Detect 2 stages of cooling?

[BrunDog]

Hi,

I have the new SH Insteon Thermostat connected to a 2-stage AC system. It runs as a 3-ton or as a 5-ton, depending on the call from the thermostat.

Is there any way to know via the Insteon interface and your plug-in if it is cooling with the 1st stage or both stages? It would be nice to know for monitoring, etc.

I believe the thermostat handles likewise for heating. The Venstar units also handle multi-stage heating and cooling.

TIA,

-BD

[nfrobertson]

I will have to do some investigation on this. The plugin works relative to the selected mode (heat, cool, program etc.) but off the top of my head I don't recall if there was anything in the protocol about Cool1 vs Cool2 (as an example) to represent the difference between the different stages. I'll let you know what I find.

[nfrobertson]

I did some preliminary research on this. It appears that the stage 1 vs. stage 2 on either cool or heat is implemented in the thermostat hardware as a calculation of the difference between the setpoint and the current temp or based on total runtime if it hasn't met the setpoint in x minutes. It also has a note that it can occasionally engage/disengage the second stage during a single heat/cool cycle based on the variables.

The problem for the plug-in is there's nothing in the protocol to tell it that these stages are in use. Only that cool or heat was called for. I agree it would have been nice for them to indicate cool1 or cool2 in the protocol.