UAWildcat Posted June 23, 2022 Share Posted June 23, 2022 I had a question regarding the C4 (Aprilaire) thermostats and if they had the ability to communicate with one another to control other thermostats controlling different zones. Here is my dilemma, and I welcome any solutions that anyone has found or is aware of! We have a C4 system installed in our two-story home in the desert southwest. Our home was built with two A/C condensers to cool the home (one for the first floor and one for the second floor) with a total of five HVAC "zones" (two on the first floor and three on the second floor) with each zone being controlled by a C4 thermostat. During the summer, like many, we are on an electric plan where energy rates during peak hours are very high. There are times where one zone/thermostat on say the second floor kicks on the condenser to cool that particular zone then turns off only for another thermostat to kick back on a few minutes later to cool another zone on the very same floor. In an ideal world, if the condenser had to turn on to cool one zone on one floor, I would love to have the other zone(s) on the same floor to turn on as well (in other words, open all zones being served by that condenser) to make best use of that floor's condenser when it is on. Is that something that is possible with the thermostats or some other programming perhaps within Composer Home Edition? Thank you very much for any suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo1738 Posted June 23, 2022 Share Posted June 23, 2022 You can just program based on schedule, but there are many ways to skin this cat. ? If month is June, July, August, Sept, Oct (could use 'ands' for other if statements) ? If time is between 12p-6pm ? If thermostat 1 is on cool -> Turn on thermostat 2 cool ? If month is June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct ? If time is between 12p-6pm ? If thermostat 1 (or 2, 3 etc) turns off -> Turn off thermostat 2, 3, 1 etc (Issue with this is if a room temp isn't high enough it will turn on then turn off quickly. Might have to just have it change setpoint to something like 60F (to guarantee it stays on as long as room 1 and then when room 1 turns off turn the thermostat back to what you wanted it to be. Could even get tricky use snapshot driver to record what the temp is and set it back to that.) Can set the temperature of room 1 to be temp of room 2 ? When room 1 temp changes -> Set room 2 temp to room 1 temp value Could consider using the temp sensor of one primary thermostat for each floor/condenser and have it bound to each other thermostat so they are all using the same this will turn all zones on at same time. Sure one of the remote programmers will have a better way but those are things I can think of. South Africa C4 user 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UAWildcat Posted June 24, 2022 Author Share Posted June 24, 2022 All great suggestions! Thank you, Neo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo1738 Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 np happy to help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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