Home Comfort Zones MyTemp System User manual

MyTemp
™
System
Room-by-Room Temperature Control and Energy Management
User Manual

Congratulations! Your home has the most advanced and effective residential climate control system available anywhere. Years of
research, development, and testing went into this system to achieve one goal: to make every room in your home as comfortable as possible.
Your home should feel better than any home you have lived in before.
We designed the MyTemp™system for ease of use while providing all the features needed to give you complete control over your comfort
and energy usage. While there are many things you can choose to control, after initial set up the system should seldom require changes.
The system automatically maintains everyone’s comfort all the time. In fact, you can forget about the system – at least until you visit
someone else’s home. When you do notice the difference, please tell your friends about Home Comfort Zones. They will thank you.
We’re sure you will enjoy the system as much as we enjoy providing it. We welcome feedback, comments, and suggestions about our system
and service. Please contact customer support or email [email protected].
Enjoy your comfort!
TheMyTempStaff

2
Legal and Other Notices
• The contents of this document are subject to change without prior notice.
• Although the contents of this document have been carefully checked to prevent errors, some may still occur. If you have a question about this
manual or if you find an error please contact us.
• Except for personal use, no part of this publication may be reproduced or reprinted without prior written permission from Home Comfort
Zones.
Copyright
© Copyright 2008. Home Comfort Zones Inc. All rights reserved.

3
Introductory Topics
System Quick Start ..........................................4
Using the Touch Screens....................................5
Index of Frequently Asked Questions ....................6
Important Concepts .........................................8
Getting Started
The Home Screen............................................16
Selecting a Thermostat Mode..............................19
Basic Thermostat Mode .................................20
Programmable Thermostat Mode.....................21
Programmable Zones Thermostat Mode.............24
Customizing Your System
The System Menu............................................29
Update Time and Date......................................30
Conditioning in Relation to Outside Temperature ....31
Temperature Differential and Circulation Control ....33
Airflow Pressure .............................................35
View Plenum Conditions ...................................37
Multistage Control ..........................................38
Outside Air Control.........................................40
Smart Controller Properties ...............................43
Using Advanced System Features
Advanced Room Controls..................................45
Programming Your Comfort Schedules .................49
Miscellaneous Features
Viewing Your Energy Consumption .....................51
Calculating Your Cost Savings.............................53
Connected Assistance .......................................54
System Diagram..............................................56
Frequently Asked Questions...............................58
Glossary .......................................................64
Support Phone Numbers ...................................68
Table of Contents

4
System Quick Start
Use the graphical table of contents shown below to navigate within this manual. The home screen as shown below is the first screen you see after
your system is installed. From here, you can access all the system features.
Home/Away: See page
16. Choose between your
normal schedule and away
schedule.
Time and date: See page
30. Press to change either the
time or the date.
Off: See page 16. Turn off the
system if necessary.
Help: View the 24/7 customer support
phone number and an introduction to the
context-sensitive help system.
Screen Controls: Change the
brightness and contrast of the display to
suit your needs.
Disable Screen for Cleaning:
Clean the screen when desired.
Energy History: See page 51.
Review the energy use for the house as
well as individual rooms. This screen also
provides an overview of the current
conditioning state for each room.
System: See page 29. Set
parameters that help the
system meet your needs.
Current Activity: See
page 18. Press to view the
reason for the current
conditioning activity. Thermostat: See page 19. Use
one of three possible thermostat
modes to set the comfort ranges in
your home.
Tutorial: Access an instructional les-
son to get yourself started.

