Thermostat...settings

[noshali]

I have rules set to turn on the A/C on when the temp goes above 74.

My biggest dilema is how do I setup rules that would cater to the 2 main seasons summer and winter.

For eg I cna have a rule to turn on the AC if the temp goes over 74 and turn the heat on if temp goes below 69. As you can see that such a rule will not work very well as during summer if we get a cool day then I don't want the heat to be turned on and if during winter the temp goes up then do not want the AC to come on.

How are you guys doing this without writing 30 rules. I now have different rules for summer and different rules for winter. I really haven't figured out a way to do this better.

thanks

 

[toymaster458]

What about inserting an AND rule based on an output. When the output is on then it is summer and when it is off it is winter.

 

[noshali]

I could do that and that is what I was leaning towards...but I figured there has to be a better way to control this stuff.


regards,

 

[Guy Lavoie]

Just use AND rules that test the month, such as in:

IF TEMPERATURE IS > 74
AND THEN MONTH IS LATER THEN March
AND THEN MONTH IS EARLIER THEN October
THEN ...

 

[un-wired]

I gave Amy at ELK a quick call, she tells me it's impossible to tell the thermostat what temperature sensor to report from. This means that you can't tell it to cool the house only until the bedroom is 70 degrees, if the living room cools first it will turn off, and if it doesn't it will keep cooling until the temperature sensor assigned to that thermostat reaches it's preset temperature.

However she mentioned that you can raise and lower the setpoint temperature and write rules based on the zone temperature sensor.

So you could essentially write rules that said:
WHENEVER ZONE1 sensor > 70
AND MONTH =
AND DAY =
AND TIME =
set AC to 65

WHENEVER ZONE1 sensor < 68
AND MONTH =
AND DAY =
AND TIME =
set AC to 70

This is of course just a quick hip shot, and not real code snippet, but you get the idea. The ELK is basically setting the temperature up and down based on the zone temperature sensors current temperature, the month, the day and the time. The problem is you would then need to use the ELK completely to control the thermostat since most stats do not allow you to switch between programmed settings and ELK's control of that same stat. I would contact our dear friends at ELK (Amy has never ever failed to answer a question i've asked) and ask them if there is a preferred way to do this to avoid creating a loop and avoid abusing your HVAC unit. For example I chose a two degree seperation, but if the temp is jumping around your HVAC unit is going to be getting turned on and off every second. Working out a schedule of checking the temperature would reduce this greatly.

 

[Guy Lavoie]

That's also the way I'd implement it, by artificially setting the setpoint much too low in order to prevent the thermostat's own temperature sensor from reaching it and stopping the cooling before your rule based temperatrure sensor does.

As you said: "most stats do not allow you to switch between programmed settings and ELK's control of that same stat." That is why the Elk should first note the "regular" setpoints and mode of the thermostat before doing its special mode, and then set them back when finished. That way the thermostat is always in control, but the Elk decides if it is overriding the regular settings or not.