Different types of zoning pre-Havenwise
Very few heat pump installations are fully zonal. A true zonal system can send different flow temperatures to different zones at the same time. This requires a mixer and logic to control it, which is very rare.
Most zonal systems are simply on/off. Either zone can call for heat, but only the heat pump can decide how much heat is given. If both zones call for heat at once, they receive an identical flow temperature.
Our general guidance when using Havenwise is to use one of the zones as a temperature limiter. This means setting the room setpoint of the 2nd zone to a high maximum comfortable limit. This minimises your bill by running the heat pump as cheaply as possible, while guaranteeing you remain comfortable.
Heat pumps are not the same as boilers. It nearly always costs more to heat part of your home at a time, instead of the whole home! The real challenge with a heat pump is overheating. Heat Geek have some excellent articles and vidoes on this.
Multiple zones for Vaillants
Havenwise operates the system as 1 zone for maximum efficiency and lowest heating costs. In practice that means Havenwise controls the flow temperature and room temperature setpoint of Zone 1.
Zone 2 (and all other zones) will receive the same flow temperature commands as Zone 1, but we don’t send a room temperature setpoint to Zone 2. That means:
Zone 2 will receive the same flow temperature as Zone 1. This is the same as the existing Vaillant behaviour for most systems, as they cannot send different flow temperatures to different zones at the same time without mixers.
You can control the target temperature for Zone 2 independently from Havenwise via the sensoCOMFORT in Zone 2 or the myVaillant app.
Our recommendation is to use the sensoCOMFORT in Zone 2 as “temperature limiter”. Set the room temperature target for Zone 2 to the temperature you want that zone to reach. Zone 2 will then receive heat as long as the heat pump is running to fulfill the heat demand in Zone 1 and the room temperature in Zone 2 is below the room temperature setpoint for Zone 2.
Multiple zones for Mitsubishi
Havenwise controls Zone 1 and Zone 2 as 1 zone, based on the temperature reading from Zone 1. In particular, Havenwise sets the flow temperature setpoint for both zones, and we set the room temperature setpoint for Zone 1 to 29.5C. We do not set the room temp setpoint for Zone 2.
That means both zones will heat up and cool down simultaneously by default, which is optimal for efficiency (therefore running cost) and lifetime of the heat pump. But you can use the room temperature setting for Zone 2 as a “temperature limiter”.
So Zone 2 will heat up with Zone 1, as long as the room temperature in Zone 2 is below the target.