5
The home screen and all other screens in the MyTemp Climate Control System are touch screens. Touch screens are designed to be pressed
anywhere using your finger or fingernail. Do not use sharp objects. When using a fingernail, some users like to turn their hands so they can see their
palms. This makes it easier to touch the right spot and helps keep the screen clean.
We have tried to create an intuitive system. In general, touch an area that represents a choice you want to make or a topic you want to view. This
action has a visual effect on the screen or takes you to another screen where it should be clear what to do next.
We designed the system to minimize the chances for unwanted or unexpected outcomes. Don’t be afraid to explore. If you make changes you don’t
want, simply select the Cancel button, which returns you to the previous screen without saving any changes you made.
Select the Help button at any time to view information about the current screen and how it’s used. Much of the information in this manual is
available at the touch screen.
Using the Touch Screens

6
Index of Frequently Asked Questions
• How do I set the temperature in my house?
• Why do I have two temperatures I need to set? My old
thermostat only had one temperature.
• Why does my lower limit change when I adjust my upper
limit? And vice versa?
• How do I adjust the minimum separation between the upper
and lower limits?
• Most of the vents blow too hard at different times. How can
I reduce the airflow?
• I’m only concerned about too much airflow in one or two
rooms. How can I reduce the airflow to just those rooms at
all times?
• How do I reduce the airflow in my bedrooms zone at night?
• I need ample airflow for temperature control, so how do I
reduce the noise?
• How do I adjust the system to use less energy when the
house is empty?
• How do I prevent the system from cooling on a mild day or
in the winter?
• How do I prevent the system from heating on a warm day or
in the summer?
• How can I make the system use only circulation when
windows are open?
• How can I temporarily stop heating or cooling in a room?
• How can I temporarily start heating or cooling in a room?
• How do I adjust the time duration for a Smart Controller’s
temporary conditioning request?
• How do I adjust the temperature range of a Smart
Controller’s Saver mode?
The following frequently asked questions are answered at the end of this manual:

7
Index of Frequently Asked Questions
• How do I prevent my child from accidentally changing the
temperature of a room with a Smart Controller?
• What’s the difference between the three thermostat modes?
• Why use the Programmable thermostat mode?
• How many time periods can I set for one day?
• Why should I use the Programmable Zones thermostat
mode?
• What is the difference between Programmable (or
Programmable Zones) thermostat mode and the Program
button?
• Why use programs?

8
Important Concepts
Your Personal Comfort Range
Your personal comfort range is a range of temperatures comfortable to you. A degree higher than the upper limit and you want cooling. A degree
cooler than the lower limit and you want heating. Each person in your home may have different comfort ranges that change from season to season,
room to room, activity to activity. You can set different comfort ranges for different rooms. You can set comfort ranges to automatically follow a
weekly schedule, and you can save these schedules as programs.
Upper and Lower Limits
You set comfort ranges using the touch screen. For each comfort range, you set an upper limit for the
temperature that causes air-conditioning to start and a lower limit for the temperature that causes heating
to start. The system turns on heating or cooling as needed to keep the temperature between the limits. It
even uses circulation to help balance temperatures between rooms when heating or cooling is not
required. Circulation is only used when it is cost effective for balancing temperatures. The system saves
energy by reducing conditioning when possible, and it turns off circulation when unhelpful or unneeded.
1. Your personal comfort range
2. Upper and lower limits
3. One thermometer versus many temperature sensors
4. Our system works with your existing HVAC equipment
5. The temperature’s in the feeling—and you may be surprised
6. Heating-cooling auto-change-over
7. Saving as much energy as possible
8. HVAC limitations
To get the most out of your system, you should understand the concepts described in this section. In addition, see page 56 for a system diagram and
a simple explanation of how the system works.
Your
Comfort
Zone
Upper Limit
Lower Limit
74°F
68°F
cooling
starts
heating
starts

