Boiler is on but valves are closed (on_climate with valve control)

[PokePango]

Hello everyone!

As the title suggests, I'm encountering issues my setup. I'm a new user so this is a first installation for me !

I have TRV on my radiators (sonoff TRVZB) and my heater is an old gas boiler (1990) so I'm using it with a switch, it's not a climate entity.

As suggested in the documentation I have setup the TRV using valve control as the underlying. It's been 2 days and what I noticed is that sometimes the boiler will heat although none of the TRV is asking for heat (especially during the night).

I'm not sure how my boiler behave in this situation, as I said it's old and it's hard to guess how it will self regulate with all radiators closed and it's a situation I'd like to avoid.

It might be linked to my setup but I'm unsure what parameters to look at, do you have any suggestions? What logs should I look at to understand what triggered the switch event? Thanks!

[jmcollin78]

Hello @PokePango ,

The first think you should do is to inform us how you have configured your installation. I understand you have Sonoff TRVZB with Valve regulation.
Do you have configured the central boiler feature ? If yes, give us your configuration attributes (Dev Tools / States)
How is you central boiler supposed to work ? Was it working fine before VTherm ?

[PokePango]

Thank you Jean-Marc for your quick reply.

Yes I have configured central boiler. I'm not sure which entity to look for but I've dumped some examples below.

My boiler still works, it's just that VTherm triggers the heater (switch.chaudiere_switch) although no VTherm TRV have met their targeted temperature to trigger hvac_mode = on and when I look at the logs none of the valves were opened.

Couldn't find all the values in state but I have configured the central boiler as a switch with switch.chaudiere_switch/switch.turn_on action. My heater doesn't have any form of self regulation so it's not a central boiler in the form, it's either on or off and I have dedicated temperature sensors in the rooms.

