WarmFlo

WarmFlo™ is the 21^st century controller for your heating system.  It applies to any electric or dual heat system, new or retrofit.  This article presents only two applications – electric boiler and heat pump – do not overlook other applications and the many WarmFlo benefits.

WarmFlo™/Car Accelerator Pedal

An air source heat pump is a very efficient heating system (up to 300%), but because it uses outside air it has limits on room air delivery temperature.  Example, at 45° outside the room register warm air may be 100° but typically at 30° the warm air temperature may be below 90°.  Air that is moving past your skin, at below body temperature, is uncomfortable.  A Dual Fuel arrangement is where a heat pump is combined with a gas furnace and at the point where the warm air delivery is uncomfortable the heat pump is turned off and the gas furnace is used for all heating below this outside temperature preset point.  This is not a very efficient combination because the high efficiency heat pump (200% and above) is no longer used and is of no value if it is turned off.  The Electro-Mate/WarmFlo addition to this combination allows the heat pump to produce its high efficient energy down to 0° or -10° outside.  The WarmFlo controller has temperature sensors and control logic to always deliver comfortable warm air (selected by the user) and adds only the minimum amount of 100% efficient electric heat to “make up” the energy difference.  As the automobile foot pedal accelerator is used in the electric boiler analogy, so the WarmFlo controller is the “accelerator” for the electric resistance (Electro-Mate) portion within your heat pump combination.  WarmFlo smoothes out and carefully controls the 100% electric resistance portion to make sure the room register warm air is comfortable but not necessarily overheated (100 miles per hour) so the more efficient heat pump can run longer and provide its best economic performance.

The majority of the Electric Boiler, hydronics heating, installations have several zones or thermostats in various rooms.  When one thermostat calls for heat it represents only a partial load to the boiler.  Perhaps we could use the analogy of an automobile accelerator pedal to relate to WarmFlo.  WarmFlo controlling your boiler would act as an automatic accelerator pedal.  Basically all other low cost boilers have an on/off device, like your automobile ignition switch, referred to as an aquastat.  When you have a call for heat and the aquastat is on the boiler allows it to run at full energy capacity, totally independent of the load on the boiler.  Just like the boiler is sized for full energy capacity to heat your house on the coldest day with all thermostats calling simultaneously, your automobile engine has the horsepower or energy capacity to carry 5 adult people with probably 500 pounds in the trunk at 100 miles per hour when the accelerator is all the way down to the floor.  You would not be very satisfied with your automobile if it did not have an accelerator pedal (it would be 100% on).  In this analogy you would start out at the stop sign by simply turning on the ignition switch (thermostat call for heat).  It would use all its energy up to 30 miles per hour, you would then turn off the ignition switch (thermostat satisfied), coasting to 20 miles per hour, then turn the ignition switch back on and continue the process.  With a lightly loaded automobile at 30 miles per hour the accelerator is approximately 15% of the way pressed to the floor.  It certainly is much more reliable, safe, and comfortable operating at the 15% point.  Likewise with WarmFlo, if it is 50° outside and only one thermostat is calling for heat (bedroom representing a small load) the boiler may only run at 15% capacity, controlled by WarmFlo.

WarmFlo represents the controlling mechanism within your heating system to “smooth out” the energy capacity within the furnace or boiler to make sure it adjusts to the load capacity requirement at each thermostat call for heat.