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Hi All,
I made my gas boiler very efficient and I would like you to have a look at it, if you are interested!
Here's my fine-tuned Ideal Logic Heat H24 real time performance.
emoncms.org
The graph is interactive so you can click on elements to explore detailed use.
What have I achieved?
Even, and very comfortable room temperature during heating season at all times; day target room temperature is 1.6 C higher than night. The precision of the climate control is within 0.3 C of the target room temperature. Comfortable humidity levels between 40-60% at all times.
The efficiency of the gas boiler is over 90% and condenses most of the time. You might even see values above 100% due to the recovered latent heat from condensing (ErP data usually already includes latent heat value[GCV vs NCV]). Note: when you look at the graph, ensure the gas fuel usage reading is up to date as it only updates about every 2 hours.
Cost wise (gas), you can see can look at the daily gas kWh to compare with your use. Keep in mind though that the house has 155m2 floor space and it's a relatively new build (2017).
How was this achieved?
Opentherm + SAT (smart autotune thermostat). SAT tells the boiler what to do using opentherm protocol. SAT is an integration module that runs on Home Assistant.
SAT has its own heating curves and the parallel adjustment that is proportional to the heating curve. Then SAT adds the load compensation part. This means that SAT is a Weather + Load compensator which monitors the outside and the room temperature always and carefully calculates the control Setpoint. Then, in order to apply the Low-load control algorithm,SAT monitors the boiler flow water and the return water temperatures. As a result SAT calculates the ON/OFF times in 15 minutes intervals ( SAT is also able to extend the duty cycle if the control Setpoint is too high or too low ). These two developments work tightly together in order to prevent cycling and maintain the room temperature on setpoint. Moreover SAT uses the 15 min duty cycle instead of 10 min that the most commercial thermostats use, this helps to reduce the ON/OFF times of the boiler by 50% during Low-load control.
Apart from SAT, I also balanced the radiators which now don’t require any smart TRVs; and because I’ve got the S Plan system, I reduced the speed of the external pump where ΔT (flow - return temperature) is about 17 C. I also have a DHW tank which SAT now also manages which means that I can efficiently heat it up too.
The fine tuning is still in progress, and occasionally when you look at the graph, you will clearly see when something seems out of place, most likely due to errors in configuring automations in Home Assistant. You can read more about my experiments here:
github.com
In summary, even though heat pumps are most likely the next generation heating solution. You can make your existing boiler that supports opentherm (and many boiler brands do) very efficient, i.e. no need to switch unless you want or your existing boiler breaks.
If you have any questions, let me know
Credits to:
https://github.com/Alexwijn/SAT - for developing the algorithm, i.e. the brain behind the efficiency gains
https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/my-gas-boiler-data-is-live/25733 - for making possible to share real time boiler data.
Maybe it’s also worth adding some explanation around why my room temperature seems so high (Summer Simmer Index).
Imagine you have a thermometer that tells you more than just the temperature—it gives you the “feels like” temperature, factoring in not just the air temperature but also the humidity. This is done using the Summer Simmer Index, or SSI.
For instance, consider a typical thermometer that shows a temperature of 20.7 degrees Celsius on a morning. With the SSI, this reading might be adjusted to feel like it’s 23.4 degrees. At night, a reading of 19.6 degrees might be adjusted to feel like 21.8 degrees.
The reason for this adjustment is that the SSI takes into account the humidity level in the air. High humidity can make the air feel warmer than it actually is. This is because humidity, or the water vapor in the air, impedes the evaporation of sweat from your skin, which is your body’s way of cooling down. Thus, even if the thermometer reads a certain temperature, the actual experience of the temperature can be quite different depending on the moisture in the air. The SSI uses a specific formula to recalibrate the temperature by considering the effect of humidity.
So, I feed Home Assistant the RAW non-SSI adjusted room temperature, which SAT then converts and uses it along with the also adjusted target SSI temperature, so if you see 23.2, the actual, non-SSI temperature is around 20.7 at 50% RH. The RH in my house, varies between 40-60%, so the difference isn’t really huge but I guess it helps a little bit to make it as comfortable as possible.
Here’s a reference for SSI-adjusted temperatures and how they “feel” (not the actual temperatures)
21.3 – 25 °C Somewhat cool. Most people feel comfortable.
25 – 28.3 °C Optimal. Almost everyone feels comfortable.
28.3 – 32.8 °C Somewhat hot. Most people feel comfortable.
01 What is the Summer Simmer Index? – GC Wizard 1
Heat pumps are definitely the next generation technology, but we can make gas boilers much more efficient in the meantime
Thanks
I made my gas boiler very efficient and I would like you to have a look at it, if you are interested!
Here's my fine-tuned Ideal Logic Heat H24 real time performance.
