Holiday mode! Air source heat pumps (ASHP) and how you manage them when out of the house?

  • 24 February 2023
  • 18 replies
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J
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Hi everyone,

Back to thinking again about how to manage our heat pump better and I don’t think this has been covered yet, so I am looking to start a conversation with you all.

We got our second ASHP (after a Northern Gas special) in August 2021. We tend to go away twice each winter, one month at a time, so have now been away four times.

We got no information on what to do to ‘shut down’ our house for holidays from either installer. When we had a combi gas boiler, we’d just set our Nest thermostats to 9C (so the house didn’t freeze) and then tell the house to heat up again about 24hrs before our return - the app is particularly useful here.

We still have Nest and now an ASHP with a hot water tank and Eddi solar diverter. We were content to set our thermostats to 9C and tell Eddi not to heat our water with excess solar, but the ASHP still wanted to heat up the water tank all the time. Looking at the Operation Manual I was given for the Daikin Altherma control unit, there is a menu called ‘Holiday Mode’ in the list of menus, but this isn’t visible on my unit.

So good ASHP owners amongst us, what would you do if you went away for a month during winter and wanted to minimise electricity usage?

Jen

18 replies

Gingernut49
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I'll look forward to the replies. I've no idea I'm afraid although I turned off my hot water when I went away on holiday for a week at Christmas. 

Trying to be 'green'
M.isterW
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As if we can afford holidays after paying for heat pumps, solar panels and EVs 😏

 

😆

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
M.isterW
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Serious answer... we have a Tado thermostat that controls the heat pump. I say "controls" but all it does is switch it on and off. If we go away we can turn the thermostat down or use the "away from home" mode.

 

We haven't been away since having the heat batteries removed and the water cylinder installed so we haven't had to shut off the hot water. The Melcloud app has a holiday mode so I'll probably try that.

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
sylm_2000
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@jenthomson I have a similar config to @M.isterW as I have tado for many years. I control the heating when we are away and maintain the temperature to avoid freeze. This arrangement works very well except the water tank will continue to be maintained at the set temperature.

I have a Mitsubishi ASHP which includes a holiday mode which I have not explored yet. During the installation, I was told unless you’re away for a couple of weeks don't change the setting as the water tank when not being used is pretty efficient in not demanding heat. 

Also, we have travelled mostly during summer when the heating is not a concern.

I will explore the holiday mode and see what it would mean, good nudge! 

To net-zero and beyond!
juliamc
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The only time we went away during a cold month was November’21. I switched to holiday mode, which stopped the hot water as well as the heating. Thankfully I could see the house temperature as I have the Daikin Onecta app, because I realised the house temp just kept dropping. Once it got to 15 degrees I turned holiday mode off (from the app) and it gradually warmed up again. Took about 3 days to get back to 20 or 21. We have better double glazing now but I still wouldn’t use holiday mode in winter, maybe just drop down a couple of degrees.

J
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Hi all,

I’ve been trying to get our system to have a schedule for domestic hot water and limit the usage, as we don’t need to have water at temperature 100% of the time. The system is in “Reheat” mode constantly, but unlike the manual (I appreciate not all models are the same), the control unit doesn’t give me the option for “Scheduled” mode, nor to input a schedule.

Is this a limitation of the kit, or is there something I’m doing wrong? Thanks for your help as always!

Jen.

Tim_OVO
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@hydrosam @juliamc @jason.lewis any thoughts?

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
juliamc
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I googled ‘How do I set the schedule on my Daikin heat pump?’ and found a YouTube video of someone explaining how to do it on the controller I think Jen has. But I can’t copy the link !! Tech defeating me 🤦‍♀️

Blastoise186
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Can you get the video title? I might be able to help

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
BPLightlog
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Is this it @juliamc ?

 

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juliamc
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No it’s this 

Daikin Altherma C Series Contoller Setting the Schedule Times For Domestic Hot Water

Brunstar Ports

which is the older style controller which I think Jen has. I’ve got the one in BP’s video

BPLightlog
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juliamc
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Fab - now why couldn’t I do that !!

J
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Hot water schedules for Daikin systems are in installer settings unfortunately- not very consumer friendly.

We just leave everything switched on as if we are at home, but saying that I haven’t been away in winter for more than a long weekend.

[Heat] Pump up the Jam! Yr2000 4bed detached, Radiators, triple glazed, ASHP Daikin 7kw R410 mono + 250l UVC, 5.6kWp Jinko/Enphase solar @195°, Tesla Model Y
H
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@jenthomson as Jason has said you would need to change to schedule, or schedule+reheat in the installer settings. I can talk you through it if you like? 
The reheat setting is very limited on our model of Daikin. You can only have a 5C hysteresis which isn’t enough in my opinion,  and results in the hot water being reheated unnecessarily often. 
I have a daily schedule, and reheat. The reheat setting will only kick in when tank temp drops below 25C which only happens when my daughter decides to have a 30+minute shower 🙄😤😂

15kwh grid-tied battery, ASHP Daikin 11kw R410 mono + 300l Cylinder. 3.3kw Solar PV. Kia e-Niro EV
J
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Thanks for all the help everyone - I tried looking for a video but I feel our system is so outdated, I was having trouble finding it. We’ll give it a go over the weekend and let you know. Thank you @hydrosam for the offer of detailed help!

We also have an eddi which can reheat the water when there is excess solar and although it might not be as efficient as using the ASHP, we don’t use much hot water so limiting the Daikin heating of the water seems to be a good idea for the summer.

Always learning!

J
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Hi everyone,

 

Thanks very much @hydrosam for the help there - only discovered how to get into Installer mode the other day while trying to look for this, so that was massively helpful. Gone for the scheduled + reheat option, but thankfully with the Eddi we get a tank reading graph, so can further tweak the settings accordingly. Here’s hoping for no cold showers in the next few days!

@BPLightlog - thanks for that great video is well - really helpful and all set up. Frustrating that the schedule option wasn’t given to us in the initial installation, but hugely thankful that you’re all so switched on!

Right, time for a hot shower to celebrate! :)

BPLightlog
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Hi everyone,

 

Thanks very much @hydrosam for the help there - …

@BPLightlog- thanks for that great video is well - really helpful and all set up. Frustrating that the schedule option wasn’t given to us in the initial installation, but hugely thankful that you’re all so switched on!

Right, time for a hot shower to celebrate! :)

I was just passing on the find from @juliamc (acting tech support 😁) but glad you’ve been able to get your system operating as you want. 

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal

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