Not always turning off the boiler

Posted on
Wed Dec 31, 2014 5:34 am
Shutter offline
Posts: 345
Joined: Mar 07, 2014
Location: London, UK

Not always turning off the boiler

Hi Autolog,

(Thought it best to start a new thread on this, instead of using this one).

I've had it all setup for a couple of days now and it's been work as expected, albeit with one issue I can't figure out as to the cause. I mentioned in the other thread about how the boiler sometimes doesn't turn off when none of the Stella Zs are calling for heat. Yesterday all turned off as expected, but this morning I checked and about 30mins after the last one turned off, and after the room temp reached the requested temp from manually updating the remote thermostat, I noticed the boiler was still on and sending heat to the radiators that don't have Stella Zs attached.

Once again the only way to turn it off was to reload the plugin - and seeing as nothing was calling for heat, and there were no schedules, the boiler turned off.

In preparation I've created a trigger to reload the plugin, which I'm guessing I could use by setting up some variables to monitor if the Stella Zs are off. But I thought I would ask first if there is anything I could do on my end to see if I can solve this issue. Any logs I could generate that might be of use?

Much thanks in advance for your help.

Simon

Posted on
Wed Dec 31, 2014 6:41 am
autolog offline
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Re: Not always turning off the boiler

OK, I will have a look at this once I have sorted out a bug in my LIFX plugin which I am currently working on.

In my other post, I suggested:
You could run an action group - Autolog Actions > Show Internal Status on each of the three Autolog thermostat controllers which will dump out the internal values of the plugin to the Indigo Log.
If you could do that when the boiler is 'on' but should be off and post or PM me the results. Also, if it was possible to extract the Indigo Event Log entries marked 'Autolog Stella-Z' that might help

Are you doing anything other than just running the schedules e.g. are you altering set-points manually or some such that might be triggering the issue.

Posted on
Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:22 am
Shutter offline
Posts: 345
Joined: Mar 07, 2014
Location: London, UK

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

autolog wrote:
OK, I will have a look at this once I have sorted out a bug in my LIFX plugin which I am currently working on.


I was tempted with a LIFX bulb, but the other half kept saying why do we need one - so far she hasn't really questioned the installed hardware. Funnily enough though yesterday I was moving from room to room with a room thermostat when and she asked me if I was checking the deltas? :lol:

autolog wrote:
In my other post, I suggested:
You could run an action group - Autolog Actions > Show Internal Status on each of the three Autolog thermostat controllers which will dump out the internal values of the plugin to the Indigo Log.
If you could do that when the boiler is 'on' but should be off and post or PM me the results. Also, if it was possible to extract the Indigo Event Log entries marked 'Autolog Stella-Z' that might help


Right. In preparation I created 22 variables and triggers to monitor quite a few states to see if there's anything out of the ordinary. I created triggers to output the internal status.

Anyway, I just turned down the room thermostat and almost immediately the boiler turned off. So no idea what's going on. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it's something I've inadvertently misconfigured.

autolog wrote:
Are you doing anything other than just running the schedules e.g. are you altering set-points manually or some such that might be triggering the issue.


Well, I may have set the odd boost or extend, but wouldn't it still shut off if the Stella is not calling for heat?

Anyway, other than this it's working pretty well. Woke this morning to a nice warm house, even if outside was all white with frost. The rooms which needed heat were all very comfortable.

Thanks

Simon

Posted on
Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:53 am
autolog offline
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Joined: Sep 10, 2013
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Re: Not always turning off the boiler

Shutter wrote:
...
autolog wrote:
Are you doing anything other than just running the schedules e.g. are you altering set-points manually or some such that might be triggering the issue.
Well, I may have set the odd boost or extend, but wouldn't it still shut off if the Stella is not calling for heat? ...


It shouldn't cause a problem but it is possible - it is difficult to test out every combination and so there might be a bug in the logic.