9
The lower and upper limits must differ by at least three degrees. We recommend a six-degree separation. Most users don’t notice a few degrees of
difference as long as they are inside their comfort range. However, one degree outside the comfort range can be uncomfortable. Therefore, the
system’s priority is to keep every room inside its comfort range. This means that sometimes a room may be heated even if it is a few degrees above
its lower limit. Or it may be cooled when it is few degrees below it upper limit. It may receive circulation even if it is in the middle of its comfort
range. The reasons for this are described in the following section.
A narrow comfort range uses more energy than a wide comfort range. When there is only a few degrees between a
call for heating and a call for cooling, the HVAC equipment may heat a few rooms for a few minutes, then
immediately cool a few other rooms for a few minutes, then heat, then cool, and so on. The system does its best to
satisfy all comfort ranges, which may use a lot of energy. Most people prefer at least a few hours between heating and
cooling cycles. We recommend using the widest comfort range that maintains your comfort. This saves the most
energy. Many people use at least a six-degree range.
As outdoor temperatures decrease, rooms start to approach their lower limits. As outdoor temperatures increase,
rooms approach their upper limits. During transition seasons when little heating or cooling is needed, the rooms are
more evenly spread between their upper and lower limits.
One Thermometer Versus Many Temperature Sensors
A conventional thermostat has a thermometer plus controls for setting the temperature you desire. For heating, you use the controls to set the
temperature at which you want heating to start. When the thermometer reports a temperature below the set temperature, the thermostat calls for
heat. The thermostat continues to call for heat until the thermometer reports that the temperature is above the set temperature. With a
conventional thermostat, the temperature sensing is in the same location as the thermostat. Therefore, the area around the conventional thermostat
is the only area within the home with accurate temperature control.
Important Concepts
We recommend
using the widest
comfort range
that maintains
your comfort.
(continued)

10
With the MyTemp system, there are many temperature sensors spread throughout the house. The Smart Controllers are the temperature sensors.
You cannot define your comfort ranges at the Smart Controllers; you do this at the touch screen. Since you probably don’t spend much time near
your touch screen, it does not contain a temperature sensor.
Our System Works With Your Existing HVAC Equipment
The MyTemp system works with the HVAC equipment you already have. When the system senses that one or more rooms aren’t within their
comfort zones, it initiates a heating or cooling cycle using your HVAC equipment. Your equipment (like all residential HVAC equipment) requires
a certain amount of airflow to work effectively. This airflow is more than any single vent can handle. Several vents must be open at all times to
satisfy your existing HVAC equipment. Even if only one room is calling for conditioning, several rooms receive conditioned air.
For example, imagine your kitchen is currently 67.5°F and its lower limit is 68°F, and all other rooms are above
their lower limit. The system begins heating to raise the temperature in the kitchen, but the system knows the
kitchen vent can not handle all the airflow from your HVAC. Since the system is smart, it also heats just enough
other rooms to satisfy the HVAC equipment. How does the system decide which rooms to condition? It usually
chooses the rooms that are closest to their lower limit. However, there are also parameters you can set to advise the
system how to make decisions that better satisfy your needs. Not only is the system smart, it will take advice from
you.
The important concept to remember is that some rooms may receive conditioned air when you’re not expecting it.
This is normal and necessary for the HVAC equipment.
Important Concepts (continued)
Some rooms may
receive conditioned
air when you’re
not expecting it.
This is normal and
necessary.

11
The Temperature’s in the Feeling—And You May Be Surprised
The installer set your system to function in Programmable thermostat mode with a simple schedule. The three possible thermostat modes are
described in the following sections, but we strongly recommend that you use the factory-installed program for a few days so you and your family
can experience the feeling of every room maintained within your comfort range at all times.
As needed, adjust the lower and upper limits to match your comfort range. You may be surprised to find that a temperature you previously thought
you preferred is either too cool or too warm. For example, suppose you are accustomed to a house where 74°F at the thermostat produces 68°F in
your family room, 70°F in your kitchen, and 72°F in your office. If you prefer 70°F , you are probably used to adjusting your thermostat
anywhere from 72°F (to get 70°F in your office) to 76°F (to get 70°F in your family room). You continually readjust the thermostat to maintain
this temperature in the different rooms. With our system, you simply set the lower limit to 70°F , the actual temperature you prefer. Every room
in the house stays above 70°F.
Heating-Cooling Auto-Change-Over
Many people have never experienced an auto-change-over thermostat. This is a thermostat that automatically controls
both heating and cooling so you don’t need to change the settings on days that need both heating and cooling. An auto-
change-over thermostat works like a comfort range—it has a lower limit and an upper limit. The difference is that the
Home Comfort Zones system maintains several different comfort ranges for different rooms at the same time.
Saving As Much Energy As Possible
In general, the default settings are a good balance between comfort and energy savings. However, the importance of comfort versus energy savings
varies from person to person. The MyTemp system provides the information and adjustments necessary to enable you to control
Important Concepts
The system can
maintain several
different comfort
ranges for different
rooms at the same
time.
(continued)

