How does Pelican control a zone box during a heating cycle?

Note:

For a Pelican thermostat to be configured as a zone damper thermostat and provide the following sequence of operation (SOO), a Pelican Z8 or Z24 must be installed, powered On, and connected to the Pelican wireless network. For the following SOO to operate, the Z8 or Z24 must also control the central HVAC equipment.

Configuring a Pelican Thermostat:

The configuration of a Pelican zone thermostat for heating operation is dependent on where it is able to generate heat. If you have Fan Powered Boxes or Mixing Boxes, please reference the articles that explain those sequence of operations.

Control Outputs to a Zone Box with No Reheat:

When a Pelican thermostat is configured as the following:

Damper Type: Open/Close or Floating
Reheat Type: None

The thermostat controls the zone damper with the following outputs:

(Y): 24VAC Output – Damper Open
(Y2): 24VAC Output – Damper Close (if an open/closed or floating damper actuator is installed)
(W): Unused
(W2): Unused
(G): Unused

Control Outputs to a Zone Box with Reheat:

When a Pelican thermostat is configured as the following:

Damper Type: Open/Close or Floating
Reheat Type: Open/Close, Floating, or Electric

The thermostat controls the zone damper and local reheat with the following outputs:

(Y): 24VAC Output – Damper Open
(Y2): 24VAC Output – Damper Close (if an open/closed or floating damper actuator is installed)
(W): 24 VAC Output – Reheat Enable or Hot Water Valve Open
(W2): 24VAC Output – Hot Water Valve Close (if an open/closed or floating valve actuator is installed)
(G): Unused

Sequence of Operation for a Zone Box with Heating Demand, but NO Reheat:

A zone has “Low” heat demand: The zone thermostat will send a “low” heating demand request to the zone controller at the central HVAC equipment. If the zone controller has central cooling active, it will place the zone with heating demand into a “waiting” state until the heat/cool change-over sequence allows for a central heating cycle to become active. Once a central heat cycle is available: the zone controller will release zone thermostats with heating demand to open their dampers. All zones that do not have cooling demand will close their dampers*. Once the zone dampers are open, the zone controller will enable the central unit’s supply fan, maintain the Target Operating Static pressure**, follow any of its ventilation sequences, and enable the central heat stages to maintain a “moderate” target supply air temperature. This will remain true until one of the following occur:

The zone thermostat reaches its heat set point: The thermostat will send a “satisfied” signal to the zone controller, keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the heating cycle and shut its damper.
The heat/cool change-over occurs and the zone controller has calculated that a central cooling cycle needs to begin: The thermostat will receive a “change-over” notification from the zone controller, it will keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the heating cycle and shut its damper.
The zone thermostat goes into “high” heating demand: the below “High” heating demand sequence will occur.

A zone has “High” heating demand: The zone thermostat will send a “high” heating demand request to the zone controller at the central HVAC equipment. If the zone controller has central cooling active, it will place the zone with heating demand into a “waiting” state until the heat/cool change-over sequence allows for a central heating cycle to become active. Once a central heat cycle is available: the zone controller will release zone thermostats with heating demand to open their dampers. Once the zone dampers are open, the zone controller will enable the central unit’s supply fan, maintain the Target Operating Static pressure**, follow any of its ventilation sequences, and enable the central heat stages to maintain an “aggressive” target supply air temperature. Once all zones with “high” heating demand transition into “low” heating demand, the zone controller will reset its target supply air temperature to “moderate”. This will remain true until one of the following occur:

The zone thermostat reaches its heat set point: The thermostat will send a “satisfied” signal to the zone controller, keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the heating cycle and shut its damper.
The heat/cool change-over occurs and the zone controller has calculated that a central cooling needs to begin: The thermostat will receive a “change-over” notification from the zone controller, it will keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the heating cycle and shut its damper.
The zone thermostat goes into “low” heating demand: the above “Low” heating demand sequence will occur.

