Easytouch Solar or any connection that will enable/ disable 120v feed?

[blakeusa]

Looking to connect a 120v pump to my Easy Touch that can be controlled On/Off depending on pool or spa temp.
Any ideas or recommendations?

It will be turning on a taco circulation pump getting heat from a heat exchanger.
Thanks

 

[Jimrahbe]

Blake,

What is it that you want to do??? Do you want the pump to act like a heater? When the temp is below the set point you want the pump on and when the temp is above the set point you want the pump off.. ??? How exactly do you want it to work?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[blakeusa]

Yes I want the pump to turn on and off when ENABLED at set points.
So I do not whnt it running all the time - ideally just when I enable a circuit or want to turn the heater ON.
Then once the say spa temp reaches 100 degrees turn it off when it drops to 95 degrees turn it on.
Right now I just have a circuit named Heater and manually turn it on and off as needed.

I have just not had the time to dig into this until now. Thanks

 

[JamesW]

One way that you can do it is to connect the booster pump to a relay and turn the relay on continuously.

Then, remove the power supply wire from the relay coil terminal and run it through the gas heater relay and back to the main relay.

That way, when the gas heater relay closes, the main relay will close and power the pump.

Note: Make sure that you understand exactly what you're doing before you do this.

Do at your own risk.

What is the heat exchanger. How is it controlled?

 

[blakeusa]

The heat exchanger is a shell and tube and run off an outdoor wood furnace using hot water. Have been running this system for 7 years with no problems
but I am the one with the on/ off button. Pump is a Taco 009

 

[JamesW]

If you only need to control the pump based on temperature, you can control it like I described.

How are you controlling the wood furnace?

If the wood furnace is on with no flow through the heat exchanger, the water in the heat exchanger will get too hot.

So, it seems that you would have to be able to control that as well?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Blake,

What James has described is exactly what I would do..

Connect AC power to the line side of an unused Aux relay.
Connect your pump to the load side of the same Aux relay.
Disconnect one side of the Aux relays coil wire and route through the gas heater connector on the ET's main board, and then back to the Aux relay.
You can set the Aux relay to always be on or you can just turn on the Aux relay when you want the heater to work.
The Aux relay will only close when the temperature of your pool water is less than the temperature set point in ScreenLogic/or your ET..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[JamesW]

Another way that you could do it is to operate the pump as a solar booster pump. You would connect the pump to a power relay and plug a low voltage cable from relay into the two-pin socket marked SOLAR on the EasyTouch motherboard.

The solar circuit is activated when the water temperature is below the set point and the solar sensor temperature is above the water temperature.

You can use a 5,000 ohm resistor to make the solar temperature sensor read 106 degrees all the time.

That way, the pump is activated whenever the water temperature is below the set point.

You can use an actual temperature sensor near the heater to detect when heat is available if you would prefer to do that, but I don’t understand how you control the heater being on or off.

It seems that, with wood, you just let it run until the wood burns out.

In that case, it seems like you would need to have the booster pump running the entire time to make sure that the heat exchanger didn’t overheat. However, that doesn’t allow you to control the temperature of the water.

 

[blakeusa]

The wood boiler has a control with a set point- normally set to 180 degrees w. a 10 degree low point. It has a damper that shuts when it reaches temp then opens when its 10 below. It has 380 gallons of water that is used to transfer the heat. It is connected to the pool heat exchanger via 1 inch pex lines (in and out) in circulation. This is only active when the Taco pump is on otherwise there is no flow or hot water into the heat exchanger.
The heat exchanger has 2" in and out for pool water.

PS I also heat my entire 3500sf house all winter in New England with this set up for the past 14 years.

Will review the above notes--- thank you.
Can also install an aquastat inline that can trigger on/off at a set temp but would prefer to control via the Easytouch.

 

[JamesW]

Ok, I don't fully understand the heater, but if you just need to pump to turn on or off based on water temperature, either of the two methods should do what you want.

 

[blakeusa]

Spoke to pentair and Jim and James were right but will connect to elect heater port on the et board
ie low voltage wire from relay to elect heater port. will write up this week and report back. I sometimes need to hear the same thing a few times till I get it. thanks

 

[JamesW]

Ok, I didn't think about the electric heater relay connection.

Electric heaters are relatively uncommon. So, that relay output doesn't get used too much.