Looking for experience with the DHW push feature
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2022 9:07 pm
Feature description
OTGW firmware 6.2 introduced a new feature: Manual DHW push. This feature provides the ability to perform a single heating cycle of the water storage tank on demand via the HW=P command. Prerequisite is that the boiler either natively supports this feature, or has been configured for the thermostat to control when to heat the water storage tank.
The idea is that the water storage is not normally heated, but have your home automation system incidentally trigger it just before you need it. For example for the morning shower. That would hopefully save both energy and water because you don't unnecessarily heat the water tank, but still get warm water quickly for the regular needs.
Required setup
This is the setup needed to be able to use this feature:
Requested information
This feature has been developed based on theory and a single central heating system (mine). Now I'm looking for input from other users. So I would appreciate if you can answer the following questions:
OTGW firmware 6.2 introduced a new feature: Manual DHW push. This feature provides the ability to perform a single heating cycle of the water storage tank on demand via the HW=P command. Prerequisite is that the boiler either natively supports this feature, or has been configured for the thermostat to control when to heat the water storage tank.
The idea is that the water storage is not normally heated, but have your home automation system incidentally trigger it just before you need it. For example for the morning shower. That would hopefully save both energy and water because you don't unnecessarily heat the water tank, but still get warm water quickly for the regular needs.
Required setup
This is the setup needed to be able to use this feature:
- Your storage tank must not normally be heated. There are two ways to achieve this:
- Configure it on your thermostat, if it provides that option.
- Instruct the OTGW to override the thermostat, using the HW=0 command.
- Your boiler must accept commands for DHW via Opentherm. Again, there are two possibilities:
- Your boiler natively supports ID99. Unfortunately there are very few boilers that do.
- The boiler has been configured to let the thermostat control when the storage tank is heated.
Requested information
This feature has been developed based on theory and a single central heating system (mine). Now I'm looking for input from other users. So I would appreciate if you can answer the following questions:
- What brand and model boiler do you have?
- Does that boiler natively support Manual DHW Push via ID 99?
- Does the current implementation of this feature work for you?
- How long does it take for the water storage tank to be heated?
- Do you think it is a useful feature that you would continue to use?
- In my opinion the DHW push cycle should end when warm water is used. That was probably the event the DHW push was started for. What are your thoughts?
- When my boiler (Remeha Avanta) is heating the storage tank, relative modulation stays at 0%. When warm water is used, relative modulation goes up. I intend to use that to distinguish between the two. Does that work the same with your boiler?
Additional questions regarding boilers that support ID 99: - Does the manual DHW push bit (ID99:HB4) remain set during the heating cycle?
- Does hot water use during a manual DHW push cycle end the manual DHW push cycle?