*During a central heating cycle, if a zone keeps its damper open, but does not have heating demand: This zone has been setup as a “Dump” zone using Pelican’s Capacity Management Algorithm.

**In most cases, during a central heating cycle the zone controller will maintain the Target Operating Static pressure. But, there is also a configuration for Target Heating Static Pressure than can be set by Pelican Technical Support upon request.

Sequence of Operation for a Zone Box with Heating Demand that has Reheat:

A zone has “Low” heat demand: The zone thermostat will send a “low” heating demand request to the zone controller at the central HVAC equipment. If the central HVAC equipment has central cooling active, it will place the zone with heating demand into a “waiting” state until the heat/cool change-over sequence allows for a heating cycle. Once a heating cycle is available: the zone controller will release the zone thermostat(s) with low heating demand and any zone thermostats that are requesting a ventilation cycle to open their dampers. The zone controller will enable the central unit’s supply fan, maintain the Target Operating Static pressure**, and follow any of its ventilation sequences. The zone thermostat with heating demand will enable its reheat to heat its zone. This will remain true until one of the following occur:

The zone thermostat reaches its heat set point: The thermostat will send a “satisfied” signal to the zone controller, keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the reheat cycle and shut its damper.
The heat/cool change-over occurs and the zone controller has calculated that a central cooling cycle needs to begin: The thermostat will receive a “change-over” notification from the zone controller, it will keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the reheat cycle and shut its damper.
The zone thermostat goes into “high” heating demand: the below “High” heating demand sequence will occur.

A zone has “High” heating demand: The zone thermostat will send a “high” heating demand request to the zone controller at the central HVAC equipment. If the central HVAC equipment has central cooling active, it will place the zone with heating demand into a “waiting” state until the heat/cool change-over sequence allows for a heating cycle. Once a heating cycle is available their becomes two options:

If there is NO central heat at the HVAC equipment: The zone controller will release the zone thermostat with heating demand and any zone thermostats that are requesting a ventilation cycle to open their dampers. The zone controller will enable the central unit’s supply fan, maintain the Target Operating Static pressure**, follow any of its ventilation sequences, and the zones with heating demand will enable their local reheats.
If there IS central heat at the HVAC equipment: The zone controller will release the zone thermostat with heating demand to open its damper. All zones that do not have heating demand will close their dampers*. Once the zone’s with heating demand dampers are open, the zone thermostat will enable its reheat and the zone controller will enable the central unit’s supply fan, maintain the Target Operating Static pressure**, follow any of its ventilation sequences, and enable the central heat to assist in heating the zone. Once the zone thermostat detects that its zone has transitioned from high heating demand to low heating demand: it will send a “low” heating demand signal to the zone controller and, if there are no other “high” heating demands, the zone controller will disable central heat, but keep the HVAC equipment’s supply fan enabled and ventilation sequence active. The zone thermostat with heating demand will keep its damper open and its reheat active to continue to heat its zone. Because central heat has been disabled, other zones requesting ventilation cycles will be released to open their dampers to receive ventilation.

One of the above sequences will remain true until one of the following occur:

The zone thermostat reaches its heat set point: The thermostat will send a “satisfied” signal to the zone controller, keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the reheat cycle and shut its damper.
The heat/cool change-over occurs and the zone controller has calculated that a central cooling needs to begin: The thermostat will receive a “change-over” notification from the zone controller, it will keep its damper open for a purge cycle, and then reverse out of the reheat cycle and shut its damper.
The zone thermostat goes into “low” heating demand: the above “Low” heating demand sequence will occur.

*During a central heating cycle, if a zone keeps its damper open, but does not have heating demand: This zone has been setup as a “Dump” zone using Pelican’s Capacity Management Algorithm.

Can I reverse the logic and have central heat be primary (low demand) and the local reheat be secondary (high demand)?

