Honeywell evohome Scheduling & Optimisation Help

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  • The EVOHOME Shop
    Site Sponsor
    • Dec 2014
    • 483

    Honeywell evohome Scheduling & Optimisation Help

    Hello forum members!

    As you know (or may have read) Honeywell evohome is an excellent smart zoning product. It is capable of independently time and temperature controlling up to 12 heating 'zones'. A 'zone' can be a 'room' or an area made up of 'multiple rooms'.

    Those that know me personally (after buying from us or have read some of my forum replies) will know after many years of being a heating installer, I have hung up my boots and finally have an 'office job' technically selling evohome. I am very passionate about the evohome product and I want to try and help share some of my tips and tricks you can do with evohome to 'optimise' your heating schedule and make full use of your evohome controlled heating system.

    The Basics...

    The evohome schedule can be programmed up to 6 independent time and temperature controlled periods per day. Many existing heating programmers that evohome replaces have only 4 time periods per day (on/off in the morning and on/off at night). This can naturally lead to programming evohome with a basic schedule that you have simply been used to!

    We are told 18-21 degrees Celsius is the 'comfort band' people are happy to reside within and energy saving organisations will recommend we keep our 'room thermostats' between these margins.

    So why am I stating the obvious? I am starting with key facts necessary to ensure adequate programming of evohome. So if we think about the average working persons day, I will try and put an example schedule together for this.

    The 'Smart Zoning' Scenario (the characters are real just not the scenario)...

    Richard & Diane, have a house made up of a Kitchen, Dining Room, Lounge, Hallway/Landing, Bathroom, Bed 1 & Ensuite, Bed 2 & Bed 3 - 9 Heating Zones (Hallway & Landing are one 'zone' containing 2 radiators).

    During the week, Richard & Diane have the same routine every day from Monday to Friday. Richard wakes up at 7am and goes into the en-suite, he has a shower (about 10 minutes) and goes back into the bedroom to get dressed. He goes down to the kitchen for about 7:30am closely followed by his wife (who showers the night before) and has breakfast with his wife until they leave for work at 8am. Richard returns home at 4pm and cooks dinner. Diane returns home at 5pm and normally does the washing. They eat their dinner at 6pm in the kitchen before heading into the lounge at 7pm to sit down and watch TV for the majority of evenings. At 9:30pm most nights Diane heads to the en-suite to have a shower and at 10pm they both head to bed and are normally asleep by 10:30pm.

    OK, so what can we get from this description and how do we schedule for this weekday lifestyle? I will try and example below using only the 'occupied' rooms.

    Bed 1 Zone - 07:00 @ 19*C | 07:30 @ 15*C | 21:30 @ 18*C | 22:30 @ 15*C | 00:00 @ 15*C
    En-Suite Zone - 07:10 @ 21*C | 07:30 @ 15*C | 21:30 @ 21*C | 22:00 @ 15*C | 00:00 @ 15*C
    Hallway/Landing Zone - 07:30 @ 18*C | 08:00 @ 15*C | 16:00 @ 17*C | 22:00 @ 15*C | 00:00 @ 15*C
    Kitchen Zone - 07:30 @ 18*C | 08:00 @ 15*C | 16:00 @ 17*C | 18:00 @ 18*C | 19:00 @ 15*C | 00:00 @ 15*C
    Lounge Zone - 19:00 @ 18*C | 22:00 @ 15*C | 00:00 @ 15*C

    From the description, the majority of the rooms in this house are not used during the week and these 'unoccupied' rooms have the doors closed and (as the insurance company states their home should be set no lower than 10*C at any time) they are set at 10*C during Monday to Friday.

    With 'smart zoning' you are now independently temperature controlling rooms, so it is important the doors throughout the house remain shut at all times.

    So looking at the schedule I have created this is based on an evohome system using 'Optimum Start' and 'Optimum Stop' allowed to come on up to 1 hour before. The reason for the 'midnight' check point is to ensure if a HR92 is adjusted after 10pm it is turned off again at midnight to stop it running evohome all night.

    I tend to recommend the evohome schedule is not set at your 'desired' set temperature but at a degree or two below. It is very easy to adjust the temperature a degree higher if you are cold, but you cannot get the energy back you have wasted if you set it 'too high' in the first place and then decide to turn it down!

    I was going to do a weekend schedule but I am going to leave the scheduling there for now for any feedback or questions. If you have any specific schedules you would like me to look at and help with, please post them up and I will do my best to help you with them.

    I appreciate this is one scenario of a working couple, but the idea is to start with an example and then help with individual posts.

