Solar heater controller making my pump have a seizure :)

[BoneDr210]

Happy Thanksgiving! Thought I’d add some flavor to the title.

I have the pentair intellicenter with a calimar automation panel upgrade for the calimar pump. I have one of the relays on the intellicenter wired to the solar heater relay socket which calls the pump to get to a higher speed to get adequate flow rate for the panels on the roof.

Lately, my pump has been cycling back and forth between its normal speed and solar heater speed every 1 second. There is a clicking (relay closing and opening type clicking) that accompanies that. This might be because of the temperature difference just happens to be hovering at the set temp. For example pool water temp is 73F, and solar panels are seeing 77F and the heater controller is set at a delta of 3 or 4. When the temperature difference between the pool water and the roof is much greater than four, everything works fine. Here is a link to the video showing the cycling

I recently got a pool cover and have the (possibly unrealistic) hopes of getting the water in the 80s and swim in the fall/early winter in so cal.

Anything I should worry about or just set the temp delta to much higher or simply turn off solar heater?

 

[ajw22]

Is the IntelliCenter the "heater controller," or are you using a different controller for the solar panels?

The heat differential setting is supposed to prevent short cycling like yours. The Solar valve should open (turn ON) at the lower temperature and close (turn OFF) at the higher temperature.

Show us your Solar Heat Settings.

 

[BoneDr210]

Intellicenter is the heater controller. I don’t have any other controllers.

Here is a screenshot of my solar heater setting. It only cycles when the start differential is set to 3 or 4 deg. And the true pool water vs solar panel temp differential is 3 or 4 deg. Once the true temp differential is 5 or above; it’s fine.

My understanding is that the start temp delta is the difference between solar and pool temp that turns the solar on. And stop temp is when the pool temp exceeds the desired temp (88F in my case… which we will never get it) by the set stop temp delta. Is that incorrect? Does the start and stop temp delta refer to the difference between pool and solar panel temps only? As in if it’s only (stop temp delta) F different, then stop the solar heating?

When it’s in this cycling phase, the tiny led light on the solar relay socket on the personality card also blinks in phase with the cycling.

 

[ajw22]

Does the start and stop temp delta refer to the difference between pool and solar panel temps only?

Yes

As in if it’s only (stop temp delta) F different, then stop the solar heating?

Yes

If the delta is below there is not enough heat in the panels compared to the pool temperature to be worthwhile running the solar.

When it’s in this cycling phase, the tiny led light on the solar relay socket on the personality card also blinks in phase with the cycling.

Make a gap of at least 3 degrees between the start delta and the stop delta.

 

[BoneDr210]

Yes



Yes

If the delta is below there is not enough heat in the panels compared to the pool temperature to be worthwhile running the solar.


Make a gap of at least 3 degrees between the start delta and the stop delta.

Ah! Makes more sense now. I’ll change it so start delta is higher and stop delta is at least 3 deg less.

I thought stop delta referred to the difference between pool temp and the desired set temp. Incorrectly.

Making sure I understand this correctly… if start is 6 and stop is 3: when solar temp is 6 deg higher, solar pump relay will close and the pump speed will go up, solar valve will direct water to the roof. Even if the temperature difference goes down to 5, the solar heater flow will continue until the temperature difference goes down to 3 (stop delta). Then the solar relay will open, pump speed will go down, solar valve will close. Which makes sense because it will prevent the cycling issue I’m experiencing.

 

[BoneDr210]

Happy to report that fixed the issue. Thank you @ajw22!

 

[ajw22]

Happy to report that fixed the issue. Thank you @ajw22!

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[JamesW]

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[BoneDr210]

Another solar heater related question -- Given we aren't using the pool as much given the temperatures, I have the pump running a lot less. It's scheduled to run for 6 hours/day via the scheduling feature on the intellicenter app. It's off during the day time hours when the sun is out. Is there a way to have intellicenter turn the pump on when the "start temp delta" is met during the times when the pump is off? Or does the pump need to be running for solar heat to be called upon?

 

[JamesW]

The system can't take a water temp when the pump is off because the water is not moving and the water temp in the plumbing won't be accurate with the pool water temp.

Just run the pump at low speed and the power usage should be less than about 200 watts.

 

[JamesW]

It's scheduled to run for 6 hours/day via the scheduling feature on the IntelliCenter app.

What speed do you use?

Keep it at low speed until call for heat and then have the pump increase speed on Call for Heat.

 

[BoneDr210]

The system can't take a water temp when the pump is off

Duh! That makes sense and should have thought of that.

What speed do you use?

I have my low speed set at 2400 rpm (700 watts) because that’s the min speed at which my suction cleaner moved. From 2-6am I have it at 3000 rpm to “power” clean for 2 hours and skim for 2 hours as electricity is cheap till 6a (although I recently put in a pool cover and don’t think I really need to skim much, but not related for this discussion). I have it running for 2 hours at 2400 rpm in the afternoon before peak electricity rates. Total 6 hours.

When solar is called, I have the pump going up to 3300 rpm as that’s what gets me a flow rate of 40gpm, a bit more than the manufacturer recommended flow of 5 gpm/panel and I have 7 solar collector panels.

Keep it at low speed until call for heat and then have the pump increase speed on Call for Heat.

I just changed my low speed to 1700rpm (200 watts) as I don’t really care about the suction cleaner moving during the day with the pool cover on and min use. It will still move from 2-6a at 3000 RPMs and whenever the solar heat is called upon.

Thanks!