12
your energy usage as well as your comfort.
Your system can help you save energy in several ways. The following suggestions are described in detail later in this manual.
• Use the widest comfort ranges possible. Decrease the lower limits to use less heating and increase the upper limits to use less cooling.
• Divide your house into zones in which the rooms in each zone have the same usage pattern during the week. Use wider comfort ranges when
the zones are unoccupied, especially for more than four hours. The system automatically estimates the change in yearly energy costs as you
adjust the comfort schedules for different zones. Proper settings save energy without affecting the comfort in rooms when they are occupied.
• Use the Smart Controller saver mode in rooms that are not being used every day.
• Use the away mode whenever your home is unoccupied for more than four hours. If you set your return time, your home will be comfortable
when you return.
• Use settings that encourage circulation. Circulation saves energy by moving heat from an area with too much heat
to an area that can use heat. This is especially important if you have a multi-story home since warmer air rises to
the top floor while cooler air falls to the bottom floor. Circulation helps balance temperatures between floors
without using conditioning.
• As much as possible, maintain airflow pressure at the highest setting with which you are comfortable. Higher
airflow pressure means that fewer rooms require conditioning to satisfy the HVAC equipment. This means each
room is conditioned at a higher rate and fewer rooms are conditioned that are not calling for conditioning. With
lower airflow pressure, more rooms must receive conditioning to lower the airflow pressure. This means each
room is conditioned at a lower rate and more rooms are conditioned that are not calling for conditioning.
• Use the energy history graphs to identify rooms that are calling for the most conditioning. If the 24-hour heat time
or cool time for a room is much higher than most other rooms, then this room is causing extra conditioning in other rooms. Extra conditioning
occurs when a room receives conditioning even though its temperature is within its comfort range. Less extra conditioning means more energy
savings. For these rooms, reduce energy usage by reducing the need for conditioning in the rooms that are calling for the most conditioning.
Important Concepts (continued)
For greater
energy savings,
use settings that
encourage
circulation.

13
The simplest way to reduce conditioning is to change the upper or lower limit of the comfort range for that room, especially during peak
conditioning hours. You can also improve the room’s insulation by using window treatments (blinds, tinting, curtains, and so on); adding
more insulation to outside walls, ceiling, and floor; and sealing air leaks around windows and outlets. Other methods include increasing
airflow to the room by improving the return-air path (poor air return is a common problem), increasing the size of the duct serving the room,
or adding another duct and vent to serve the room.
HVAC System Limitations
Even the best HVAC and duct system has limitations. For example, heating and cooling capacity is based on the local average climate, so a record-
setting hot or cold day may require more cooling or heating capacity than the equipment can supply. With HVAC equipment, extra capacity is not
better. Oversized equipment operates less efficiently and can cause temperature control problems. So a properly designed system will be most
efficient all of the time and have the capacity to keep you comfortable 99% of the time. However, for a few hours on
the hottest or coldest days the temperature in a few rooms may go outside their comfort ranges.
The interior walls of homes are not good insulators, so it is relatively easy for heat to flow between rooms, especially
when the doors are open or if the rooms share a wall. Therefore, it is not possible to maintain a large temperature
difference between nearby rooms. For example in winter, a room in saver mode may get only 10 degrees cooler than
the heated room next to it. A room next to a room in saver mode will need more conditioning because of heat flow
through the wall between the rooms.
It is not practical to set the upper limit of the comfort range in one zone less than the lower limit of the comfort range
of another zone. For example, do not use our system to keep a wine room at a constant 55°F while trying to maintain
the rest of the house at 71°F. This would require nearly continuous conditioning using heating and cooling alternately.
It would be like leaving the refrigerator door open at all times. We recommend that you maintain three degrees
Important Concepts
Even if only one
rooms calls for
conditioning, a
few other rooms
are conditioned
also.
(continued)