    Thanks for reading,

    Richard.
    Last edited by The EVOHOME Shop; 21 January 2015, 10:40 PM.
  • SteveP
    Automated Home Guru
    • Dec 2012
    • 190

    #2
    Hi Richard
    Thanks for this as I am sure that it will assist many prospective or even current users of Evohome who are not used to such a rich scheduling system

    A couple of points and a question
    1) What does Richard do from 7 until 7:10 that means he doesn't want the en-suite up to temp until 10 mins after waking up ? - lol (and no he doesn't go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea as the kitchen isn't yet up to temp)
    On a more serious note
    2) How does optimum stop work? I have avoided I as I don't understand how evohome resolves the fact that the heating in the above scenario needs to be at 19c at 7am and then at 15C at 7:30. Theoretically if evohome sees that the heating can be at 15c by 7:30 allowing for thermal drop then it could turn off the heating before it had reached its 7am 19C schedule point.
    3) Could you please reiterate to those who have come from a more traditional thermostat/timed controller that the set points are the time and temp that you want the heating to be at and not when people are used to getting the heating to turn on. To me this is one of the most fundamental differences over traditional systems and not easily understood by most as you hand over the actual start time to the computer via optimum start.
    Thanks
    Steve

    Comment

    • The EVOHOME Shop
      Site Sponsor
      • Dec 2014
      • 483

      #3
      Originally posted by SteveP View Post
      1) What does Richard do from 7 until 7:10 that means he doesn't want the en-suite up to temp until 10 mins after waking up ? - lol (and no he doesn't go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea as the kitchen isn't yet up to temp)
      These day's it's the kids getting me up well before this! The 7:10 days are well gone, ha ha!!!

      Originally posted by SteveP View Post
      2) How does optimum stop work? I have avoided I as I don't understand how evohome resolves the fact that the heating in the above scenario needs to be at 19c at 7am and then at 15C at 7:30. Theoretically if evohome sees that the heating can be at 15c by 7:30 allowing for thermal drop then it could turn off the heating before it had reached its 7am 19C schedule point.
      'Optimum Stop' works very much like 'Optimum Start' where evohome will learn how much energy it requires to get the room up to a set temperature at a set time. So in the case of 'Optimum Stop' evohome learns how much energy remains in the room after heating demand and basically turns off slightly early, knowing that the temperature in the room will remain at the set-point past the point you are asking for it to reduce temperature at the next scheduled point. 'OPT' is shown on the evohome Controller if 'Optimum Start' or 'Optimum Stop' is enabled.

      Originally posted by SteveP View Post
      3) Could you please reiterate to those who have come from a more traditional thermostat/timed controller that the set points are the time and temp that you want the heating to be at and not when people are used to getting the heating to turn on. To me this is one of the most fundamental differences over traditional systems and not easily understood by most as you hand over the actual start time to the computer via optimum start.
      Yes, sorry I should have made clearer those points! With the evohome system, instead of you setting the heating programmer everyday say 'half hour early' (i.e. 06:30 for getting up at 07:00) so your house is at the required temperature at a set time, evohome will do this for you with the 'Optimum Start' function enabled. This means that the system will 'learn' the pattern of your heating through the change of seasons and will be at the correct set point each and every day. This will not happen straight away when the system is new, but after a period of 7-10 days evohome will learn each smart zone controlled area and will know how to get to the right temperature in that zone at the right time.
      Last edited by The EVOHOME Shop; 22 January 2015, 09:56 AM. Reason: bad spelling

      Comment

      • Mavis
        Automated Home Ninja
        • Oct 2014
        • 322

        #4
        Thank you for this - this sets it out very clearly. One question though -

        I tend to recommend the evohome schedule is not set at your 'desired' set temperature but at a degree or two below. It is very easy to adjust the temperature a degree higher if you are cold, but you cannot get the energy back you have wasted if you set it 'too high' in the first place and then decide to turn it down!

        I understand this statement as I would presume that it is on the basis that out of, say seven days, you may only actually up the temp 3 days. But my question is, if you fiddle with the temp too regularly will you confuse the 'fuzzy logic' of the system?

        Comment

        • digital
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Jan 2015
          • 27

          #5
          Excellent article.
          Thank you for taking the time and trouble to explain.
          John

          Comment

          • The EVOHOME Shop
            Site Sponsor
            • Dec 2014
            • 483

            #6
            Originally posted by Mavis View Post
            Thank you for this - this sets it out very clearly. One question though -

            I tend to recommend the evohome schedule is not set at your 'desired' set temperature but at a degree or two below. It is very easy to adjust the temperature a degree higher if you are cold, but you cannot get the energy back you have wasted if you set it 'too high' in the first place and then decide to turn it down!

            I understand this statement as I would presume that it is on the basis that out of, say seven days, you may only actually up the temp 3 days. But my question is, if you fiddle with the temp too regularly will you confuse the 'fuzzy logic' of the system?
            Constantly changing the zone temperature to different set-points will not upset the balance of evohome, as it is constantly learning and changing anyway. So once it has 'learned' a zone, it will know what it takes to get to a different set temperature. The main point I was attempting to make here was if you normally like a room temperature of 21*C, set it to 18*C and then when you 'occupy' the 'zone' and maybe feel it is too cold, increase half a degree at a time until you are happy with the set-point rather than potentially wasting energy by setting it to 21*C in the first place.

