Use of solar temp input for pool

[sigs]

I have a friend I am trying to help him figure out if we can use his solar temperature input as a pool temperature indicator. He has a Pentair Intellitouch 8 with a pool and a spa connected to it. The installer connected his spa temp sensor to the pool sensor input and set the circuit up accordingly. He randomly gets a random phantom reading for the pool tem and sometime it is the same as the spa. I am thinking that it is due to the way it was set up. I have a similar setup but have the I10 which supports both the pool and spa separately.
Any thoughts?

Thanks
Sig

 

[Jimrahbe]

Sig,

Does your friend have Solar or not???

There is only one water temp sensor.. It is normally in the plumbing near the pump output or filter input.. When in the Pool mode, it measure the pool water temp and when in the Spa mode it measure the Spa water temp.. All three sensors are interchangeable.

What happened to your friends water sensor???

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[sigs]

Sig,

Does your friend have Solar or not???

There is only one water temp sensor.. It is normally in the plumbing near the pump output or filter input.. When in the Pool mode, it measure the pool water temp and when in the Spa mode it measure the Spa water temp.. All three sensors are interchangeable.

What happened to your friends water sensor???

Thanks,

Jim R.

I am so sorry for the delay. Health issues I won't bore you with.
No, he does not have solar.
I was unsure if the solar input on the various Intellitouch panels would support a temperature sensor input that could be used to measure the pool temperature.
Yes, I realize that the sensors are all interchangeable. The installer used the pool input as the input for his spa temperature which is separate from his pool. The same installer did our pool and spa and after reading some literature, realized that our best option was the Intellitouch 10 which I got the installer to swap out with the original I8 he first installed.
Simply put, he has no way to measure the pool temperature via the panel and correlating smartphone/computer interface. He gets phantom readings and sometime it even reads the same temp as the spa, ~98 degrees. I had gone over and eliminated the wireless link connected to his screenlogic adapter since his wireless was flaky like mine used to be (sometimes it would not connect) until I ran cat6 to the panel and mounted the screenlogic interface adapter inside the pentair panel.
So, in summary, if the solar input can be used to measure his pool temp, please let me know. I am familiar with setting up circuits on the Intellitouch panels but was unsure if a circuit could be setup that used the solar temp input to measure his pool temp.

Thanks for the speedy reply and again, sorry for the delay.
Sig

 

[Jimrahbe]

Sigs,

I am not sure that you will see both temperatures "active" at the same time.. When I am in the Pool mode my system shows the pool temp and when I am in the spa mode it shows the spa temp.

I use my system to control a standalone hot tub.. I used a relay to switch between my normal temp probe and a temp probe in the hot tub. When I am in the spa mode the relay closes and turns off the pool probe and turns on the spa probe.

I have an EasyTouch not an IntelliTouch.. I don't see a place for the solar temp to show up. That said I can't see any reason not to try connecting a temp probe to the solar input and see what happens. It can't hurt anything.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[panic_button]

On the EasyTouch panel or remote panels, you can see the Solar temp on the Diagnostics screen and under Settings/Calibration. I haven't found any place else to view the solar setting in any of the apps. I've attached my solar sensor to the exit side of my heater to see what the delta is.

 

[sigs]

Thanks all for the replies. On the i8 and i10 panels (ones I have experience with), I know how to set a circuit up that would use one of the relays to switch between the pool and spa. However, it would require actually toggling this in the app which is something I am not sure he would be interested in doing since he would need to realize the pool reading was actually the spa temp if toggled to "spa". Also, on the summary page, the correct reading would only be indicative of how the toggle was currently set (pool or spa).
If he is interested in buying the sensor and drilling a hole in the proper pool PVC, I would be interested in going back and trying to see if I could set a circuit up to do what he wants and play around with trying to "trick" the panel into thinking the pool temp was input via the solar temp.

Again, thanks for the replies!