14
difference between the highest lower limit (the highest temperature that calls for heat) and the lowest upper limit (the lowest temperature that calls
for cooling).
Your heating and cooling equipment produces a certain amount of conditioning, and this requires a certain amount of airflow at all times. Even if
only one room calls for conditioning, a few other rooms are conditioned also. This means it is not possible to just condition a small fraction of your
house. This limitation may cause a room to not receive conditioning when outside its comfort range, or some rooms to receive extra conditioning.
Designing and installing an HVAC system is a human process, and humans make mistakes. Sometimes architecture and aesthetics are given priority
over good HVAC design, forcing a compromise in the location of the HVAC equipment, the supply duct system, or the return-air paths. Without
special care, remodeling almost always increases HVAC supply ducting and return problems. The MyTemp system does an excellent job of
compensating for mistakes and weaknesses, and keeps all rooms as comfortable as physically possible.
A Practical Example
Sometimes inadequate ducting causes unsatisfactory results that you can overcome with a simple change in parameters.
The following scenario occurred within an extensively remodeled house built about 1910:
This house contained three rooms on the top floor, each with one small duct. One room was unused, so it was placed
on saver mode. On hot days, the air conditioner ran continuously to keep the other two rooms cool, but their
temperatures always remained above their upper limits. Rooms on the bottom two floors also had to receive
conditioning to satisfy the HVAC equipment, causing so much extra conditioning that they became uncomfortably
cool. The problem was that the two ducts into the rooms on the top floor not in saver mode were not enough to keep
the top floor cool because of the additional heat leaking in from the room in saver mode.
Important Concepts (continued)
Our system is
flexible enough to
compensate for
inadequate
ducting.

15
Important Concepts
The simple and unexpected solution was to take the unused room out of saver mode so that it also received air conditioning. The airflow through
three ducts was enough to cool the top floor so the temperatures in all three rooms dropped into their comfort ranges. Circulation immediately
started, mixing the warmer top-floor air with the cooler bottom-floor air. This reduced the need for cooling the top floor while recovering the
extra cooling from the bottom floor. This simple parameter change reduced the air conditioner’s run time from 12 hours per day to four hours—
and with all the rooms always inside their comfort ranges.
This example illustrates that some features such as saver mode may not be effective energy savers when the HVAC system has significant
weaknesses, but that with proper adjustment our system is flexible enough to compensate.

16
The Home Screen
The buttons on the home screen are:
Home: When selected, indicates the system is in Home mode. This is the
setting for normal day-to-day conditioning.
Away: Allows you to save money by reducing conditioning when you’re gone
for an extended period of time (four or more hours). See page 20 for
information about setting your away comfort ranges.
Off: Turns the system off. Caution: Your home could be damaged if the
temperature drops below 32°F for sustained periods.
Tutorial: Accesses an interactive tutorial that shows you how to program a
comfort schedule.
Help: Provides the Home Comfort Zones support phone number and an
introduction to the help system. If you have a Home Comfort Zones modem, this button also leads you to the Home Comfort Zones Connected
Assistance service. See page 54 for more information about Connected Assistance.
Screen Controls: Allows you to adjust the screen’s brightness and contrast as well as convert to white text on a black background.
Disable Screen for Cleaning: Disables the screen for 20 seconds so you can clean it. Caution: Use a soft, damp cloth, not cleaning
solutions, which can damage the display.