I'll await your further advice as to whether there is a problem or not. I have just started working on a replacement but am getting slightly side-tracked on the LIFX bug which is turning out to be a bit more problematic than I anticipated. It might have to wait until next year to be sorted :D

Enjoy New Year's Eve and Happy New Year to you :)

Posted on
Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:05 pm
Shutter offline
Posts: 345
Joined: Mar 07, 2014
Location: London, UK

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

autolog wrote:
I'll await your further advice as to whether there is a problem or not. I have just started working on a replacement but am getting slightly side-tracked on the LIFX bug which is turning out to be a bit more problematic than I anticipated. It might have to wait until next year to be sorted :D

Enjoy New Year's Eve and Happy New Year to you :)


Will do. As I said, it could be something I did. Seeing as you're working on a replacement I better get my one suggestion in now. :wink: I'll post to the main thread.

Oh, I know all about getting sidetracked. Spent some of yesterday reading about weather stations - that was an internet rabbit hole! So many hardware/software variables that the Netatmo started to look very tempting, and the fact I can use the indoor sensor as a remote thermostat for your plugin makes it even more so.

Once again thank you. Enjoy the festivities tonight and a Happy New Year to you too.

Simon

Posted on
Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:51 am
Shutter offline
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Joined: Mar 07, 2014
Location: London, UK

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

Hi Jon,

Well, it's been a few days now and it's been working just fine. don't know what was happening before, probably something I did that was not obvious, but so far so good.

Just picked up a Netatmo and I'm using the indoor sensor as a remote thermostat in another room now as well. Still some tweaking to do with schedules and need to figure out the best way to set up weekday and weekend schedules.

Anyway, thanks for writing this plugin.

Posted on
Mon Jan 05, 2015 8:51 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

Hi Simon,
Glad to hear it is working OK for you now :)

I am pretty sure there must be a bug in the code that was stopping the boiler turning off - probably something to do with extend/advance/boost processing. I haven't been able to pin it down yet.

Posted on
Tue Jan 27, 2015 12:29 pm
AndyVirus offline
Posts: 257
Joined: Mar 18, 2014
Location: Newport Pagnell, UK

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

Hello!

i have had this issue with the plugin also. For me it happens when i change a AM or PM schedule for a device. If i reload it works fine but if i forget to reload the plugin, the boiler stays on.

Not tried with Boost. I have used boost but cant remember if the boiler stayed on or not.

Hope that helps! :-)

Posted on
Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:13 pm
Shutter offline
Posts: 345
Joined: Mar 07, 2014
Location: London, UK

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

I've been so engrossed with working on my control page icons that I haven't done enough testing to try to track the issue down, but I've had this issue re-appear a couple more times. My unscientific hunch is that it was something to do with using boost. Haven't made any changes with the AM/PM schedules since I've found times that work well for us.

Other than this it's been working so well. Got the deltas just about right so I, and the other half, hasn't really complained about the temp. Tend to manually use the extend feature on the weekends, and only used the boost a couple of times, but that's when I noticed that the boiler wasn't turning off.

Or that could be just a coincidence. Will report back next time it happens.

Posted on
Tue Jan 27, 2015 4:44 pm
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

It has happened to me as well - I think with using Extend processing while a AM/PM schedule is still active

So yes, there is a bug. It is probably with the so-called responsibility count for the boiler which gets incremented every time a thermostat asks for heat and decremented whenever a thermostat doesn't need heat any longer. I suspect there is a scenario where the decrementing isn't happening. Reloading the plugin will zero everything out and start with a clean sheet which is why it will work after a reload.

I have got slightly diverted on revamping my Squeezebox plugin as that had a more personal priority for me.

I will take a look at why the boiler might be staying on but no ETA :wink:

Posted on
Tue Jan 27, 2015 5:03 pm
Shutter offline
Posts: 345
Joined: Mar 07, 2014
Location: London, UK

Re: Not always turning off the boiler

I use extend a lot and would have thought I would see it more often - it is thankfully rare, hence why I thought it was the boost. Either way thanks for looking into it - it still works brilliantly.

Have to say it came as a relief when I got the heating working well with Indigo. There was a lot riding on this - it was the big selling point on going automated. Now that it works well, as well as the things I've done with the lighting, the other half is very pleased with the results so far.

I'm relieved. Now means I can justify getting more gear. Harmony remote pre-sell was well received :D

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