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Thread: Ideal Vogue using Opentherm to set pump speed or modify Pump Modulation to minimum

  1. #1
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    Default Ideal Vogue using Opentherm to set pump speed or modify Pump Modulation to minimum

    Hi Paul,
    Having noticed your status of AutomatedHomeLegend and the fact that you have struggled with an Ideal Vogue and Opentherm setup I wondered if you might be able shed some light on a problem that has defeated me so far.
    I have an Ideal Vogue System boiler controlled with a comprehensive home brewed microprocessor control system with processor controlled thermostats in most rooms of the house with a VB front end. These are all on a two wire serial network similar to Opentherm but obviously not using the same protocol . The system operates Danfoss 24v thermally activated valves on the radiators as well as monitoring outside temperature, light level and controlling fans, lights, X10 etc.
    My problem is that I have two Myson fan assisted plinth heaters in the kitchen and I am getting insufficient flow through them to drive them effectively, even if they are the only radiators active at the time. Initially if the system turns on with no other open radiators then the error No Water Flow appears on the screen, if I crack open another thermostatically controlled radiator then the message does not appear.
    The connection to the heaters is 28mm (6m) from the boiler, splits into 2 x 22mm (4m) one of which then splits into 2 x 15mm (5m) one of which then feeds the two 15mm connections to the plinth heaters.
    I should mention that prior to the installation of the Vogue boiler the system ran perfectly well on a 35 year old GlowWorm 40/60 boiler.
    What appears to happen is the modulating pump which starts off at a maximum of 80%, after a number of minutes drops to 50% and is not providing sufficient flow through the plinth heaters. Why does it never run at 100% is another question in itself.
    The output temperature takes some understanding as well, it would be nice to be able to disable all the not very effective burner and pump modulation but that would be pie in the sky.
    I contacted Ideal tech support who suggested I should use an option on the menu screen for Pump Speed Override it transpires that mine was a very early Vogue boiler that did not have this option, as I imagine yours must be too. His only solutions was ‘to live with it’ or replace the controller and screen display, he could not quote a price of doing this and was not at all sympathetic to my problem.
    As a last resort unless you have any other suggestions is that I am considering building an Opentherm interface and use that to control the pump speed, do you know if that option would be available via that interface?
    G.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by GrahamW View Post
    Hi Paul,
    Having noticed your status of AutomatedHomeLegend and the fact that you have struggled with an Ideal Vogue and Opentherm setup I wondered if you might be able shed some light on a problem that has defeated me so far.
    I have an Ideal Vogue System boiler controlled with a comprehensive home brewed microprocessor control system with processor controlled thermostats in most rooms of the house with a VB front end. These are all on a two wire serial network similar to Opentherm but obviously not using the same protocol . The system operates Danfoss 24v thermally activated valves on the radiators as well as monitoring outside temperature, light level and controlling fans, lights, X10 etc.
    My problem is that I have two Myson fan assisted plinth heaters in the kitchen and I am getting insufficient flow through them to drive them effectively, even if they are the only radiators active at the time. Initially if the system turns on with no other open radiators then the error No Water Flow appears on the screen, if I crack open another thermostatically controlled radiator then the message does not appear.
    The connection to the heaters is 28mm (6m) from the boiler, splits into 2 x 22mm (4m) one of which then splits into 2 x 15mm (5m) one of which then feeds the two 15mm connections to the plinth heaters.
    I should mention that prior to the installation of the Vogue boiler the system ran perfectly well on a 35 year old GlowWorm 40/60 boiler.
    What appears to happen is the modulating pump which starts off at a maximum of 80%, after a number of minutes drops to 50% and is not providing sufficient flow through the plinth heaters. Why does it never run at 100% is another question in itself.
    The output temperature takes some understanding as well, it would be nice to be able to disable all the not very effective burner and pump modulation but that would be pie in the sky.
    I contacted Ideal tech support who suggested I should use an option on the menu screen for Pump Speed Override it transpires that mine was a very early Vogue boiler that did not have this option, as I imagine yours must be too. His only solutions was ‘to live with it’ or replace the controller and screen display, he could not quote a price of doing this and was not at all sympathetic to my problem.
    As a last resort unless you have any other suggestions is that I am considering building an Opentherm interface and use that to control the pump speed, do you know if that option would be available via that interface?
    G.
    From what you have said it looks as though the boiler is controlling the pump speed down to minimum and is nothing to do with the opentherm interface. I have the max and min modulation options on my boiler and note that if I set it to maximum modulation then the pump behaves the same as yours and I note that the bathroom vertical radiator has half of it which is cold. To compensate for the lower return temperature due to slower flow the boiler ups the flow temperature by upto 5C.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by richardc1983 View Post
    From what you have said it looks as though the boiler is controlling the pump speed down to minimum and is nothing to do with the opentherm interface. I have the max and min modulation options on my boiler and note that if I set it to maximum modulation then the pump behaves the same as yours and I note that the bathroom vertical radiator has half of it which is cold. To compensate for the lower return temperature due to slower flow the boiler ups the flow temperature by upto 5C.
    I know that the pump modulation has nothing to do with opentherm, what I wondered was could I overide the boilers modulation setting using opentherm.
    When you set your modulation to minimum does your bathroom radiator heat fully?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by GrahamW View Post
    When you set your modulation to minimum does your bathroom radiator heat fully?
    Yes as the pump runs at 80% most of the time occasionally down to 70%.

    I don't think it can on this boiler (opentherm control the modulation) as ideal haven't opened up thst protocol.

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