption.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[ps0303]

Just power the unit off when not in use. I am not aware of any "tracking" ability in any of the commercially available automation systems. You must have something programmed wrong which is allowing the heater to be on when it probably shouldn't be. So my best advice, just power the unit off when not in use.