Thermostat Problems

[Guest]

I'm new to the Insteon market.

 

I've started with a few devices, and am working on growing.

 

My latest investment was a Insteon Thermostat 2441TH. Every time I try to write a program or control my stat from my computer I lose communication. I'm confused. I also wrote a program to tell me when the heat gets turned on, however I get 2 notifications every time instead of one. Lastly, if I set the Set point to 71 my stat reads 70 and the heat doesn't turn on.

 

Any help would be appreciated

[stusviews]

Copy the program here. Right click > Copy to Clipboard.

[Guest]

The admin console is not letting me copy and paste.

[paulbates]

Hi, give this a try:

 

1) Right click on the program name in the list of programs

2) pick "Copy to clip board" at the bottom of the drop down list presented. 

 

That will let you paste the program code into a forum reply

 

Paul

[paulbates]

 Lastly, if I set the Set point to 71 my stat reads 70 and the heat doesn't turn on.

 

Any help would be appreciated

 

Thermostats have a "deadband" concept. They wait X degrees, typically 2 degrees, before calling for heat or cool. My recollection of the 2441TH is that it has a 2 degree deadband. In your scenario, that would mean it should come on at 69. Is that what you are seeing?

 

I don't believe that the deadband can be changed in the 2441TH, but 2 degrees is fairly standard across thermostats as it protects wear on the HVAC system from cycling too much.

** Its also more efficient with a 2 degree deadband. The cycles will be longer, but there will be fewer of them per day. There is overhead, in gas, to start each cycle up

[stusviews]

Info only: Venstar thermostats can be set to a 1ºF deadband. Albe thermostats, albeit not Insteon compatible, have a 0.9ºF deadband. Gas furnaces, unlike gas engines do no use any extra gas to startup. And there are no moving parts, so cycling is not a problem.

 

Compressors, OTOH, do use more energy on startup. Too, starting a compressor is stressful, so the duration between startups does matter. But, the nearly all programmable thermostats have an adjustable activation delay for the compressor.

[paulbates]

My new carrier gas heaters recommend a limit of 3 cycles per hour in the installation manual. That is what I get on with the out-of-the box 2 degree deadband of my venstar thermostat.

 

If I chose to configure the venstar to 1 degree deadband, I would get 5 to 6 shorter cycles per hour. Each of those additional cycles would use 30 - 40 seconds of full on gas while the heat exchanger is brought from its cool state to its useable heat state, versus letting the fewer cycles run longer on an already heated exchanger.... using more gas.

 

Ignitors, heat exchangers and blower motors are all affected by cycling.

[Guest]

Thanks for the explanation on the deadband. That makes sense.
 
I still cannot get the thermostat to communicate with the ISY I'm going to uninstall the stat and re-install it into the ISY, and see if that will let me see it.
       

 

This is my program. Every time the heat is turned on I get 2 text messages sent to me.

 

 

Control 'House Thermostat - Heat Ctl' is switched On
 
Then
        Send Notification to 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' content 'House Heat is On'
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

[Guest]

So I have removed stat.

 

Tried to add it again and it says

 

" Cannot determine Insteon Engine"

[paulbates]

Ok. Sorry Sparky, we are past what I can help with. Open a support ticket with UD, they are very helpful and responsive with this kind of thing, especially when you are just getting started:

 

Submit a Ticket:        http://www.universal-devices.com/contact-support

 

I would copy and include a link to this thread in the support ticket

 

Paul

[stusviews]

A difficulty with using "Heat Ctl" is that, if the desired temperature is at or above the setpoint, then no command is issued. This is the program I use:

 

If
        Status  'LR / Devices / LR Thermostat Main' is Mode Heat
    And Status  'LR / Devices / LR Thermostat Main' is not Mode Off
 
Then
        Set 'BR / Devices / LR HVAC Indicator' On
 
Else
        Set 'BR / Devices / LR HVAC Indicator' Off

[Guest]

So after working with UD. We found the ISY is communicating by the thermostat is not communicating back. Bad Thermostat.

 

I know installed a new one. However I still get two notifications when the heat turns on. I would think think this is just a single ON command not 2.

Any thoughts?

[paulbates]

Not sure Sparky.

 

It could be the program logic.

 

Also, RF only insteon devices can behave a little differently than power-line only or dual-band devices, some like motion sensors can send messages twice. I'm not sure about the 2441th

 

I'm not sure which of these it could be. Can you paste your program in and we start there?