The Web Energy Logger looks like a great system to monitor home performance. I am about to have a GSHP system installed and I wanted to ask about the best way to monitor the GSHP with the WEL server. Ideally I would like to know when the system is running and in what stage and mode. Do I need a special thermostat and/or sensors?

If you just want to monitor what the system is doing (cool stage 1, cool stage 2, heat stage 1, heat stage 2, heat stage 3) then you could simply get
1. the Basic WEL $395
2. the power supply $11
3. wire $20 (or use your own telephone cable-type wire from Radio Shack/Home Depot) - length would depend where you locate everything
4. 8-stats combo box $95 (you'll use 5 of the 8 inputs for the above cool/heat/stage listing)

It may be worth getting the starter pack which includes 10 temp sensors so you can monitor air temps in and out of the unit, plus in different parts of your house, and also the combo box.

The combo box is the easiest way to "read" the stage/system calls (on or off). The combo box can measure up to 8 "calls". If you have multiple zones that you want to measure separately, you may need more than 1 combo box.

If you're electronically handy and don't mind some DIY on electronic circuits, the basic WEL has 8 built-in "call" sensors that you can use instead of the combo box, but they will require extra circuitry to operate properly (opto-isolators or relays, plus associated pull resistors and filtering capacitors). This extra circuitry is built in to the combo box already.

Stuart
WEL0487

Stuart, Thanks for the info. I am ultimately planning to spread temperature and humidity sensors all over the house. For some reason I though I would need a special thermostat to track the heat pump. Thanks for helping me out. I checked your WEL page. It is exactly what I would like to have. I probably will add a TED 5000 to keep track of the whole house electricity usage. Do you know of a way to measure the electricity usage of the heat pump only? What are you using to keep track of the DSH pump? Thanks, --aydan

Hi Ayden,
I have the basic WEL starter pack with thermo sensors on the return air, supply air, 'leaving' ground loop, 'entering' ground loop, 'entering' water to DSH, 'leaving' water from DSH, zone 1 (hidden behind thermostat), zone 2, attic, and outside. For DSH I purchased (from Phil) the 1-wire remote current switch, and put that on one of the two leads going into the DSH pump motor.

I did build my own opto-isolator circuit bank so that I didn't need the combo box. I use the built-in 'call' sensors of the WELserver itself, but it meant running a whole bunch of extra wires between the zoning panel and my opto-isolator board. I'm monitoring Zone 1 thermostat call, Zone 2 thermostat call, the changeover valve (heat/cool) , stage 1 call (from the zoning panel to the equipment), stage 2 call, stage 3 call. I was able to do all the 'detecting' wiring at the zoning panel and used extra pairs of wires in my thermostat cables to bring the sensor signals from different parts of the house to one location. I'm also monitoring the DSH pump, but that's over the 1-wire bus rather than one of the 'call' sensors.

I haven't done any electric usage recording yet of the geo pump (and probably won't at this time), but I do know a guy who does. If you want to private-message me, I can give you his email address and he can tell you what he uses. Basically, I think it's something called a "Wattnode" and he's got it connected to just the main feed wires that go to the heat pump. I *think* the TED5000 can do that also - the TED comes with clamps that you put on the main wires in the breaker panel. If you put the clamps on the wires that feed just the heat pump, you could read the data into the WEL from the TED. Not sure about this bit...someone else??

Ayden, take a look at http://www.welserver.com/WEL0043/ for another example to illustrate what's possible with a WEL.

In this case, it's all done with one WEL unit.

To add on to the excellent comments Stuart has already provided:

I ran a 1-wire cable connection to each of my tstats (I have 4 since I have zoned air distribution) to get ambient temp at each tstat into the WEL.  Don't know any way around this, unless you have 2 unused wires in your existing tstat cable.  I didn't change anything regarding my tstats - they're still they same ones put in at installation time.
 
I use the combo unit to measure the presence or absence of 24VAC (i.e., the tstat's Y1, Y2, Reversing Valve statuses).

I have two humidity sensors - one for inside (mounted near a large return air register) and one for outside.

I use WattNode transducers to measure power and energy, but, TED units should work just as well (although I don't know what kind of resolution is possible with a TED unit).  Both are well covered in the WEL instruction manual.

I monitor DSH pump on/off via monitoring the presence or absence of current going through the wires connected to the DSH pump, using an AC current to 1-wire on/off switch as supplied by welserver.com .

Each of the electrical circuits for my heat pumps includes the associated water loop pump.  I simply subtract 385 watts from the heat pump circuit measurement values to arrive at heat pump only power consumption (385 W is the listed power for each of my pumps).

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Bill

I wouldn't trust any listed power to be accurate. Best to measure it.

http://www.greenenergyresearch.com/DIY_ph_pages/DIY_ph_3502.html?product_id=3502

Alternatively to the Wattsnode you can buy the above current sensor and hook it up to the WEL.
If calibrated correctly it gives you a reading within 1% of the Wattsnode.
V x A = Watts

Be advised that the WEL combo module does not work with some thermostat/zone control pairings. My combo module works fine for monitoring the Y1 and Y2 outputs to the compressor via the WF Intellizone controller (circa Sept 2009) but shorts out when connected to the Honeywell t'stat inputs. I'm told there is a way to isolate the inputs, but I have not yet done so.

Gary
http://welserver.com/WEL0222/

We use Honeywell vision pro 8321 on most of our applications without any issues.

Mine are 8320, but I believe the problem may be the age of my WEL (late 2009). Verify with Mr Phil at WEL before ordering.

Posted By gnick540 on 17 Oct 2011 01:21 AM
Mine are 8320, but I believe the problem may be the age of my WEL (late 2009). Verify with Mr Phil at WEL before ordering.

You can update your firmware.

I just added the welserver combo module this weekend to monitor my Climatemaster ATP32U04 Programmable themostats (1 for 1st floor, 1 for 2nd floor). It was pretty simple to hook up and compatability seems fine. I also just hooked up current monitors on each of the loop pumps as I want to know if there is a failure (via the email alert system) instead of wondering what went wrong when it shuts itself down for lack of water.