I have a client with an Intellizone 17P519A01 Rev. A and of course only part of the manual, so WF guys, do you know if this thing has zone priority (i.e. zone 1 gets satisfied first), heat/cool priority (i.e. always satisfies heating demand first)?
Also does any one have real world experience and suggestions for the set-up/operation of this board.
Your real world experience and suggestions are appreciated.
Joe

Joe, I have the Intellizone unit on my 3 ton WF Envision unit.  I have all documentation too.

No, the Intellizone does not offer zone priority.  It's going to try to satisfy all zones simultaneously on initial startup.

But, the initial response of the controller to one or more zones calling for heat/cooling varies greatly depending on how the panel is configured.  Depending on quantity of zones calling for heat/cooling, and size of zones, a stage 2 call may get initiated without any time delay.  And blower motor fan speed may come initially come up high.  Then, as zones get quickly satisfied, the panel 'downshifts' to slower blower speeds and/or staging.

With respect to heat versus cooling priority, I don't know the answer.

I am familiar with the set up of this panel, and, have the various documents.  I'd be happy to help if you want to give me a call (972.516.0909).

Best regards,

Bill

Thanks to Bill and Bergy both for help. Anyone else have any thoughts on quirks....
j

Curiously I'm still waiting on response from the folks at WF that would like me to sell their equipment.....
j

Joe, call this gentleman to speed up the process: Rick Horvath, Territory Manager, WaterFurnace, 972.698.9393.  Feel free to comment that I recommended you call him.

Best regards,

Bill

I have Intellizone, but I'm away on biz at the moment. I believe each zone has an economy setting where if that zone alone calls, it will initially attempt to satisfy is be merely circulating air to it.

PM me if you need the setup doc - I believe WF took it off their site.

They do revise the firmware (main chip on board) intermittently, so beware of rev level of your board vs docs you get

Joe, I sent a note in to WF this morning and got a response a few hours later:

The IntelliZone panel will satisfy whatever mode is called for first, then it will shift to the other mode to satisfy the remaining tstats.

Given how the panel can be configured, individual zones can be satisfied pretty fast.  My guess is WF decided as such, for the IntelliZone design, that it didn't need to incorporate 'time slicing' back and forth across the two modes (heating/cooling).

WF further commented that indeed there is no 'time slicing' between modes.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Bill

Appreciate everyones help. I meet with the cust again Saturday and hope to have compiled enough data to solve his gripes.
Many of you know that I am not a fan of automatic change over or zones. Most ductwork can solve division of labor and some areas simply call for seperate appliances.
The biggest problem here is that the folks recently purchased the home and our weather is wacky to say the least.
Do you guys know if the aux. is based on timer or differential (I found his basement heating on aux. in July last I was there)?
J

Joe, it depends on how the IntelliZone (IZ) System Staging is (in the field) configured.

Upon each tstat call, the IZ will set compressor stage, fan speed, and aux heat based on the tstat's call (Y1, Y2, Y3/W), and based the aggregate size of all zone(s) engaged.  There are DIP switches in the IZ that are used to define the size of each zone.

If a tsat signals for an upstage, the IZ may or may not 'honor' the request, depending on the aggregate size of zones engaged (and again determined by IZ configuration).

If the IZ 'honors' an upstage request, the speed of upstage is dependent on tstat logic (varies w/ manufacturer - I have my tstats set to a very conservative 30 min. upstage delay) and the IZ's System Staging (SS) configuration (more DIP switches).

If SS is set to 'Normal' (and what I use) the IZ will upstage the compressor and blower as quickly as tstats call for an upstage, as long as the aggregate size of all zones engaged allows for the upstage (see above).  The IZ does not use any timers for 'Normal' SS.  It's all based on the tstats and the aggregate size of zones engaged.

If SS is set to 'Quicker' the IZ will upstage the compressor and blower faster than 'Normal,' and will now possibly include Aux Heat.  Again, aggregate size of zones engaged must be sufficient.  I don't know what the definition of 'Quicker' is.

If SS is set to 'Faster' the IZ will upstage the blower and Aux Heat faster than 'Quicker.'  I don't think compressor adjustment occurs.  I don't know the definition of 'Faster.'  And again, aggregate size of zones engaged must be sufficient for an upstage action to occur.

Lastly, if SS is set to 'Faster w/ Timer' then compressor, blower and Aux Heat are upstaged based on a timer.  If the unit is in 1st stage, 2nd stage is activated after a 15 min. Y3/W tstat call.  If the unit is in 2nd stage, 3rd stage (Aux Heat) is activated after a 15 min. Y3/W tstat call.  Upstaging in 'Faster w/ Timer' may or may not be honored depending on further requirements on aggregate size of all zones engaged.