17
Energy History: Provides a 24-hour history of temperature and HVAC system use in your home. You can also check each room for its
current temperature and system status.
System: Allows you to customize your system settings as described starting on page 29.
Thermostat: Allows you to adjust your upper and lower limits. You see one of three screens depending on which thermostat mode you choose.
These modes are described in the following section.
The Home Screen
Inside: Current temperature at a designated Smart
Controller that was chosen by the installer to represent the
inside temperature.
Outside: Current outside temperature as reported by
the outside temperature sensor
Current Program: Program that is currently active.
This area is not visible when you use the Basic thermostat.
Refer to the next section for a description of the three
possible thermostat modes.
Press anywhere in the region shown at right to
view the current system activity. A screen
appears that describes the reason for the current
activity. This screen (not shown) contains three
activities—Heating, Cooling,
Circulating—that you press if you are
interested in why a particular conditioning
function is or isn’t currently active.
This area shows the current activity.
(continued)

18
The Home Screen (continued)
The following activities may appear when you press the Activity button on the home screen:
Starting up Only displayed when the system is first turned on.
Ideal No conditioning cycle required because your home is within all
temperature limits.
Between
Cycles
Preparing for the next conditioning cycle. The system knows it
should start a conditioning activity, but at the moment it can’t.
This could be for many reasons, including an outside
temperature requirement or too few rooms allowed to be
conditioned.
Starting
Circulation
Preparing to start a circulation cycle.
Circulating Using circulation to balance room temperatures and avoid
heating or cooling.
Starting
Heating
Preparing to start a heating cycle.
Heating Performing a heating cycle.
Ending
Heating
The furnace has stopped but warm airflow continues while the
furnace cools.
Quiet
Heating
One or more rooms in the current heating cycle are set to
Quiet mode.
Starting
Cooling
Preparing to start a cooling cycle.
Cooling Performing a cooling cycle.
Ending Cooling The air conditioner has stopped but cool airflow
continues while the air conditioner warms.
Quiet Cooling One or more rooms in the current cooling cycle are set
to Quiet mode. The system opens more vents to reduce
airflow noise.
All Off The system was turned off.
High Heating For multistage equipment, using the high stage to heat
the home.
Aux Heating For multistage equipment, using secondary heating to
meet current heating needs.
High Cooling For multistage equipment, using the high stage to cool
the home.
Quiet High
Heating
For multistage equipment, using the high stage to heat
the home with one or more rooms set to Quiet mode.
Quiet Aux
Heating
For multistage equipment, using secondary heating to
meet current heating needs with one or more room set
to Quiet mode.
Quiet High
Cooling
For multistage equipment, using the high stage to cool
the home with one or more rooms set to Quiet mode.

19
You can choose one of three thermostat modes to control your home’s
temperature, as follows:
Basic: This is the simplest mode. Basic mode allows you to set a lower
limit and an upper limit for the entire house. The system applies your
settings to all rooms in the house, but only conditions rooms that go
outside their limits.
Programmable: Similar to Basic mode in that it applies settings to all
rooms in the house. However, in this mode you define comfort schedules
based on time of day and day of week. This allows you to save energy
because, for example, you can set the system to condition less while you’re
asleep or at work. The possibilities for cost savings extend to anytime your
room usage patterns change and anytime seasonal changes and other
circumstances affect your comfort schedule.
Programmable Zones: Same as Programmable mode, except
that now you can group rooms into zones with their own comfort
schedules based on time of day and day of week. This allows you to
customize your home based on room usage patterns.
Selecting a Thermostat Mode
To set the thermostat mode, press System on the home screen, and
then select either Basic, Programmable, or Programmable
Zones. As shown above, Programmable Zones mode is selected.
(continued)