Flow meter power control (solar heater risk mitigation)

[pgiering]

Hi, I'm replumbing my pool after my pipes burst and have decided that instead of repairing the pipes inside my gas heater, I'm going to build a solar heater consisting of ABS pipe running back and forth across the roof of my pool shed. The design is pretty simple, but there is one thing I'm a little worried about, and that is the compression fittings on the ABS. If one of them fails while I'm not arround, I could imagine the pool draining below the skimmer level, and the pump running dry. I don't like the idea of this, so I'm thinking of tieing a flow meter into the power supply to the pump. If the flow drops to low, it would shut the power off to the pump. Of course at start up, I would need an override for this, and to make it more fun, I also want to put the pump on a timer...

The pump I'm using is a Whisperflo MFE-6. I don't have a flowmeter, or timer picked out yet, and I don't know whether there even is a power control system that can be integrated with a flowmeter (or one that has it already built in).

Has anyone ever integrated power management with a flowmeter? Can you tell me how you did it, and/or make a recommendation about the equipment?

I will appreciate all replies.

Thanks,

Paul