Energy Kinetics Multi-Zone / Thermal Purge

hughbucks

I have four heating zones in my house. I recently had an Energy Kinetics Accel system installed with storage tank for domestic hot water.

When they did the installation, they added a new valve at the boiler; the existing zone valves are southbound of that. To the Accel however, it appears there is only one zone. The four thermostats in the house are wired to the four existing zone valves.

This *works* but I don't think I'm getting all the benefits of the system as I understand them.

As I understand it, if I call for baseboard heat in one of my zones, it will trigger the boiler to kick on and open both the valve at the boiler and the valve at that zone. But once the thermostat has been satisfied, it will close the zone valve. The system will then try to purge the heat out of the boiler into the storage tank and/or the last zone that called for heat. However, based on the way it's wired, if the storage tank is at temp already, the system is just gonna be pumping hot water around my basement instead of back into the house because the zone valve will remain closed. Right?

Doesn't this also mess with the Smart Boost/Energy Setback feature? I have one zone in my house that will need a lot more heat than others due to number of windows, etc. I don't understand this feature as well, but I thought the system could be smarter/more efficient about heating different zones that have different needs.

STEVEusaPA

Did you bring this up with the installer?

Stay tuned, as someone from EK will probably be here shortly (they have some kind of magic sense about their name being mentioned in posts) and can point you in the right direction.

hughbucks

Yes, they are planning to redress. Originally weren't thrilled with having to redo some of the work.

So at this point, mostly curious as to how it would have affected things without it. Specifically the Smart Boost feature if one zone was more of an energy hog than others.

brnrman1

Thank you for your comment @hughbucks .

I trust that your dealer will rewire the thermostats and zone valves for your baseboard zones directly to the Condensing Energy Manager on your Accel CS boiler. This will allow Energy Recovery (thermal purge) to work properly and it will improve your efficiency and increase the amount of condensate produced in each heating cycle.

To answer you specifically, SmartBoost automatically adapts to demands and changing loads to boost comfort after first optimizing condensing operation and efficiency. SmartBoost would have worked with the wiring as you described, and it will continue to work with the direct wiring to the Condensing Energy Manager.

To make sure everything is correct and we have a complete understanding, please PM me with the name of your dealer so I can reach out to them to review all.

Thank you,
Mitch