Pelican Technical Support can reverse the logic and make central heat primary (low demand heat) and the local reheat secondary (high demand heat). Although this is an option, we do not recommend this for series fan powered box applications.

The decision on what should be the primary heat is mostly depended on what the lowest BTU output of the central furnace is versus the energy cost of the local reheat? Pelican assumes that the original design would size the local reheat to be more energy efficient during short (low heating demand) periods versus turning on the central furnace and pushing a large amount of CFM through that unit just to heat zone’s with low heating demand.

What if I have multiple stages of reheat?

In this article we are not going to go into all the details on the sequences for standalone VAV box controls (and do not hold the below short explanation, in any form, to meeting the full sequences available on the market). This article is just to help provide a comparison to why traditional VAV sequences use multiple reheats and Pelican does not.

In standalone VAV operation, a local zone damper controller requires enough reheat to counteract a cold (60°F or less) supply air from the central HVAC equipment. During a zone reheat sequence, the standalone VAV box controller modulates its damper to maintain a minimum CFM and stages the reheat to maintain a target supply air temperature to heat the zone. Because there is cold air bring brought into the box from the primary duct, the efficiency factor for a standalone VAV box is focused on it’s standalone ability to adjust the number of active reheat stages. Less stages equal more energy efficiency, but this can also generate a more challenging approach to get a consistence supply air temperature delivered into the zone. And, because the primary duct is supplying cold air into the box, the overall efficiency of the entire building gets ignored.

Because Pelican’s sequence of operation is different than standalone VAV systems, the mechanical need of the solutions are different. A Pelican zoning solution does not push cold air into the box during a reheat cycle. This eliminate a few things: first it gets rid of the largest inefficiency in a traditional VAV system (reheating already conditioned air), second it remove the need of the zone to have enough reheats to counteract a cold supply air temperature (less reheats needed to heat the zone), and finally it creates a more consistent zone temperature rate-of-change because the air temperature is always the same during each reheat cycle.

In our data analysis, Pelican’s sequence generates a quicker zone heating rate at a lower reheat stage requirement, in comparison to traditional VAV. It is also a sequence that focuses on the overall efficiency of the building versus just the standalone zone, without sacrificing on comfort.

So, how should you decide how many stages of reheat should be wired to your Pelican zone thermostat?

If you have multiple reheat stages, the way to decide how many stages should be wired to a Pelican zone thermostats should be based on the required reheat output BTUs needed to maintain comfort in relation to the zone’s CFM output, and the size/heating load the zone might have.

The above can be considered a complex decision, but a good one to follow. To simplify, many of our customers choose to use just one of the reheat stages, while others choose to use multiple. What you need to figure out is how many reheat stages the zone needs to get a good heating rate into the zone, but not too high of a supply air temperature that it becomes uncomfortable for the occupant.

From an energy usage factor, we have found it does not matter much which option you selection (as long as you are meeting the above needs of the zone). This is because the energy calculation between the two options becomes very simple with the Pelican solution. Here is an explanation*: If you use just one stage of reheat: the energy usage during a reheat cycle would equal half of the energy consumption of running two stages of reheat, but the one reheat would need to be active for twice as long. Therefore, the total energy consumption over the run-time is equal to each other (I.E.: It uses the same energy in both situations).

Now obviously we do not get a 100% heat conversion rate, but even if there is an 85% transfer rate, it does not create huge variances in overall building energy usage. It really just becomes a decision on what zone rate-of-change you want to maintain comfort.

The greatest energy difference with Pelican versus traditional VAV controls is that Pelican does NOT reheat already conditioned air. This is an energy efficiency factor multiple times higher than how many reheats are active.

*This explanation assumes both reheat stages are the same size with the same heat transfer rate. But, the ratio of energy consumptions to zone heat rate-of-change remains the same even if the reheat stages are different sizes. With Pelican it always comes back to choosing the number of stages that provides the zone rate-of-change you want/need to maintain comfort.