Heating Help

The big one

What I got:

8 radiant uponor in gypcrete zones
3 heat/cool hydro coil air handlers w/electric strip heat
a wine room wine a hydro coil

Buffer tank for heat cool
Buffer tank for domestic hot water
Buffer tank for wine cooler

2 Earthlinked Geo dx heat pumps (they prioritize a call for DHW)

What I would like:

1 - control the temperature of the h/c buffer tank based on outdoor temperature
2 - control the time to call the second (hydro-coil heat) or third stage (electric) heat w/a homeowner trigger for "fast heat"
3 - Allow for the wine cooler to switch one geo unit to cooling mode
4 - Switch off geo DHW and delay secondary/tertiary heat longer in "vacation" mode
5 - Sequence/alternate geo units on call for domestic or heat/cool water based on rise trend of buffer tanks

Unfortunately, the PE who designed and specified the systems did not specify the controls. Am I going to stuck with a winter full of building and programming my own PC controller? If so, how about feedback on the potential for sales of a scalable controller for such situations?

If you want

to have control from a single controler, you can have a DDC company do that for you, but the cost would be significant.

It's easier, and more redundant to break the system into segments.

You really should get the PE involved for the control selection.

For a system like that, I could control it 50 different ways.

There are too many variables.

Uponor CCN

Chris,

Since you already are familiar with Uponor, have you looked into the Climate Control - Network system?

It will do what you are looking for. It is basically a DDC system scaled down for the residential level with "open code" for customizing

take a look at www.uponorcontrols.com

Dave H

Wine Cellar

3 - Allow for the wine cooler to switch one geo unit to cooling mode


Hello Chris,
Sorry i can't really help with the controls.
However i do know a lot about wine cellars.
The ideal temperature for wine storage is 50 or below.
Wine hates any rapid temp change.
The ground water temperature directly off the geo loop to a heat echanger on the wine buffer, should be ideal for the wine cellar.
Except in the hot summer, i can't imagine the wine cellar needing additional cooling while the house is in heating mode.
So maybe it's too late to change the plumbing, but if not, then i think the control situation would be simplified, somewhat.

Peter