Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: braveblaster on June 16, 2017, 05:07:31 PM
-
Would an Ecobee (Smart Thermostat) work with an OWB?
Does anyone has one installed and working, if so, please share installation experiences and wiring?
I know when my Ridgewood OWB was initially installed a certain type of thermostat was required.
Thanks!
-
There should be no problem with using an ecobee. Many folks here use smart thermostats (myself included, I use a NEST).
Do you have a second stage/backup heat source?
All the ecobee products I have looked at have standard 2 heat/2 cool capability. :thumbup:
-
The issue I found with the Nest is if the OWB is set up as primary and the gas furnace as secondary, when you have a big enough call for heat it kicks em both on. We set the thermostat at 68 for the night and 73 during the day. in the morning instead of preheating with jus the OWB, it would kick the gas furnace in as well.
-
There should be no problem with using an ecobee. Many folks here use smart thermostats (myself included, I use a NEST).
Do you have a second stage/backup heat source?
All the ecobee products I have looked at have standard 2 heat/2 cool capability. :thumbup:
Thanks.
Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by having a second stage/backup heat source?
Right now I have four sets of thermostat as follows:
2 thermostat control each of the Heat Pumps for normal operation (that is NO OWB involved)
2 separate thermostat control the temperature at which the fan blower comes on/off from the two above mentioned heat pumps during OWB winter operation when thermostat calls for heat.
-
The issue I found with the Nest is if the OWB is set up as primary and the gas furnace as secondary, when you have a big enough call for heat it kicks em both on. We set the thermostat at 68 for the night and 73 during the day. in the morning instead of preheating with jus the OWB, it would kick the gas furnace in as well.
What category do you have the OWB set as? Radiant? Many high swings will engaged both stages of heat, you may have to fiddle with the scheduling to slowly bring up from 68 to 73 to keep the second stage from kicking on all the time.
-
There should be no problem with using an ecobee. Many folks here use smart thermostats (myself included, I use a NEST).
Do you have a second stage/backup heat source?
All the ecobee products I have looked at have standard 2 heat/2 cool capability. :thumbup:
Thanks.
Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by having a second stage/backup heat source?
Right now I have four sets of thermostat as follows:
2 thermostat control each of the Heat Pumps for normal operation (that is NO OWB involved)
2 separate thermostat control the temperature at which the fan blower comes on/off from the two above mentioned heat pumps during OWB winter operation when thermostat calls for heat.
Many thermostats, most every smart or programmable now-a-days has the ability to control two or more heat or cooling sources. It's basically two thermostats built into one. Some have interactions between them so you can determine when/how each heating or cooling source is activated. It saves having to manually control multiple thermostats.
Sounds like what you really need is a 3 heat / 2 cool thermostat. You have two stages of heat pump heating, and one stage of OWB heating. Likewise you have two stages of heat pump cooling.
You could go with the Ecobee3 Lite:
https://www.amazon.com/Ecobee3-Thermostat-Wi-Fi-Works-Amazon/dp/B01K48T09Y/ref=pd_sim_60_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01K48T09Y&pd_rd_r=XTJFR0K99ATNHTKXH86Z&pd_rd_w=Ty01P&pd_rd_wg=BubAz&psc=1&refRID=XTJFR0K99ATNHTKXH86Z
Here is a connection example for radiant, and 1 stage heat pump heating W2 would go to heat pump W1, not W2 on boiler, and 2 stages of heat pump cooling:
https://www.ecobee.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ecobee3lite_wiringdiagram_boilerradiant.pdf
The main problem is that heat pumps are treated by thermostats to be the primary source (stage 1 and stage 2 of a 3 stage system). I don't see any Ecobee products that have 3 independent heating stages. W1, W2, W3.
NEST does have a W3 option, as do some other 3h capable thermostats. Are you fixed on Ecobee or would any smart or programmable thermostat do? Do you want a separate app to control, Alexa integration, ect..?
-
The issue I found with the Nest is if the OWB is set up as primary and the gas furnace as secondary, when you have a big enough call for heat it kicks em both on. We set the thermostat at 68 for the night and 73 during the day. in the morning instead of preheating with jus the OWB, it would kick the gas furnace in as well.
Are you using */W3 for anything? I see that the specs have the W1/W2 differential at 3.3 degrees while the W1/W3 differential is 7 degrees. Seems like you could run two stages of heat on stages 1 and 3 of the Nest and that spread would prevent the second stage of heat from being engaged as well. I am/was using a humidifier but may just jumper it of of W1 instead of an independent feed from the Nest. I am going to try the W1 for OWB, W2 no connection, W3/* backup (electric strip) heat configuration this fall.
-
Seems like breaking the compressor, strip heat etc with relays and a temp controller (ranco) sensing the incoming OWB line would be simpler? Then the stat can be one stage of heat, be Wi-Fi connected etc and the heat pump or other secondary heat source will not come on if the OWB is hot.
We do it that way on all Wi-Fi and multi-zone heat pump stats.
-
Seems like breaking the compressor, strip heat etc with relays and a temp controller (ranco) sensing the incoming OWB line would be simpler? Then the stat can be one stage of heat, be Wi-Fi connected etc and the heat pump or other secondary heat source will not come on if the OWB is hot.
We do it that way on all Wi-Fi and multi-zone heat pump stats.
Pretty much what I did after jacking with two stage heat for awhile, just simpler for starters.
It’s pretty nice to be gone for a few days and turn the temp up from your smart phone on the way home.
-
Seems like breaking the compressor, strip heat etc with relays and a temp controller (ranco) sensing the incoming OWB line would be simpler? Then the stat can be one stage of heat, be Wi-Fi connected etc and the heat pump or other secondary heat source will not come on if the OWB is hot.
We do it that way on all Wi-Fi and multi-zone heat pump stats.
It wouldn't be with a 3h conventional stage smart thermostat with a larger separation of stages than the night setback is at. That or ramp up the temp in steps in the morning lower than the 1/2 stage differential.
-
Yup, that works too.