I have a question about my Trane thermostat. I’ve been attempting to read up on the “cycle” mode but I can’t seem to find any information on it. I know there are threads about the cycle mode, and some of what I’m asking is partially covered in those, but I’m looking for an even more basic understanding of the mode Here is my assumption about how that mode works, and please let me know if I’m wrong or right about it:
Lets say the thermostat is set for a cycle of 10 minutes on, 20 minutes off (whether this is done - or can be done - through Vera). This just means that the fan turns on for 10 minutes, cycling air through the dwelling, then turns off. If I understand correctly, it’s only at the time of that 10 minute “on” period where it would apply any heating or cooling. So, lets say it’s summer and the system is set to cool to 72 degrees. If the fan turns off and in this example and has cooled to 72, but 10 minutes later it’s 74, I have to wait another 10 minutes before it’ll kick back on and cool again because even though it’s 74 I’m in the middle of the 20 minute “off” period.
Is this how it works? If so, I’m not a huge fan of this. I’d much rather have a mixture of automatic mode and cycle mode. When I’m going out, I set my thermostat to heat if the temp drops to 65 and cool if it rises to 78. In this time of year, that means the system never comes on while we’re out, and the air gets a little stale. I’d love to have it immediately react to temperature changes, but still come on every half hour or so to distribute air around the house.
But that brings me to a topic that’s been covered a few times here, but I can’t make heads nor tails of the previous posts. Other threads I’ve read about this say that there’s nowhere in Vera to send a cycle command to the thermostat. I don’t know if I’m talking about something different, but my thermostat device in the dashboard lets me select a cycle mode (“Auto, On, Cycle”) I don’t know if this is what others are seeing or not. I don’t, however, understand what this means I’m doing if I set that mode. I don’t see information about what the timeframe for the cycle is, or how to set it through Vera. I also can’t tell if what I was talking about earlier in this thread is possible (to have a mix of the Cycle/Auto modes). Is that possible?
Thanks for any help you can provide. My thermostat model is, according to my Amazon orders history: the Trane TZEMT400BB3NX N N SL.
Yes it was added because some folks did not want the fan running all the time.
People that have electronic/advanced air filters for removing pollen and allergens need air to circulate more than just to supply hot/cold air.
I apologize, I just want to clarify: what was added? The cycle mode? I would think that the cycle mode would only make the system run more often than the Auto mode alone…
And what is the default timing of the cycle mode? All I can do in Vera is turn put the thermostat in that mode, I can’t seem to affect the timing of it at all… Is that set at the thermostat its self? If so, that’s ok.
On some thermostats (my RCS model is one) the duty cycle can be configured only from the panel of the thermostat itself. Perhaps yours is the same. I’m not aware of any control over fan duty cycle available over the Z-Wave interface.
I’ve checked my Trane thermostat, and I don’t have a cycle mode on it, but in the Vera UI it shows this as an option. How do I get my thermostat to do this?
You need to access the installer settings and set the cycle on time greater than zero and the cycle off time.
Then press the fan button
You should then see three options
Auto
On
Cycle
I was never able to see or control this on my Vera 2. I did use the fan cycle for a period of time but I discovered the amount of electricity that this feature was raising on my electric bill wasn’t worth it.
Thanks! I eventually called Trane and they pointed me to the same installer options. I had to:
1- press the menu button
2- hold down the middle two buttons until the installer options appeared
3- go to the fan cycle menu option.
Then I was able to adjust any time settings I wanted. I’m able to put the system into cycle mode using Vera, but I can’t change the timing. That’s okay though.
What I still can’t figure out is exactly how the cycle mode works. I understand that it will turn the fan on for X minutes then off for Y minutes. What I don’t understand is how it works in terms of heating and cooling.
I understand that when the fan is on auto, the system will cool or heat until it reaches the desired temperature then turn off until the ambient temp is a certain amount outside the desired temp and then it’ll turn on again. That’s fine, and it’s just how thermostats have always worked.
