Heat pump - run it all day, or just a few hours, or. . .?

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TroubleFreePat

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Jun 5, 2013
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Philadelphia, PA
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So its our first year with a heat pump. Works great, very happy with it. But I'm also trying to be as efficient as possible with it, since it's most efficient maintaining temps (As opposed to bringing them up). What I've been doing up to this point is running my normal pump cycle for six hours during the day. During that time, the heat pump is set with its thermostat and comes on when it sees water flow. The heat pump runs for about three hours to bring the pool back up the three degrees it lost overnight. So every day, it's working to bring the temps back up.

Pump and heat pump running costs about a dollar an hour. Pump alone costs $.14/hr.

So - if I wanted to leave the heat pump running all the time to maintain the temp through the day and night, I'd have to leave the pump on all the time as well. At $.14/hr, that's $3.36 for the pump alone over 24 hours. Whereas if I let the heat pump run for its three hours, and the pump for six, that only costs about $3.23.

Really didn't expect those results.

Now, if I wanted to take it a step further, I thought about automatic. But every component in my system is from a different maker; I assume the pool installer got deals on whatever was around. So I have an Intelliflow VS pump, Aquacal heat pump, Fiberstars LED lights and Hayward Aqua Rite. I don't care much about the LEDs, but is there something out there that will interface with all the rest AND give me support for the VS pump to actually control it more than on and off?
 
The short answer ... not exactly.

With a Pentair VS pump, you would be best to get a Pentair automation system.
Any automation system should be able to control the heat pump, and you can power the lights on and off (color control may not be good). Your SWG is standalone, but you would hook the power to a relay that is only powered when the pump is running. You would still have to set the SWG output manually in the Aqua Rite.

I am failing to see what you are hoping to gain with an automation system. You have full control over your pump speeds and times now. Is your heat pump on a separate timer?
 
My HOPE is that an automation system would be able to bring the pump on when the heat pump calls for heat? I guess that's probably not realistic though. But at the very least, I could bring the pump on through the day/night to allow the heat pump to run a bit here and there, as opposed to it running for about 3 hours to catch back up after being offline for 18 hours.

The heat pump has a thermostat, but no timer. The pump itself does have the electronic timers built in; I guess best bet is to just up the other three timers in the heat pump to bring the pump on for an hour or so every four hours when the pump isn't running it's normal cycle. Then I just need to dial down the SWG a bit for the additional time.
 
The heat pump has no way of knowing the pool temperature when the pump is not running ... I am not sure that is very common for a pump to be turned on when the heater or automation system thinks it needs heat. Usually the pump timer controls the pump and I know my automation has a "heat extend" where is the pump was supposed to turn off, but the set temp has not been reached it will stay on.
 
Don't know about the rest of the equipment, because I'm all Pentair, but I can tell you that an easy touch (Pentair automation) SHOULD maintain color control on those Fiberstars lights. I have them too and the color is controlled by DIP switches and repeatedly turning the switch off/on in intervals less than 2 seconds apart. The other posters are unfortunately right about it not working with all the other equipment though.

Regarding what to do with your heat pump, I have a solar cover which protects against heat loss due to evaporation at night. Considering we're not too far apart, I can tell you I run my pump for about 6 hours during the day, bringing the temp up with the pump, and the cover keeps the heat loss WAY down.
 
Mike - about how many degrees is the pool dropping overnight, if you know? When I was just running my pump/heat pump, I ran it from 12-6pm and that was it. By 12pm the next day, it had dropped from about 83 to 80 degrees in those 18 hours. I know - lots of variables here, but curious.
 
I loose about 3 degrees a night lately with the cool temps here now. Thats with using a solar cover. Last night was 49! BRRRR. Pool temp was 85 before sun went down yesterday, this morning 83. My HP will get temp back up to 85 by noon, just in time for pool time. BTW, i run my VS pump at fullspeed 3hrs, then 2000 rpm for 5, then 1200 for another 4.
 
Wow, you're running that pump a long time!

Anyway, I changed my schedule around. I have my pump running from 12-4pm, then an hour here and there. This keeps the temp most stable, but is almost most expensive it seems (At about $4.15 for a 24 hour period.) But the temp never drops more than a degree. Running the pump for 6 hours from 12-6pm and working to bring the temp back up from the overnight chill costs about $3.23. Very interesting. . .
 

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TroubleFreePat said:
Wow, you're running that pump a long time!

Anyway, I changed my schedule around. I have my pump running from 12-4pm, then an hour here and there. This keeps the temp most stable, but is almost most expensive it seems (At about $4.15 for a 24 hour period.) But the temp never drops more than a degree. Running the pump for 6 hours from 12-6pm and working to bring the temp back up from the overnight chill costs about $3.23. Very interesting. . .
Click to expand...

Yea, it is, but at the lower speeds, it much cheaper to run. It helps keep my pool clean too, i only vacuum every three weeks.
 
So I have basically the same question, we're down in Tennessee with a heat pump and an auto cover. We've just been letting the pump run from about 10am to 3pm on low and 3-7pm on high with the heat set at 88. I don't think it's really been maintaining that temperature, seems more like it falls to something like 80 and heat back up to maybe 85 before the pump turns off for the night. I've been trying to decide if we just need to run the pump on low 24/7. Also, I'm trying to decide how long we can keep up the heat before we give up and close the pool. Any thoughts from ya'll? Right now I think we're going to try to make it to Halloween and then turn down the heat and "close" the pool.
 
Keep in mind that if the pump runs too low of a speed, the heater will most likely not turn on as there is not enough pressure to activate the pressure switch. I would run the heater during the time of day when the outside temp is the warmest. Keep in mind though that the pump speed has to be enough to trigger the heater to turn on.
 
We just shut our heater down yesterday (Day time temps are now hitting just the 50s instead of the 70s of last week!)

What I found worked best was to run the pump at various times of the day. The bulk of the time was from 12pm-4pm. Then I would run for an hour at 8pm, 2am and 8am. There are recommendations from the manufacturer about GPM - so look into that as Paul said. Even if you're activating the pressure switch, it may not be most efficient for the heat pump at some low speeds. I know I had to crank ours up from 20GPM to 30GPM with the heat pump running, even though the pressure switch was activated.

This seemed to maintain pretty well for us, but we also have a small pool. We see about a degree an hour increase (Depending on outside temps), so your mileage may vary.
 
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