            I have been quite 'reasonable' with the temperatures I have set, especially setting the system to 15*C overnight. Traditional systems, with an 'OFF time' at 22:00 would have fallen to no defined temperature set-point until the next morning program 'ON time', so this can be lowered to 10*C if you so wish (just make sure you adjust the 00:00 set point to 10*C too).

            Comment

            • G4RHL
              Automated Home Legend
              • Jan 2015
              • 1580

              #7
              A good lesson learned for me in reading all that is said is to use up your six time slots when scheduling zones even if you do not need them all. I have some zones when only 2 or 3 changes may be necessary but inserting 6 spread out say between 07:00 and 22:30, even when the temperature set is the same for a couple of periods, is helpful for when somebody turns up the temperature in a zone but then forgets to turn it down again. At least you know it will only last until the next time check.

              Comment

              • Drpepper
                Automated Home Jr Member
                • Jan 2015
                • 21

                #8
                First post and new to Evohome (it's mid fit complete with a new boiler), once in we'll be controlling 14 TRVs within 9 zones.

                Worked out the zoning and spreadsheeted a schedule, currently on version 4!

                Two things I've instantly learnt from this which is great. The first is that I only have 6 switchpoints to play with, must have missed that somewhere, fortunately the current plan doesn't have any more than that anyway. The 2nd was to add in the 'dummy' switch points to correct/re-adjust from manual intervention.

                So thanks for that, I'm sure the questions will come think and fast once it's in.

                James.

                Comment

                • courcirc8
                  Automated Home Jr Member
                  • Dec 2014
                  • 27

                  #9
                  After reading this VERY interesting explanation of the optimisation usage, I activated the "start optimisation" on my unit. The result was quite surprising: the next set temperature was overridden by the night lowest temperature. I modified it again and next day same problem: the schedule seems unchanged if edited but the target temp is overridden by the previous period.
                  I switched it back off and everything is back to normal. I really think I have an old firmware on my evo with many bugs.
                  For me every feature that is non-standard is bugged!
                  Thanks anyway Richard for helping us!
                  Eric

                  Comment

                  • G4RHL
                    Automated Home Legend
                    • Jan 2015
                    • 1580

                    #10
                    Not had that problem. I find optimisation works well. It may be a complete factory reset may clean out the issue.

                    Comment

                    • orange
                      Automated Home Guru
                      • Dec 2014
                      • 149

                      #11
                      I think there is only one version of the controller firmware - it hasn't been updated since release

                      Comment

                      • Mavis
                        Automated Home Ninja
                        • Oct 2014
                        • 322

                        #12
                        Originally posted by courcirc8 View Post
                        After reading this VERY interesting explanation of the optimisation usage, I activated the "start optimisation" on my unit. The result was quite surprising: the next set temperature was overridden by the night lowest temperature. I modified it again and next day same problem: the schedule seems unchanged if edited but the target temp is overridden by the previous period.
                        I switched it back off and everything is back to normal. I really think I have an old firmware on my evo with many bugs.
                        For me every feature that is non-standard is bugged!
                        Thanks anyway Richard for helping us!
                        Eric
                        I woke up this morning at 4.45 and found the heating on. Heating due at correct temperature at 6am. Got up and checked the controller and it was due to the Optimisation. But the house generally does not take very long to heat up so bemused as to why it came on so early.

                        Comment

                        • Wallyİ
                          Automated Home Sr Member
                          • Jan 2015
                          • 53

                          #13
                          It is my understanding that it takes some time for the system to 'learn' and figure out the best starting time...

                          Give it a week or 2...You'll notice the start time gradually being delayed...

                          Comment

                          • The EVOHOME Shop
                            Site Sponsor
                            • Dec 2014
                            • 483

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Mavis View Post
                            I woke up this morning at 4.45 and found the heating on. Heating due at correct temperature at 6am. Got up and checked the controller and it was due to the Optimisation. But the house generally does not take very long to heat up so bemused as to why it came on so early.
                            What allowance have you set the system to when you enable 'Optimum Start'? I suggest this is set to 1 hour to start with - if you let evohome have the entire 3 hour default allowance, it will potentially come on 3 hours early while 'learning'!

                            Comment

                            • Mavis
                              Automated Home Ninja
                              • Oct 2014
                              • 322

                              #15
                              It is (was) set to 2 hours - I changed it to 1 hour this morning. It probably still is learning as it was only last week that I realised that optimisation was not switched on.

                              BTW for anyone wanting to change the number of hours for Opt Start, I discovered that I had to disable it first then enable it and then you get the option to change the number of hours.

                              Comment

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