I have two T3000 thermostats configured in my house with a heat pump w/ electric strip AUX heat. I am trying to balance the use of the AUX heat so that it will run sooner if the outdoor temp is under 20 outside so I want to use the Balance Point option. What is not clear to me is the source of the outside temperature used for this setting? Any idea how I can confirm? All I see normally on the Qolsys IQ 2 panel is the daily forecast which is not very precise
BTW, I am using the Pump Staging Delay (set to 12 minutes) as well, but I want AUX to kick on sooner when I know the HP is not going to get the job done (as in the low 20s outside or less).
This is not a very well covered topic in documentation. Balance Point can be enabled and a temperature selected, but there is no probe for outdoor temp sensing. I think it is only the weather data used by ADC. Iām trying to get confirmation of that.
So I have the T2000 and from the research and watching how the thermostat responds the outside temperature is pulled from the weather service local to your area over the internet. As far as the update frequency I am not sure how often it updates. The outside temperature setpoint simply locks out the compressor and forces the heat strips to run in its place. The pump delay does as you described and after X minutes with a max limit of 60 minutes between stages. So if you had a single stage unit it would be compressor then heat strips with compressor. The idea behind the balance point is you set it to the point the compressor can no longer carry the load and you would allow additional heat strip operation to make setpoint. This feature at least in the T2000 is not a balance point but really just a compressor lockout point for say preventing compressor damage in ultra low temperatures.