Let me give you a scenario that demonstrates what I don’t understand about the cycle mode:
Lets say it’s 75 degrees in the house, and I want to make it 70 degrees. I then put the HVAC into cool and the fan on cycle. If the cycle is set to 10 minutes off and 50 minutes on, will the system stay on for 10 minutes and then turn off, regardless of whether it reaches the desired temperature?
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,16820.msg129264.html#msg129264[/quote]
Thank you, but I’m sorry, your post wasn’t quite clear enough for me and I wanted to make sure I understood absolutely. So when you say “Cycle - Fan on part time when not calling for heating/cooling” you’re confirming that first the system heats/cools to desired temps, and then begins the cycle with the times set in programming? It makes sense to me if this is how it works, but I guess I just don’t know how the cycle is affected by future calls to heat/cool. Does the cycle restart?
For example, lets say the system is cooling and the fan is running in order to cool the house from 75 degrees to 70. It’s cool outside so the house isn’t warming up. The cycle starts and the fan runs for 10 minutes, turns off for 50, turns on for 10, etc. If, 23 minutes into an “off” cycle, the system calls to cool the place again, does the fan stay off for another 50 minutes after it’s done?
Sorry to harp on this, I just want to understand what the system is thinking.
The fan will run when the thermostat calls for cool / heat. It will not wait for the cycle mode. If the system is done cooling / heating, it will turn off the fan until the cycle kicks in. The cycle mode will not reset.
Wonderful! Thanks. That’s just what I was hoping for. So if it’s in the middle of the 50 minute part of a cycle, and it stops heating five minutes before the fan would come on again, the fan still comes on in five minutes?
When ever a request for Heating or Cooling is made the fan is turned ON. Unconditionally. The thermostat does not delay the need for heating or cooling. (Actually there is a timer that may delay turning on the outside unit if it was turned off recently … that’s to allow pressures in the HVAC to stabilize so you do not start the compressor with a load. If the outside unit is a heat pump this will delay both heating and cooling).
Only when the need for need for Heating or Cooling has been satisfied does the thermostat look at the fan mode property. At that time it has 3 options:
1) Turn the Fan OFF
2) Leave the Fan ON
3) Cycle the Fan OFF, Then ON, … until it calls for heating or cooling again.
Traditionally there were only the first two options. With the introduction of high efficiency air purification the need for circulating air for more than just the duration of time to heat/cool the house was needed. Leaving the fan on all the time was over-kill, and energy in-efficient, so they came up with the cycle mode.
Just a bit off topic, but I’m looking for help that is pretty similar to the OP’s question.
Any advice on how I can set up the system to cycle based on a remote temperature sensor?
I’m looking to even out temperatures in the house during winter. We just moved to Pittsburgh from South Carolina and nobody warned us that it would be cold up here…
I have a Trane thermostat and VeraLite (and a Honeywell Lynx 5100 with z-wave and WiFi modules, but it seems like Vera is the better approach for this one).
The ideal would be to set up a scene that triggers ‘cycle’ mode based on temperature going below a certain value on a remote sensor that I can set up in the upstairs office, but I’m pretty new at this and I’m not quite sure how to get it done.
[quote=“CornBred, post:18, topic:177150”]Just a bit off topic, but I’m looking for help that is pretty similar to the OP’s question.
Any advice on how I can set up the system to cycle based on a remote temperature sensor?[/quote]
Of course there is. I stumbled on this thread because I really didn’t know what cycle mode was… but now that I know, I’m going to use it instead of Auto.
Anyway… if you have cycle mode, you could set a remote temperature threshold to trigger Cycle on. If you don’t have cycle mode, you could set a remote temperature threshold to turn the fan to On, and then set it to Off (or Auto) X number of minutes later.
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Here is my assumption about how that mode works, and please let me know if I’m wrong or right about it: