Best way to go automated?

[ajw22]

The nice thing about a forum is other people tend to follow along or stumble upon at a later date, it seems worth noting this system does work for both types of heaters.

Well I am glad you finally said that.

I also find it odd just above you are quoting a different post asking about tracking gas heater run times in response to the op questioning heat pump usage, which you most definitely can meter.

Glad to get you back on topic of the OP.

And you elaborated that "this is definitely not something that is DIY if your not familiar with volts and amps".

Now if the OP understands what you shared I am sure he will follow up on this thread.

 

[athflying]

We do have a cover. I'd like to see the cost/benefit of keeping a minimum pool temp over time. I'd also like to know how long the HP needs to run to hit a desired temp.

We've been operating on-demand. I basically start running the HP at least 24 hours before we plan on doing a pool day. There have times when I've heated the pool and then our plans changed and times we wished we could use the pool but it was too cold. I know there are a number of variables involved but I still don't really know how long it takes to heat to a desired temp.

Is there any way with the OmniLogic to set the HP and pool pump to run in tandem until it hits a desired temp then switch everything off?

I recently installed an Emporia Vue. It can monitor every circuit in your breaker box. If you are comfortable with opening your breaker box, it's pretty easy to install. You only have to wire the unit itself to a breaker, otherwise everything just "clips" on to existing wiring to give you energy usage. You are able to plug in your local utility and will calculate $$ for you as well.

I have been collecting data for about a week trying to figure out how I want to run our heat pump. I live in S Fl and I suspect the way I use it will change with the season but I haven't gotten that far yet. Since a heat pump is very slow to heat, using it on demand doesn't make much sense for us when it's cooler out. We also have kids so I never know when we all decide to jump in the pool. We keep it between 84-86, even when it's dead of summer, without heat our pool barely hits 80. So that means I need at least 8 hour lead time to heat the pool for one swim session. However I have found with temps in the 80's and lows 60-70, it only needs to run an average of 2 hours a day to maintain temps with a cover on. So for us, it makes more sense to just let it run 24/7. It costs me about $0.60 an hour to run, so that's roughly $30-35 a month. That way it's always warm and ready to use. It is definitely more expensive then if you are only going to use the pool once or twice every couple weeks, but for me the convenience justifies the cost.

I suspect as we approach fall and winter, I will re-analyze the numbers and see what works best. We only have had ours since end of last summer, so somewhat new to us. We turned it off Dec, Jan, and most Feb.