Can you record heating zone activity? Using a device or add on?

ChrisWilliams2

Hi I have a house with 7 zones and we are having extremely high fuel usage and trying to track down what's happening. The thermostats are all heat only, so I cant just buy all nests, etc. I would really like to be able to tap into the Taco SR zone controllers to log how much use each zone gets per day. Is there any zone controller that can do this or any ideas on how this can be done? I know this is a lot to ask but this will be a problem for a long time so if you have ever seen a way to do it from the boiler room that would be fantastic. All the zone valves are the new taco valves (not the wax type) Thank you in advance. The heating system is a IBC150

Jamie Hall

Zone valves or zone pumps? Either way, you could figure out a way to wire a simple clock into each one...

pecmsg

NEST

SUCKS

Dave Carpentier

I recently purchased the Govee Wifi Digital Hygrometer/Thermometers.
The sensors (battery powered) send bluetooth to the wifi "hub".
With my phone app, I can see each sensor's temp and plot the graphs over time, or download and email the csv to myself to incorporate into a spreadsheet.
Under 100 for 3 sensors and the hub.
I have not tried adding additional sensors to the hub, but it looks like you can in the app.

hot_rod

this

EBEBRATT-Ed

24 volt zone valves you can wire a simple 24 volt hour meter in parallel with the valve. I am sure there are more expensive high tech ways to do it like what @Dave Carpentier mentioned. Supco has temp sensors and recorders as well.

fentonc

How comfortable are you with electronics? I built a monitoring system for my 3-zone setup with a microcontroller and a bunch of temperature sensors I zip-tied to the supply/return pipes: https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1699171

It gives me extremely accurate data for the whole heating season.

hot_rod

The IBC probably has a run hour logger built in. It may even show how many hours at different % of fire?
Does it matter which zones are open?

fentonc

@hot_rod - it can be useful to get per-zone data as the behavior between zones can vary significantly depending on how well/badly the system is designed (and with his 7-zone system, short cycling seems like the most obvious problem to look out for). Looking at the last few days from my system, for instance:

• Total_run_duty_cycle T 0.26 B 0.06 1st 0.17 2nd 0.06 Cycle_count: T 12 B 6 1st 8 2nd 8
  
• Total_run_duty_cycle T 0.23 B 0.03 1st 0.15 2nd 0.05 Cycle_count: T 14 B 2 1st 11 2nd 7
  
• Total_run_duty_cycle T 0.17 B 0.07 1st 0.08 2nd 0.05 Cycle_count: T 8 B 4 1st 5 2nd 3
  
• Total_run_duty_cycle T 0.16 B 0.08 1st 0.08 2nd 0.02 Cycle_count: T 7 B 5 1st 3 2nd 2
  

(With things logged as T=Total, B=Basement, 1st=1st floor, 2nd=2nd floor). The basement and 2nd floor zones have about 50% more radiation relative to their heat loss than the 1st floor, and I can see that the majority of calls for heat ('cycle count') throughout the day are initiated by the 1st floor thermostat.