Emoncms - app view
emoncms.org
The graph is interactive so you can click on elements to explore detailed use.
What have I achieved?
Even, and very comfortable room temperature during heating season at all times; day target room temperature is 1.6 C higher than night. The precision of the climate control is within 0.3 C of the target room temperature. Comfortable humidity levels between 40-60% at all times.
The efficiency of the gas boiler is over 90% and condenses most of the time. You might even see values above 100% due to the recovered latent heat from condensing (ErP data usually already includes latent heat value[GCV vs NCV]). Note: when you look at the graph, ensure the gas fuel usage reading is up to date as it only updates about every 2 hours.
Cost wise (gas), you can see can look at the daily gas kWh to compare with your use. Keep in mind though that the house has 155m2 floor space and it's a relatively new build (2017).
How was this achieved?
Opentherm + SAT (smart autotune thermostat). SAT tells the boiler what to do using opentherm protocol. SAT is an integration module that runs on Home Assistant.
SAT has its own heating curves and the parallel adjustment that is proportional to the heating curve. Then SAT adds the load compensation part. This means that SAT is a Weather + Load compensator which monitors the outside and the room temperature always and carefully calculates the control Setpoint. Then, in order to apply the Low-load control algorithm,SAT monitors the boiler flow water and the return water temperatures. As a result SAT calculates the ON/OFF times in 15 minutes intervals ( SAT is also able to extend the duty cycle if the control Setpoint is too high or too low ). These two developments work tightly together in order to prevent cycling and maintain the room temperature on setpoint. Moreover SAT uses the 15 min duty cycle instead of 10 min that the most commercial thermostats use, this helps to reduce the ON/OFF times of the boiler by 50% during Low-load control.
Apart from SAT, I also balanced the radiators which now don’t require any smart TRVs; and because I’ve got the S Plan system, I reduced the speed of the external pump where ΔT (flow - return temperature) is about 17 C. I also have a DHW tank which SAT now also manages which means that I can efficiently heat it up too.
The fine tuning is still in progress, and occasionally when you look at the graph, you will clearly see when something seems out of place, most likely due to errors in configuring automations in Home Assistant. You can read more about my experiments here:
Ideal Logic Heat H24 Real Time Boiler Performance · Alexwijn SAT · Discussion #40
Hi All, I would like to share with you the real time performance of my Ideal Logic Heat H24 boiler, managed by SAT and OpenTherm. https://emoncms.org/app/view?name=MyBoilerIdealLogicH24OpenthermSAT...
github.com
In summary, even though heat pumps are most likely the next generation heating solution. You can make your existing boiler that supports opentherm (and many boiler brands do) very efficient, i.e. no need to switch unless you want or your existing boiler breaks.
If you have any questions, let me know
Credits to:
https://github.com/Alexwijn/SAT - for developing the algorithm, i.e. the brain behind the efficiency gains
https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/my-gas-boiler-data-is-live/25733 - for making possible to share real time boiler data.
Maybe it’s also worth adding some explanation around why my room temperature seems so high (Summer Simmer Index).
Imagine you have a thermometer that tells you more than just the temperature—it gives you the “feels like” temperature, factoring in not just the air temperature but also the humidity. This is done using the Summer Simmer Index, or SSI.
For instance, consider a typical thermometer that shows a temperature of 20.7 degrees Celsius on a morning. With the SSI, this reading might be adjusted to feel like it’s 23.4 degrees. At night, a reading of 19.6 degrees might be adjusted to feel like 21.8 degrees.
The reason for this adjustment is that the SSI takes into account the humidity level in the air. High humidity can make the air feel warmer than it actually is. This is because humidity, or the water vapor in the air, impedes the evaporation of sweat from your skin, which is your body’s way of cooling down. Thus, even if the thermometer reads a certain temperature, the actual experience of the temperature can be quite different depending on the moisture in the air. The SSI uses a specific formula to recalibrate the temperature by considering the effect of humidity.
So, I feed Home Assistant the RAW non-SSI adjusted room temperature, which SAT then converts and uses it along with the also adjusted target SSI temperature, so if you see 23.2, the actual, non-SSI temperature is around 20.7 at 50% RH. The RH in my house, varies between 40-60%, so the difference isn’t really huge but I guess it helps a little bit to make it as comfortable as possible.
Here’s a reference for SSI-adjusted temperatures and how they “feel” (not the actual temperatures)
21.3 – 25 °C Somewhat cool. Most people feel comfortable.
25 – 28.3 °C Optimal. Almost everyone feels comfortable.
28.3 – 32.8 °C Somewhat hot. Most people feel comfortable.
01 What is the Summer Simmer Index? – GC Wizard 1
Heat pumps are definitely the next generation technology, but we can make gas boilers much more efficient in the meantime
Thanks
