Heat Pump Control

[roksmith]

For those using a heat pump, do you leave your system pump running 24/7 and just let the heat pump do it's thing?
Can you scale back and run the system pump say 8 hours a day?
If so, how do you control when the heat pump runs?

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

Many have tried to figure out the best HP runtime approach. Here is one recent thread...

Pool Heat Pump Experiment and Tracking electrical usage with a Monitor

I have been trying to figure out the best setup to reduce electrical usage from our pool. In the past year, our bill has steadily increased and currently is over $200 and this time last year was about $120. There are a lot of variables (new pool heat pump, rate increases, working from home, etc)...

www.troublefreepool.com

And other threads on the topic...

Google search results

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[roksmith]

I appreciate the link. At this point I'm not as concerned with how long it should run for best results but if I even can run it part time. I have a single speed pump so it's all or nothing.. I know from experience that 4-5 hours a day is enough filtration to turn my water over a few times a day, so if I could run it for say.. 8 hours a day that would cut my energy costs by 2/3rds.
I don't believe my pump is able to slave off of another piece of equipment. The only input is for the 120v in for power, I don't see any kind of control input.
I was hoping someone had some experience with and could tell me if I could schedule my system pump to run on whatever schedule I choose and let the water flow detection in the heat pump determine when it tried to run.
It's a Rheem/Raypak heat pump if that helps.

 

[roksmith]

I've got a Raypak 2450TI Heat pump which is capable of controlling a system pump and will be switching to a variable speed pump this season to save electricity. (running my old single speed 1.5hp pump is way overkill for my 8000 gallon pool) I'm currently looking at a Waterway defender 140.
I know I could add a 3rd party automation controller, but I have zero interest in controlling anything but my heat pump and system pump.
It appears to be a fairly simple configuration... the heat pump has 4 digital (12v) outputs to set the system pump speed and the pump appears to have several connections looking for a 12v input to control the speed.
Has anybody had experience with a similar setup?
Ideally I would run the system pump on low speed 24/7 until there was heat demand at which time the system pump would switch to a higher speed to ensure the heat pump has adequate flow and then the heat pump would heat until it reached it's set point then shut off and let the system pump slow back down.