Is 'optimisation' any good?

[mamoulian]

I've never tried turning optimisation on. Is it any good?

I assume trying it involves changing the whole schedule to bump all the times (currently they are a bit early to allow warm up time) - and if optimisation isn't great doing it again in reverse.

Might we be a bit cold whilst it learns? Or has it already been storing up data?

Firmware is 02.00.17.03, should I request an update and wait for it to arrive before trying optimisation?

Thanks!

[benwillcox]

I like the optimisation, in terms of comfort but not necessarily frugal use of energy.
I used to have it enabled, and you can of course then just set the time you want the heating to be at a specific temperature, and let it worry about when to turn the heating on to reach the desired temperature at the chosen time, and it works very well.

But the disadvantage is that you can't switch that feature on and off per zone (I think you used to in a previous firmware, but it got removed). As I like to have all our towel rads on for an hour each morning and evening (all on their own zone) the optimisation doesn't really work there, as it tries to reach a target temperature in the room where I just want to force it to be 'on' for an hour (I set the target temperature to something like 25 degrees for one hour, knowing that it won't hit that but forces it to be on in all but the hottest time of year).

Additionally I found that it was switching the heating on very early in the morning to get the rooms to the desired temperature (although you can limit the max advance time in the settings) and when on an energy saving drive I decided to switch optimisation off (plus for the reason above), as I'd prefer to manually control the on time and adjust the timings to suit manually.

[mamoulian]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm thinking about energy saving - perhaps our manual advance time is unnecessarily early and so wasting energy.

I found that it was switching the heating on very early in the morning to get the rooms to the desired temperature

That sounds like it might be worse though! Had yours spent a while learning? Was this before the smart weather feature was added to the firmware?

Yes shame we can't just try it out with one room!

[benwillcox]

Mine did spend some time learning although I couldn't say for sure exactly how long, but from what I recall it did seem to adapt well to the different characteristics of each zone.
Our property is an old house with solid walls and cast iron rads which take ages to heat a room up which is really why it used to turn the heating on such as long time before the target time. I'm sure a more modern property with modern rads with convection fins would get up to target temperature a lot quicker and thus not switch the heating on as early.

[Richard]

I've never tried turning optimisation on. Is it any good?

I assume trying it involves changing the whole schedule to bump all the times (currently they are a bit early to allow warm up time) - and if optimisation isn't great doing it again in reverse.

Might we be a bit cold whilst it learns? Or has it already been storing up data?

Firmware is 02.00.17.03, should I request an update and wait for it to arrive before trying optimisation?

Thanks!

Without using Optimised Start and Stop there isn't really point of having a control system like evohome. With Optimisation turned off you genuinely are missing half the product. I have zero idea why they are turned off out the box by Resideo.

Contact tech support if you want the firmware pushed through. Number is in my signature.

[Archie32]

My own experience of optimum start is it switches on far too early, even after weeks of supposedly learning the charachteristics of a particular room, so I too eventually switched it off.

I can have the living room up to temperature in around 30 minutes on all but the coldest of days but optimum start would always use the full hour, regardless of room temperature, which is simply a waste of gas. I have opentherm, so I wouldn't mind if it decided to use that full hour by running at a lower flow temperature in order to prioritise efficiency but it doesn't as it will still run at the maximum flow set on the boiler and will only start to lower the flow temperature as it approaches the setpoint.

I tried switching to a 2 hour optimum start as an experiment and whilst not using the full 2 hours, it was most definitely using more than the previous 1 hour., so maybe inefficient start might be a better marketing term.

I believe optimum start should have user selectable eco or comfort priority settings, especially when running with opentherm, with the former prioritising slower warm-up (plus lower flow with opentherm) and the latter a rapid warm-up (plus higher flow with opentherm).

Until Optimum Start gives some consideration to efficiency I shall unfortunately have to leave it off.

[Richard]

Leave Optimum Start turned off and do what though? Setting 1/2 hr or 3/4 hr early is guessing when the start time is, which will vary during the season?

It has always worked really well for me personally.