How do I set Ecodan Heating

Scoobnut

From the first of this month the water has used 13kw and produced 23kw. This includes the first two days at 6am to 6pm. Now set for morning, afternoon and evening it'll be interesting what readings follow. We do have quite a big house, m2 is a no go for me, I still work in feet and inches. Weather compensation was confusing, I could switch over to it but it wouldn't let me change the settings.

Reed_Richards

Weather Compensation: 

Imagine it's cold outside, say 0 C.  You want your house to be 18 C and to achieve this the radiators need to be at 48 C.  The heat pump has to work really hard to extract heat at 0 C to heat water to 48 C.

Now suppose it's 9 C outside, that's half the previous temperature difference between inside and outside.  The radiators only need to achieve half the heat output they were giving before to keep your house at 18 C.  So they can run at about 33 C [I am assuming radiator output is proportional to temperature difference which it isn't exactly so actually it's a bit more than 33 C but ignore that for the sake of the explanation].  If the heat pump only has to heat the water in the radiators to about 33 C it can do that much more efficiently and it will cost you quite a bit less than if you still have it heating the water to 48 C.

You need weather compensation particularly when it's not too cold outside but cold enough that you still need some heating.  As I don't have an Ecodan myself I cannot tell you how to change the settings but some of the others have Ecodans so can.   

Mstty

This was the video I used to change my compensation curve

https://youtu.be/uC3jydJydRQ

shinytop

Scoobnut said:

From the first of this month the water has used 13kw and produced 23kw. This includes the first two days at 6am to 6pm. Now set for morning, afternoon and evening it'll be interesting what readings follow. We do have quite a big house, m2 is a no go for me, I still work in feet and inches. Weather compensation was confusing, I could switch over to it but it wouldn't let me change the settings.

That's an OK COP for HW.  The consumption looks minimal; it'll take most of that just to keep the tank hot. (my 250l tank takes about 2kWh/day just to keep it at 47 deg). 

The other point that's worth noting is that when you measure COP at very low consumption (like 2.5kWh per day HW) it won't be good because there is a baseline load needed to power the ASHP controller, pumps and generally run the system that is a much bigger factor at lower loads.  

 If you know square feet divide by 10 for m2 (it's really 10.76). 

Can you get to the edit functionality at all on the controller?  You hold down the left hand button for a few seconds.  I think that video and the buttons only work for a FTC5 and 6 Ecodan controller; If you have an earlier one it's probably different.

Scoobnut

Today my hot water used 16kw and produced 27kw in total so just today it used 3kw and produced 4kw. Mstty, I've watched that video serveral times but never could get it to work for me. I'll look at it again. I ask my husband about the size of the house and he worked it out at roughly 140 m2, its a big house but surely my electric bill should not be over a 1000 when we've barely run the heating.

 My compensation curve, I hope this helps.

markin

Looks like that it set to -30c not -3c

Mstty

Hi Scoobnut,

I think we need to nail down what you want to save. When you say 1000 in the above post do you mean £1000 is that a quarter/month/other? And what months does it cover etc. 

1) Heat-Pumps are expensive to run if you don't get on top of them and read up and research and watch loads of videos (the manual is dry but it's also good to try and read it as well)

2) You state you only use hot water for washing up as you have an electric shower so I presume no baths. Based on your last 6 days 16kWh usage your hot water for the year at 28p per kWh is £272.50 a year just to wash up. Are you happy with this or do you want to reduce this?

3) have you looked at your meter (smart or cupboard) to see how much the rest of your electricity usage is a day? Btw an electric shower is an energy monster and if you take long showers that can add up to lots of £'s

4) the good news....you have until September to get on top of your compensation curve for winter heating and here is another video

https://youtu.be/RX31v4NoQf4

Swizz

Thanks for the video, I don't know what I should set the right hand button..curve or thermostat? As you say, I have until the autumn, but its quite confusing ...I find the videos tell you how, but not why..ie, how to be more efficient..

markin

Swizz said:

Thanks for the video, I don't know what I should set the right hand button..curve or thermostat? As you say, I have until the autumn, but its quite confusing ...I find the videos tell you how, but not why..ie, how to be more efficient..

Watch the video many times, They all move a bit fast.

The are 3 setting, And he says the thermometer still uses the curve, but its adaptive to heat up quicker = less efficient, So i would stick the curve.

Would be simpler if they just labeled things, Hot water boost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogA9BcTPl_8

shinytop

Scoobnut said:

Today my hot water used 16kw and produced 27kw in total so just today it used 3kw and produced 4kw. Mstty, I've watched that video serveral times but never could get it to work for me. I'll look at it again. I ask my husband about the size of the house and he worked it out at roughly 140 m2, its a big house but surely my electric bill should not be over a 1000 when we've barely run the heating.

 My compensation curve, I hope this helps.

That sort of makes sense as the Ecodan delivered/produced resets each month.  3kWh used per day sounds about right.  

If your house is 140m2 it's more medium sized than big. How old is your house?  Do you have an EPC? If so what are the heating and hot water requirements?  They will be numbers something like 15000 kWh per year fpor heating and 3000 for hot water. 

My house is an averagely insulated 1990 bungalow of 160m2 and my Ecodan uses around 6500-7000 kWh per year for heating and hot water.  Even at current prices that's less than £200/month average or £400ish on a cold winter's month.  Unless your house is very draughty and/or poorly insulated yours could be similar.   

Your compensation curve is a bit hotter than mine but it looks OK. If I ran your curve in my house it would probably use a little more power than I do but nothing excessive.

That's the curve that's set - but are you sure it's running in weather comp mode?