Pentair Freeze Protection Questions

[esh1982]

Is there a way to do the following on a Pentair System:
1. Reduce the pump speed during freeze protection, and
2. If Freeze Protection has been on for X hours, subtract these X hours from the primary pool schedule, automatically, on a daily basis to reduce scheduled runtime and save energy? Or a setting where the days schedule is disabled if Freeze Protection has run for more than a few hours. If I schedule my pool to run say 4 hours a day in the winter 10am-2pm, but freeze protection was on for say 5 hours, don't run that days scheduled pool run? Yes, it may be at a reduced pump RPM and technically I may not turnover the same amount of water through my filter, but I'd rather take the energy savings.

 

[1poolman1]

Is there a way to do the following on a Pentair System:
1. Reduce the pump speed during freeze protection, and
2. If Freeze Protection has been on for X hours, subtract these X hours from the primary pool schedule, automatically, on a daily basis to reduce scheduled runtime and save energy? Or a setting where the days schedule is disabled if Freeze Protection has run for more than a few hours. If I schedule my pool to run say 4 hours a day in the winter 10am-2pm, but freeze protection was on for say 5 hours, don't run that days scheduled pool run? Yes, it may be at a reduced pump RPM and technically I may not turnover the same amount of water through my filter, but I'd rather take the energy savings.

Run your pump from 2:00AM to 8:00AM at a lower speed and don't worry about freeze protection. Your temps in the Bay Area shouldn't be low enough to trigger freeze protection, which is usually about 36 - 38 degrees F.
Don't worry about "turnover," just keep the water moving.

 

[Dirk]

Turn over is a myth perpetrated by pool stores and pool guys that don't know what they're talking about. Many use it, but that's just because it is so commonly discussed that it took on a life of its own. Pump runtime is determined by many factors, but none of those have to do with making sure every bit of water goes through your pump X times a day (which, by the way, is never likely to actually happen no matter how you schedule a pump). Your runtime needs to be long enough to:

- circulate your chlorine once added (that can take as little as 30 minutes)

- skim your surface (that takes as long as it takes, and changes seasonly, but is easy to figure out: if ya got leaves floating around, your runtime is too low)

- filter your water (same deal, if the water is clear, you can try reducing runtime, if the water is not clear, increase your runtime)

- heat your pool to the desired temp (No heater? Not a factor. Otherwise, you gotta run your pump until the water temp is to your liking.)

- generate enough chlorine if you're running an SWG (No SWG? Not a factor. Otherwise, run the pump and SWG for as long as it takes to get your FC level correct).

Until you fill in your signature, we can't advise you much more that this. But you can see at a glance that typically just one of those things will determine how long you must run your pump. If you don't have an SWG or a heater, you'll probably need a few hours a day to keep the water clear, or the leaves off the surface. You play around with your schedule until your pool looks clean to you. The sanitation (the mixing of your chorine) very likely will get covered in whatever time it takes to filter your water.

If you've got an SWG, that'll likely determine your runtime, and everything else will get done in that same timeframe.

Same goes for a heater.

So fill in your signature and we can then better advise you. But to answer your questions:

1. Yes, there is likely a way to reduce your pump's speed during freeze protect mode, but we'd need to know way more about your equipment before we can thoroughly answer that question.

2. No/yes. No if you have a typical pool controller. They just don't have that capability. Yes, if you want to roll-your-own controller and get into the logic and complexity of programming such a system. Technically possible, but nothing "off the shelf."

1p1 gave you a working solution. But, again, depending on what you're running and what you need to be able to get done, may or may not be ideal.

So start here and emulate my signature as much as possible: https://www.troublefreepool.com/account/signature