Solar and heater together

[peter_c_morris]

I have a new concrete in ground pool and attached spa that has an overflow into the pool. I have a pentair intellicenter, a pentair vsf pump, raypak gas heater and solar system on the roof. there are actuator valves to switch between pool and spa with a manual spa makeup valve to the spa can be kept full and over flowing into the pool during pool operation. I also have an actuator on the solar valve and it all works as expected and I've got the programming working ok. But I have a couple of questions and looking for advice:
1. The options for heat are gas heater, solar only or solar preferred. I'd like to have both solar and gas heater working at the same time if there is enough heat in the roof but I want it to heat quicker. Can't see how to do this.
2. I'd like to tie the pump GPM to the solar valve. I.e., Keep GPM at one level when solar is off but increase GPM when the solar valve opens. Currently I can only see how to tie pump GPM to a time based schedule.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum.
Sounds like you have a unique situation. Let's ask @MyAZPool as he has quite a bit of experience with the Intellicenter.

 

[MyAZPool]

@peter_c_morris
Welcome...
Those are some tough ones and unfortunately I don't employ solar so I'm not too sure how one would go about doing what you are trying to do.
Let's try asking @rstrouse
He is very creative with the IntelliCenter and I'm pretty sure that he has solar as well. So he might be able to come up with a solution/workaround for you.
Thanks...
r..

 

[rstrouse]

Unfortunately, the options for heat selection on the body are mutually exclusive. There is only one mode that is currently being used to heat the body. This will be true for any of the heater selections. If it weren't you could set it up to cool with a heat pump and heat with a gas heater. Now that being said I assume that you are trying to get the heater to be on when the differential temp is great enough that the solar would take a really long time. Then switch to solar to keep it there. That would make much more sense but would require fiddling IntelliCenter to shut up and obey.