Vermont Energy Control Systems

Practical monitoring and control for the real world

Style

The Vesta controller provides a limited set of choices for programming. Sometimes, it may take several rules to accomplish a simple task. However, there are techniques that can reduce the number of rules and make system behavior easier to understand.

Tip #1: Use discrete outputs or state variables to hold true / false information

Very often there will be rules which result in a true / false value which will be used by subsequent rules. For instance, there might be a rule that determines that the outlet of the wood boiler is hot enough to be useful. Create a state variable named WoodBoilerHot and set it using a differential rule something like this:

Set WoodBoilerHot if WoodBoilerOutlet is greater than 160 with a deadband of 5.0

Using a discrete output rather than a state variable accomplishes the same thing, with an added benefit: the output can be connected to an LED such as one of the existing LEDs on the controller front panel. In this way, the value is visible. In this example, we could rename LED 1 on the front panel to WoodBoilerHot and put a label on the front panel. The status of the wood boiler would then be visible at a glance.

Tip #2: Think about important system states

Chances are that there are many system states, conditions, or modes that are important in defining or describing system operation. In programming, it helps to create state variables or use discrete outputs (see above) to carry information about those system states.

For instance, one very common and important question is whether there is any heat demand. There may be many rules which depend on the question of whether any zone is calling for heat. For example, there might be a circulator that needs to run if any zone needs heat. With three zones and no system state logic, the rule set might look something like this:

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat1 is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat2 is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat3 is true

That's not too bad, but the rules do look a bit repetitive. The situation becomes much worse if the circulator is only supposed to run if there is heat available form the wood boiler or heat storage. Assuming an aquastat on the boiler and storage tanks to indicate that here is heat available, the rules now look like this:

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat1 is true and BoilerAquastat is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat1 is true and StorageAquastat is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat2 is true and BoilerAquastat is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat2 is true and StorageAquastat is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat3 is true and BoilerAquastat is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ZoneTstat3 is true and StorageAquastat is true

While this achieves the desired results, it's is now starting to feel cumbersome and difficult to understand. It only gets worse as additional rules and conditions are added. A better approach is to use two discrete outputs to carry system state information. The first will be true if there's any demand, and the second will be true if heat is available from storage or the wood boiler. Here's the resulting rule set:

Set Demand to TRUE if ZoneTstat1 is true

Set Demand to TRUE if ZoneTstat2 is true

Set Demand to TRUE if ZoneTstat3 is true

Set HeatAvailable to TRUE if BoilerAquastat is true

Set HeatAvailable to TRUE if StorageAquastat is true

Set PrimaryCirculator to TRUE if ~Demand is true and ~HeatAvailable is true

As an added bonus, we can get a visual indication of these states if we use a discrete output that's connected to an LED. This example uses state variables, but we could also use LED1 and LED2 on the controller front panel and rename them to 'Demand' and 'HeatAvailable'.