Runtime monitoring with VP IAQ

[Waterloo]

As best as I can tell, there is no runtime monitoring built into the IAQ thermostat.

Is there a product out there that can interact with the stat/equip module to track runtimes? For example, total 1st stage use for last day/week/month, ditto for 2nd stage, aux heat, etc. Maybe even down to humidification/dehumidification request times....

Thanks!

[DWB]

As best as I can tell, there is no runtime monitoring built into the IAQ thermostat.

You can get a loose approximation of total runtime percentage using the filter timer set at 10 days runtime. If it takes 20 days to count down to zero and activate the filter alert, it ran 50% of the time.

[pstu]

Last night I chatted with an engineer friend about that exact subject. As far as I know there is not any product which will do this right now. We were talking about using a single board computer to monitor those events and display them. I would think many homeowners would be interested in knowing things like:
1) Percent runtime of 1st stage AC over last day, week, month etc.
2) ditto for 2nd stage
3) ditto for heating
4) Calculated bill estimate for usage over past day, week, etc. including the specific date of actual billing meter read.

I think there *are* products which will monitor whole house electric usage and some of them will log that data. From that you could probably infer with some confidence when a whole-house load step-up was from a single stage AC, there just aren't that many 3-4,000 watt appliances in most houses (based on 3-4 ton AC of varying SEER). However for a 2-stage AC, 1st stage is likely 1500 watts or so, and there could be a toaster or room heater which looks much like that. However the 1st stage of an AC would no doubt stay on for quite awhile, and that might help identification.

In the utility load study business, there was a leading edge concept called "disaggregation" done by one researcher entirely through software. It was relatively undeveloped when I left the industry around 1997. However they were interested in statistical averages and not very concerned with minor appliances like toasters.

Hope this helps -- Pstu

[Waterloo]

I agree - it shouldn't be hard to do for a good electrical engineer! It'd even be a fun side project. But I'm not an EE, so....

I can't imagine that nobody's cracked this yet.