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Ecodanwarrior
Rank 2
October 17, 2023
Solved

Have I setup my Ecodan Correctly?

  • October 17, 2023
  • 31 replies
  • 8344 views

I have done some reading on here and followed advice from other posters but I wanted to check to see if I have things setup right.

 

  • Goals
    • Be economical, not wasteful
    • Keep temperature in the house at 22-23 degrees C
    • Have hot water in the morning for showers and in the evening for bath for children
  • Heating Setup
    • I have it set to Compensation Curve, at 14 degrees external or below the temp is at 46 degrees for the rads (at least that’s how I understand it works)
    • Thermostats are Heatmister Slimline, they are set at 23 degrees to knock off the rads if it gets too warm
    • This setting is 24/7, I read that its better to keep the house at the same temp all the time. Plus we work from home all the time so don’t want it cooling during the day.
  • Hot Water Setup
    • I had it to warm the 200L tank up to 50 degrees between 2am and 4am, and to come on once the temp dropped 10 degrees but only during this time.
    • I noticed that this was perfect for morning showers - temp had dropped to 47 degrees by 8am which was fine but it meant in the evening it was down to 27 degrees, too cold for a bath.
    • I changed the setup so that it comes on at 2am and will keep it at 45 degrees (again only turning on once it drops to 35 degrees or below) until 9pm.
    • I was working off the same theory on the Heating, that keeping it ticking over all day between 35 and 45 is using less energy than letting it go down to 24/25 and heating back up to 50 degrees at night.  
    • The reason for 2am - 4am is that is the cheapest window to use electricity

 

So, just trying to see if I should be doing something differently?  I live in Ireland, new build house this year and we have a plug-in hybrid car.  Our 2 monthly bill is around 370euro - this includes heating, hot water, cooking, dishwasher (almost every night at the cheap hours), washing machine (every night at the cheap hours), and charging the car (at cheap night hours), and the usual lights, kettle, TV, computers, etc.  As we are home we probably run the kettle and electric hobs a lot more than normal.

 

I want to help keep down the bills as much as I can and previous to this we had a gas burner which was basically instant hot water so I am trying to shed the old way of doing things and learn the new and become good at it.

 

I have read people say once they get this setup right for themselves they can essentially walk away and thats done and dusted.

 

Thanks,

Ecodan Warrior

    Best answer by James_N

    Hi @Ecodanwarrior, I’ve had my Ecodan running for over two years now so I can tell you what works for me.

    Hot Water

    I have this set to 49C and it comes on twice a day (4am and 1pm) to heat the tank all the way up. I found this more efficient than the setting that is constantly topping the tank up. If you find this approach doesn’t get you enough hot water then switch to the top up mode. NB if your HW tank is in a colder garage, loft etc, put some lagging on it (£15 from B&Q). They are already insulated but I found this made a noticable difference for me.

    Worth noting that the HW tank temp on mine seems to be measured towards the bottom of the tank. So it can say 20C but there is still lots of hot water left, as the water in the bottom of the tank can be much colder than at the top

    Heating

    I have found the best approach is to keep it simple. I have one daytime temp (20.5C) and a nighttime temp (19.5). As other posters above have mentioned, you can’t change the temp quickly in your house, so I think its best to keep things stable. I have a nest thermostat but use none of the ‘gadgets’ or funtions on it. It just moves the target temp up to 20.5 in the morning and down to 19.5 at night. All my radiator thermostats are set to max. Even in rooms not being used. Its unlikely one room is going to get too hot with a heat pump.

    I am running on a weather compansation curve. This is important to do to get good efficiency, but I think is the trickiest thing to get right. The overall concept of the heat pump is to just push in enough heat each hour, to cover that hourly heat loss from your home. This means the pump is running most of the time and at a low temp. But your house loses more heat when its cold outside. The weather compensation curve means as it gets colder the ASHP raises the temp of your radiators to compensate for this. Every house is different, so its a lot of trial and error. To give you an idea mine is set to 46C at 0C outside, and 31C at 15C outside. I have pretty good insulation but I am all radiators (as opposed to under floor heating). You know if you are getting this roughly right if the heatpump is mostly on all the time, and you get very close but never quite reach your target temp (set your target temp 0.5C higher than you actually want it) on different days and different weather. However the reality is there are so many variables that perfection is sort of impossible and you are trying to get it roughly right. 

     

    James

    31 replies

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    BPLightlog
    Super User
    BPLightlogSuper User
    Super User
    January 27, 2025

    Hi ​@Reistrap , it sounds like there’s a schedule setting which sets the overnight temperature to 18 deg (quite a common set up). But there should also be a way to schedule the day temperature to switch back to 20 deg. 
    Can you see anything that looks like timings for your heating?

    Bring me Sunshine ~ E&E {Solar PV, Battery Storage, Hybrid EV, ASHP and Home Assistant automation}
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