Ok follow up.
It does work, just not like I expected it to.
I set the temp to exceed the heating differential, which would normally bypass the staging delay and kick in the next heating stage immediately… and it did.
I then lowered the set temp so it was 1° above actual room temp, and the second stage turned off so only first stage ran.
This is problematic for those with heatpumps.
Scenario:
Say you have a 3°-5° heat differential. Set temp is say 70°, and temps outside are below freezing…
Room temp drops below 70°, HP kicks on, but can’t satisfy heat call. Normally, after the staging delay (lets say 10 min) second stage kicks in, and tstat satisfies call for heat shortly thereafter.
But with “economy”, that doesn’t happen. The staging delay comes and goes, HP runs and runs and runs, 10 min, 20 min, 30min, 1 hour, room temps have to actually drop 4°-6° (depending on the set heat differential), before the second stage is enabled… could be hours that the unit runs and it has to actually get COLDER in the room before the aux heat is called.
Perhaps it is just me, but I fail to see how this is in any way “economic” at all. Unnecessary run time, discomfort as room tempts actually drop, then on top of that… you still have to run the more expense auxiliary heat.
It would be different if say the staging delay actually kicked in second stage heat, and “economy” shut off second stage 1° from set point, but that isn’t how it works.
Honestly, those at ADC must be completely clueless.
I tested this multiple times, and this is exactly the way “economy recovery” works.