For cooling mode, 'Quicker,' 'Faster,' and 'Faster w/ Timer' all operate identically.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Bill

OK ... my new WF Envision system has been up and running for nearly 3 weeks now. It works very well. I'm in the process right now of insulating exterior walls with injected foam to reduce heat loss. I have run into one problem that I may want to resolve right now. Since we will be building a significant addition to the house next year, I put off Intellizone zone control dampers til then. Our unit was over-sized for the existing house so as to support the new addition [I wanted to wait til we started the addition, but a cracked boiler forced me to get a new system now]. Maybe putting off the zone control was a mistake. I fired up my soapstone woodburner the other night ... I like a nice wood fire in the evenings and have routinely burned 4-6 cords of wood in the winter months as a significant supplement to my previous oil-fired boiler. Even then, with the woodburner going, I had the problem of getting heat to my bedrooms since most of the heat from the woodburner gets trapped in the vaulted ceiling of the lving room/dining room area. I always "intended" to install draft fans to circulate some of that air through the house, but never got around to it. Instead I installed a 2nd thermostat in the master bedroom with a toggle switch to switch control of the oil burner between the thermostat in the living room and the bedroom depending on whether I was using the woodburner or not. Since the oil burner was either on or off [no multiple stages, or blowers, or flow controllers, etc] this was an easy solution.

With the installation of the new WF system we removed our hot water radiators and installed ductwork for forced air. I discussed the problem of distributing heat to the bedrooms while using the woodburner with the contractor prior to the installation of our system, and he suggested the Intellizone zone control. As the price of our installation was already signficant, and we were looking at the future addition next summer, I decided to wait. I hoped the large return air ducts in the LR/DR area would draw enough heated air into the blower to recirculate it effectively using the continuous mode of the blower. Its not quite as effective as I had hoped ... with the woodburner heating the LR/DR area [where the thermostat is] to 77-78 deg F, the Envision unit obviously won't come on unless I set ther thermostat beyond that level. Any less and the rooms 'cool off' overnight. Hopefully the insulation will help a lot. When the woodburner dies out in the early morning hours, then the bedrooms would get unbearably hot set at 77-78 F.

2 questions:
1) is it possible/practical/economical to add a 2nd thermostat based in the bedroom as I had with the oil boiler to the Envision unit ? Do I run into problems switching between 2 thermostats with this computer-controlled system ? [I imagine at minimum I'd need a multipole switch like a computer parallel pruinter or SVGA switch]. Or is this not possible or recommended ?

2) should I just go to zone control now ? How much can I expect to spend for the control unit and per damper [I only need 2 zones right now ... 2 more in the future]? How about installation costs, or can this be a DIY project ? I downloaded the Intellizone unit and damper installation manuals from the WaterFurnace website ---- it looks straifghtforward. I tried calling my contractor this morning to get a quote, but he finished installing his 5th geo system in 2 months last week and took off on vacation for 2 weeks, so I figured I'd just ask you guys in this forum.

Have you considered one of the Honeywell wireless thermostats? We have installed several of them and so far, so good. While we use them where running new low voltage wires would be troublesome, I think you could leave it in the Living Room and take it to the Bedroom when you want to.

Bergy

I wasn't aware of a wireless option. That's a darned good idea ... I'll check into it. Thanks for the info !

KJ

Two t-stats on one unit (Envision) could work since power supply is same to both stats. A word of caution:  use same stats and wiring (don't mix stats) also if you get conflicting calls say heat & cool together funny things might happen. The board sees a call> R to Y1, O, G etc. O call brings in cooling (reversing valve) If O & W are present the unit will shut down because of conflicting call O = cooling W = heating (third stage). Also be careful wiring , mix a wire and you might smoke it.

Unless you are a dealer Waterfurnace will not sell to you. You will have to get prices from a dealer for intellizone. As for installing IZ yourself, lots of luck. Dealers have trouble with installing them. One other thing to mention, Honeywell wireless stats will not work with IZ (they have been tested).

For example, with WF branded White Rogers tstats (1F97-1271) combined with the IZ, there are both AC and DC voltage components on most of the various tstat terminals.  This may be part of the reason using the same tstats in a parallel configuration would be required if using an IZ, and, why the Honeywell stats are not stated above to be compatible with the IZ.

I would have safety concerns with two tstats of any brand, wired in parallel, directly to an HVAC unit.  Some kind of zone controller, between multiple tstats and the HVAC unit, to simply manage individual tstat logic to ensure safe and proper turn on/off of the HVAC unit, would be prudent action.

The IZ includes a WF proprietary variable blower motor speed control (via pulse width modulation).  If no variable speed control is desired, though, and instead what's needed is simply safe operation of 2 tstats for one HVAC unit, there are other zone control panels available, that may be more accessible to the end user than an IZ (i.e., EWC).

BTW, you'll need to take into account maintenance of warranty if a non-WF zoning panel is used.  WF can be more insistent than other large manufacturers that all attached equipment must be WF sourced.

Best regards,

Bill