- number.boiler_activation_threshold
  - min: 1
  - max: 9
  - step: 1
  - mode: auto
- sensor.nb_device_active_for_boiler
  - device_class: running
- climate.vtherm-salon
  - hvac_modes: off, heat
  - min_temp: 7
  - max_temp: 26
  - target_temp_step: 0.1
  - preset_modes: none, frost, eco, comfort, boost
  - current_temperature: 15.3
  - temperature: 15
  - hvac_action: off
  - preset_mode: comfort
  - is_on: true
  - hvac_mode: heat
  - type: null
  - is_controlled_by_central_mode: true
  - last_central_mode: null
  - frost_temp: 7
  - eco_temp: 13
  - boost_temp: 17
  - comfort_temp: 15
  - frost_away_temp: 0
  - eco_away_temp: 0
  - boost_away_temp: 0
  - comfort_away_temp: 0
  - power_temp: null
  - target_temperature_step: 0.1
  - ext_current_temperature: 8
  - ac_mode: false
  - current_power: null
  - current_power_max: null
  - saved_preset_mode: comfort
  - saved_target_temp: 7
  - saved_hvac_mode: null
  - motion_sensor_entity_id: null
  - motion_state: null
  - power_sensor_entity_id: null
  - max_power_sensor_entity_id: null
  - overpowering_state: null
  - presence_sensor_entity_id: null
  - presence_state: null
  - window_state: off
  - window_auto_state: off
  - window_bypass_state: false
  - window_sensor_entity_id: null
  - window_delay_sec: null
  - window_auto_enabled: false
  - window_auto_open_threshold: null
  - window_auto_close_threshold: null
  - window_auto_max_duration: null
  - window_action: window_turn_off
  - security_delay_min: 60
  - security_min_on_percent: 0.7
  - security_default_on_percent: 0.4
  - last_temperature_datetime: 2024-12-21T09:09:02.274341+01:00
  - last_ext_temperature_datetime: 2024-12-21T08:00:00.010655+01:00
  - security_state: false
  - minimal_activation_delay_sec: 300
  - device_power: 1
  - mean_cycle_power: null
  - total_energy: 0.01
  - last_update_datetime: 2024-12-21T09:54:06.842354+01:00
  - timezone: Europe/Paris
  - temperature_unit: °C
  - is_device_active: false
  - nb_device_actives: 0
  - ema_temp: 15.26
  - is_used_by_central_boiler: true
  - temperature_slope: 0
  - hvac_off_reason: null
  - max_on_percent: null
  - have_valve_regulation: true
  - is_over_climate: true
  - start_hvac_action_date: null
  - underlying_entities: climate.robinet_entree_thermostat_2, climate.robinet_television_thermostat_3, climate.robinet_cuisine_thermostat, climate.robinet_chemine_thermostat
  - is_regulated: true
  - regulated_target_temperature: null
  - auto_regulation_mode: auto_regulation_valve
  - regulation_accumulated_error: 0
  - auto_fan_mode: auto_fan_none
  - current_auto_fan_mode: auto_fan_none
  - auto_activated_fan_mode: null
  - auto_deactivated_fan_mode: null
  - auto_regulation_use_device_temp: true
  - auto_start_stop_enable: false
  - auto_start_stop_level: auto_start_stop_none
  - auto_start_stop_dtmin: null
  - auto_start_stop_accumulated_error: 0
  - auto_start_stop_accumulated_error_threshold: null
  - auto_start_stop_last_switch_date: null
  - follow_underlying_temp_change: false
  - friendly_name: VTherm salon
  - supported_features: 401
  - underlyings_valve_regulation: 
  - - - number.robinet_entree_valve_opening_degree_2
  -   - number.robinet_entree_valve_closing_degree_2
  -   - number.robinet_entree_local_temperature_offset_2
  - - - number.robinet_television_valve_opening_degree_3
  -   - number.robinet_television_valve_closing_degree_3
  -   - number.robinet_television_local_temperature_offset_3
  - - - number.robinet_cuisine_valve_opening_degree
  -   - number.robinet_cuisine_valve_closing_degree
  -   - number.robinet_cuisine_local_temperature_offset
  - - - number.sonoff_trvzb_valve_opening_degree
  -   - number.sonoff_trvzb_valve_closing_degree
  -   - number.robinet_chemine_local_temperature_offset
  - 
  - on_percent: 0
  - power_percent: 0
  - on_time_sec: 0
  - off_time_sec: 300
  - cycle_min: 5
  - function: tpi
  - tpi_coef_int: 0.6
  - tpi_coef_ext: 0.01
  - valve_open_percent: 0
  - auto_regulation_dpercent: 0.5
  - auto_regulation_period_min: 5
  - last_calculation_timestamp: 2024-12-21T08:24:03.254666+01:00

[PokePango]

@jmcollin78

Hey, I looked deeper into the data I have available and want to update the status:

• The switch from my heater turned on at 5 AM
• At the same time, the state from the central boiler switched from à l'arrêt to en cours d'exécution
• The number of active devices for boiler increased from 0 to 1
• When looking into the 3 Vtherm I have defined, none displayed any activity associated with chauffage in the logs, which is weird (a hole in the logs? I did a lot of manual update with the vtherm so I may have obfuscated the logs related to this event)
• BUT in the bedroom, the valve indeed opened to... 1%! Which is why I didn't notice when I first looked into the data, the graph variation wasn't noticeable, should have looked into the journal.

Is this an expected behavior from VTherm? I have no idea what's best from a heating point of view. Should I update the TPI values to increase the int_rate?

Ideally I'd like to have a minimal volume of water flowing through the circuit when the heater is on so that pressure doesn't accumulate too much. Might just leave 1-2 radiators out of the vtherm regulation for added security.

Thanks for your advices, seems like it's a tuning issue on my part, there are so much parameters to account for that I'm a bit lost sometimes!

[jmcollin78]

Hello, thank you for you report. Your case seems to be the same as: #722

I will add this quickly because it is claimed for many users.

[PokePango]

Yes thank you, this feature would indeed fix this issue. I'll be sure to give you a follow up if you need testing from users for this feature.