I asked this question about a year ago (
Running 2 heat sources simultaneously), and realized that I omitted to give an update.
My pool is in Florida and in the winter months I thought is would be handy to be able to run both the rooftop solar and the heater at the same time. My Intellitouch i5+3 system does not have this capability, however I use nodejs-poolController to control my pool. Working with rstrouse, the njspc developer, a rule was developed that implements this, along with a relay in the panel.
The key to the implementation is connecting into Valve B which, on my system, is not used. In the panel, I connected an inexpensive 24v DC NC/NO relay with a bridge rectifier across its inputs to the Valve B header. The relay is connected in parallel with the existing wiring to the fireman's switch that activates the heater, so existing heating functionality is not disturbed. The switch side is connected inline with one of the wires from the gas heater port on the board. This port is NC and goes NO when the heater is turned on. By connecting the relay common and NC terminals inline with one of the wires, that connection is opened when Valve B turns on and the heater activates. If solar is off, Valve B is off and the heater works as normal.
I defined two custom names, HEATBOOST and BOOSTRELAY, in the Pentair ICP and created a circuit called HEATBOOST and a feature connected to Valve B called BOOSTRELAY. In njspc, I unchecked Show as Feature for BOOSTRELAY, so I end up with a new option on the ICP called HEATBOOST.
The rule code is shown below. The vars are obtained from the poolConfig.json file created by njspc. Using the Controller > Interfaces tab, the .json file is uploaded as a binding and a new interface (heatboost) of type Rule is created and attached to the custom rule binding. Once enabled, everything works! When solar heating and HEATBOOST are on, the heater is turned on. If solar heating is off, the heater is also off unless the ICP has Solar Pref enabled or the heater is activated manually or with the spa.
Hopefully this is helpful to others!
{
"context": {
"name": "heatBoostRule",
"options": {},
"vars": {
"heatBoostFeatureId": 41,
"boostRelayFeatureId": 42,
"boostRelayCircuitId": 5
}
},
"events": [
{
"name": "temps",
"description": "Look for HeatBoost feature and act accordingly",
"processor": [
"try {",
"logger.info('temps event : Processing HeatBoost');",
"let boostRelayOn = false;",
"let feature = state.features.getItemById(vars.heatBoostFeatureId, false);",
"let relay = state.features.getItemById(vars.boostRelayFeatureId, false);",
"for (let i = 0; i < data[0].bodies.length; i++) {",
"let body = data[0].bodies;",
"if(typeof body.heatStatus !== 'undefined' && (body.heatStatus.name === 'solar' && feature.isOn)) {",
"boostRelayOn = true;",
"if(!relay.isOn) logger.info ('Solar is on, HeatBoost is on, activating ...');",
"}",
"}",
"await sys.board.circuits.setCircuitStateAsync(vars.boostRelayCircuitId, boostRelayOn);",
"} catch(err) { logger.error(`Error triggering heat boost feature ${err.message}`); }"
]
},
{
"name": "circuit",
"filter": "@bind=data.id; === @bind=vars.heatBoostFeatureId;",
"description": "Trigger the HeatBoost feature immediately",
"processor": [
"try {",
"logger.info('circuit event : Processing HeatBoost');",
"let feature = data[0];",
"let boostRelayOn = false;",
"if(feature.isOn) {",
"for(let i = 0; i < state.temps.bodies.length; i++) {",
"let body = state.temps.bodies.getItemByIndex(i).getExtended();",
"if(typeof body.heatStatus !== 'undefined' && body.heatStatus.name === 'solar') boostRelayOn = true;",
"}",
"}",
"await sys.board.circuits.setCircuitStateAsync(vars.boostRelayCircuitId, boostRelayOn);",
"} catch(err) { logger.error(`Error triggering heat boost feature ${err.message}`); }"
]
}
]
}
