Meet SunTroller
SunTroller is a temperature monitor being developed to put a set of eyes on supported solar pool heating and solar water heating systems.
The problem it is meant to solve
A solar electric system that stops working usually tells somebody. Production drops, a monitoring platform notices, and the problem surfaces.
Solar pool heating and solar water heating were almost never built with any reporting at all. When one stops working, the pool just feels a bit cooler and the electric backup element quietly covers for the water heater. The first real signal is often a utility bill or a water stain, months later.
Nobody is watching. That is the gap.
What SunTroller measures
Temperatures. That is the whole of it, and it is deliberately a small, honest scope.
- Pool temperature
- Hot water line temperature
- Cold water line temperature
- Ambient air temperature
What is done with those readings
- Show the temperatures for your system.
- Make the same readings viewable from the servicing office.
- Raise an alert to the office when the readings suggest something is not working, so a person looks at it.
Four temperatures, read regularly, are enough to tell whether a thermal system is actually doing its job. A pool that never gains on a sunny afternoon, or a hot water line that never gets hot, shows up in the numbers long before it shows up on a bill.
What SunTroller does not do
Being blunt about this, because thermal homeowners have been promised a lot over the years and this is a temperature monitor, not a system controller.
- It does not control anything. It does not switch your pump on or off, move a valve, or change a controller setting.
- It is not a thermostat and it does not replace your existing controller.
- It does not detect every fault. It reports temperatures and flags readings that look wrong.
- It is not an emergency service. No immediate response is promised for any alert.
- SunTroller does not monitor any system today. It is in development.
- Not every pool heating or water heating system will be compatible.
Pricing, sensors, subscription terms, membership inclusion and any response commitments will be published only once AllSolar has approved them.
Where we want to take it
This is what we would most love SunTroller to grow into, and what we hope to get into development.
Being straight with you: none of it is built yet, none of it is scheduled, and none of it is a promise. It is what we are aiming at. Which of these matters most to you genuinely affects the order we go after them.
- A freeze warning before a Florida cold snap
- A notice when the pool stops gaining heat on a sunny day
- A notice when the hot water tank is running on the electric element
- A monthly summary of how the system performed
- A reading history to look back through
- A reminder when the system is due for a service visit
What SunTroller is intended to connect
- The homeowner
- The solar pool heating system
- The solar water heating system
- The servicing office
What you can do today
Monitoring is not the only thing missing from most thermal systems. Records are too. A free Solar Home account gives your pool heating and water heating equipment the same treatment a solar electric system usually gets.
- Record collectors, controller, valve, tank, pump and backup element.
- Save photographs of the equipment and the labels.
- Keep documents, warranties and roof removal and reset history.
- Keep every service visit attached to the property.
- Be on the list for SunTroller information as it develops.