It was 7C here last night and the Ecodan kicked in at 0700 and ran for an hour and then went back to sleep. Mitsubishi room stat was set to 17C and I don't think that condition was met, but on it came and the house temps had the edge taken off nicely!  Don't know if that qualifies as the "heating on" as I just leave it with a low set temperature to do its own thing.

@abernyte Our heating has come on twice in the last week; around 05:00 for approx. an hour on both occasions. Regards, Toodles.

Hell no, October as a matter of principle. If I had my way, it would be the middle of October but I may have to settle for the beginning of the month if I want to avoid a divorce. It's September, put a hoodie on. The heating ain't going on as long as I'm still wearing shorts.

The other morning I recorded 18.5C in the main living space (which is fine as we target 18C overnight for sleeping), but by afternoon it was 21C so definitely no need for heating yet.

This one is critically dependent on where you are in the country, the level of insulation and solar gain in your house. 

According to my ASHP controller my house hasn't yet dipped below 20.5 at any time this month, and most of the time sits at 21.5.  So no need for heating.  Meanwhile the OAT has been cycling between the lower mid 20s and 10-15, as low as 7C at one point.  I guess a bit of solar gain in addition to 300W from my electrical appliances and a couple of hundred watts from the occupants is enough to keep it comfortable ... in the south east, with a few south facing windows (not so good in the height of summer!) and tolerable insulation for an upgraded 1930s house.

I have automated this decision. I have a heat pump with weather compensation, but had noticed that it was coming on in the early mornings when the temperature would dip outside, even though the temperature inside the house was warm enough not to need heating.

So, I have now set my Home Assistant to turn the heating off completley when the outside temperature goes above 21C and only turn it back on again if one of several critical rooms in the house goes below the lower of 20C and that room's current set point temperature in my daily schedule. Since I set up this system about three weeks ago, the heating has not yet come on once. I live in London, so the colder weather may take a little longer to reach me than those further north. 

Posted by: @jamespetts

↑

I have automated this decision. I have a heat pump with weather compensation, but had noticed that it was coming on in the early mornings when the temperature would dip outside, even though the temperature inside the house was warm enough not to need heating.

This is, as I see it, the main downside to WC. It's purely reactive to the OAT with no knowledge or consideration as to what may be about to happen.

Having WC is, in most cases, better than having a higher fixed flow rate, but I think there is huge scope for controllers to become a whole lot more intelligent if they were internet connected and had access to weather forecasts with some decent AI built into the controller.

I'm actually running a fixed flow rate of 32C. I run this because in the warmer heating months, this is the lowest flow temp my system can achieve where the radiators can dissipate the heat produced by the heat pump, and in colder weather 32C still meets the heat loss of the house. In exceptionally cold weather we use the plus/minus controls to increase the flow temp up to 35C (+3C) as required, and overnight we can set back to 30C, but for 99% of the year 32C flow temps work for us and is efficient (large radiators and an oversized heat pump).

Posted by: @old_scientist

↑

[WC] is purely reactive to the OAT with no knowledge or consideration as to what may be about to happen ....  I think there is huge scope for controllers to become a whole lot more intelligent if they were internet connected and had access to weather forecasts with some decent AI built into the controller.

WC knows what about to happen inside the house well before (3-12hrs) any control based on internal temperature does, which is one of its principal advantages.   I grant that knowing further ahead would in principle be better still, and I think homely (and possibly Havenwise/Adia) do this in at least some modes but...

...  in my book anyway, nothing that is mission critical to the basic function of the house should be either (a) reliant on an offsite server or (b) more complex than the least IT literate person in the house can cope with.

I might allow (a) so long as the system is fail safe, ie falls back to sensible manual control and it still satisfies criterion (b)

For summer/winter operation the old method of turning the boiler off/on at the end/beginning of the season is good enough for me!

Posted by: @old_scientist

↑

Posted by: @jamespetts

↑

I have automated this decision. I have a heat pump with weather compensation, but had noticed that it was coming on in the early mornings when the temperature would dip outside, even though the temperature inside the house was warm enough not to need heating.

This is, as I see it, the main downside to WC. It's purely reactive to the OAT with no knowledge or consideration as to what may be about to happen.

Having WC is, in most cases, better than having a higher fixed flow rate, but I think there is huge scope for controllers to become a whole lot more intelligent if they were internet connected and had access to weather forecasts with some decent AI built into the controller.

I'm actually running a fixed flow rate of 32C. I run this because in the warmer heating months, this is the lowest flow temp my system can achieve where the radiators can dissipate the heat produced by the heat pump, and in colder weather 32C still meets the heat loss of the house. In exceptionally cold weather we use the plus/minus controls to increase the flow temp up to 35C (+3C) as required, and overnight we can set back to 30C, but for 99% of the year 32C flow temps work for us and is efficient (large radiators and an oversized heat pump).

 

Yes, there is definitely scope for heat pump controllers to become much more efficient with better automation. The best solution until that happens is to find one that can be integrated with Home Assistant and use that for automation.

My heating isn't 'ON' yet, although it is firing up in the early hours for an hour or two. However, I have every intention of firing up the log burner this evening.

@editor So… who’s given in and turned the heating on already? Whose has come on by itself? And who’s holding out for as long as humanly possible?

Mine is off except for water heating and I'm away mid-September so it seems pointless to fire it up now.  Then it's annual heat pump service time in early October. So I'm holding out until October to wake it up plus it helps to keep bills down. 

However, I'm an utter wimp about the cold - particularly England's damp cold - so it's log burning time on particularly cold/wet evenings. Often 2 or 3 logs with the living room door open is enough to take the chill off the house. My logs are sourced locally from forest management on the moors & seasoned in my garden for a year or two so carbon quota is not too bad. 

I leave my heat pump on and let WC decide - with some easy adjustments.

Depends on setup what works for you. I can temporarily adjust WC curve easily. I also have digital thermostats allowing temporary tweaks to raise or lower target. Both without interfering with main settings.

• generally heating not needed until daytime temps fall below 15 or 16deg
• generally heating not needed until nighttime temps fall below 10deg

• My LG heat pump has a convenient option to increase or decrease the WC curve in 1 deg increments up to a max of 5 deg. So I'm using that now at the max to minus 5 deg.
• With Intelligent Go overnight 7p imports it's not painful to allow early usage
• Heating kicks in but heats the flow temp to mild levels only. Gets a little heat into floor and structure
• If forecast is for warmer day or solar gain etc I may make a manual temporary adjustment to thermostats to turn it off for the day. Otherwise let system do its thing.
• As it gets cooler I'll adjust the curve. Normal winter operation is with zero adjustment. Coldest days (sub zero) I may increase curve plus 1 or 2deg.