New Pool Owner - Winterizing (sort of) question

My apologies for my ignorance, i'll be a first time pool owner this Friday and it's going to be too cold to use without crazy high heating bills until next year.

I close on a house this Friday with an (owner thinks this is the volume) 15000 gallon concrete pool with a hot tub and what would be a waterfall between them if the hot tub was higher. The owner tells me he leaves the pool running all year long but I think he also has more money than I do. We do want to continue to use the hot tub in the winter time so I think that probably means we need to leave the pool running year round and maintain the appropriate levels everywhere as they're all connected. The current owner just pays a pool company for pool maintenance but I'd like to do everything I can myself.

Here's a picture of the pool and hot tub, pardon the corny effects as they were applied by accident and I don't see the original: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-p..._1-EFFECTS.jpg

Here's a picture off the filter, pump, heater, valves, etc.. :https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-O...29162206_1.jpg

The owner is going to leave me the methods he would normally use to run the pool so I'm sure I can use these to make sure everything is fine waterflow wise.

So I guess I just leave everything going all of the time? I don't know if there are electronics controlling whether the motor kicks on or off automatically or if it just stays on 24/7.. I'm sure I'll learn more this Friday after reading over some of his documentation, I guess I just kind of feel a little helpless and am trying to gather as much instruction for winter operation as possible. I guess that in order to have a good ph/chlorine and other levels in the hot tub they have to be maintained for the entire body of water so it seems like I'll still be out there in the cold mucking with it weekly and shocking and such :-)

On a side note I think I would like to convert the pool to salt water (currently chlorinated by a floating thing). Surely this is something I can do in the fall right? I've read the poolsolutions FAQ on SWCG. I have a buddy who successfully changed his over so I think I can enlist his help in wiring the cell up so I'd like to save some money and do it myself. I think I'm okay with adding the system in and dumping the recommended salt without having to do anything with the chlorine levels it's currently at. I'm mostly concerned with damaging the plaster lining on the concrete but I think that too much chlorine won't be an issue there..

Anyways, sorry for rambling and in general not asking very good questions, I think I'm more eliciting advice from someone who has experience or knowledge about my sort of setup.