Air Conditioning Dampers

I had an air conditioning system installed recently and have it working with C-Bus. I thought other people might benefit from my work, so I am going to share it in a few posts when I get time.

The dampers provided did not have limit switches on them, so I had to do a bit of extra work to make them work with C-Bus. I had planned to just use change-over relays to switch the dampers, but the motors run continually when power is applied, so I had to add a series relay to allow power to be switched on only for long enough for the damper to switch (they need about 20 seconds):



Then I added some logic to a Colour C-Touch to pulse the "common" relay on for 30 seconds whenever a zone damper group address changed:

Code:

once GetLightingState("AC Bedroom 1") then
  PulseCBusLevel("Wired", "Lighting", "AC Damper Common", 100%, "0s", ACDamperDuration, 0%);

once not GetLightingState("AC Bedroom 1") then
  PulseCBusLevel("Wired", "Lighting", "AC Damper Common", 100%, "0s", ACDamperDuration, 0%);

once GetLightingState("AC Bedroom 2") then
  PulseCBusLevel("Wired", "Lighting", "AC Damper Common", 100%, "0s", ACDamperDuration, 0%);

once not GetLightingState("AC Bedroom 2") then
  PulseCBusLevel("Wired", "Lighting", "AC Damper Common", 100%, "0s", ACDamperDuration, 0%);

etc

Then I created a Scene containing all of the zone damper group addresses so that I could see when all zones were off so that the AC power could be switched off if all zones get closed:

Code:

once SceneIsSet("AC Zones Off") then
  SetLightingState("AC Power", OFF);

 

Hey Garfield

First of all, thanks for the post. A couple of questions if I may...

Did you use the new ELV (L5108RELVP)relay to do the switching?
If so, you have a 'fail-safe' so that all dampers open (assuming you don't have a permanent open zone)?
What Air-conditioner did you install (brand and model)?

I'm in the process of wiring mine at the moment. I made sure my dampers are power to open, power to close with limit switches that cut power at the end of the 'swing'. I am making sure that the zones are wired to have the relays de-energised to open the zone. If there is a loss of C-Bus power, the relays (of the L5108RELVP) all switch off.

Cheers

 

No. I used 5504RVFC units because I had a couple of them spare.

No. It wasn't obvious how this could be done with this type of damper. With a "normal" damper, I assume you would have the normally open relay contacts drive the dampers open so that if C-Bus fails, the dampers all open. In my case, if C-Bus fails, then the dampers just stay where they are.

Daikin FDYQ125KAV1/RZQ125KV4A

I am very happy with it so far. The output unit in particular is very quiet.

I would have preferred that, but I kind of had to live with what was delivered. They installed it a couple of days ago, and the weather forecast is over 37C for every day this week, so I didn't want to delay the installation.

 

Thanks Garfield...

Assume you are in Adelaide enjoying the warm weather

 

Yes. I just updated my profile to show my location.

 

How do you connect Daikins like this? I always have an answer from Daikin guys that I cannot control their conditioners through relays, only LON....

 

These were actually Siemens dampers. They connected to a control box which talked through a serial link to a touch pad. There is no direct link to the Daikin air conditioner.

I just discarded the control box and touch pad and controlled the open/close inputs to the dampers directly. I assume that most dampers will have a similar input.