Wear-leveling for components of an auxiliary heat source

摘要

In at least some embodiments, an air handler includes a coil and a fan. The air handler also includes an auxiliary heat source having a plurality of heat elements. The auxiliary heat source implements a wear-leveling algorithm to cycle use of the heat elements over multiple auxiliary heat cycles.

主权项

1. An air handler, comprising:
an auxiliary heat source having a plurality of heat element relays, wherein each heat element relay is associated with at least one heat element; and a controller configured to:
receive a heat request from a thermostat;access wear-tracking information for each of the plurality of heat element relays, wherein the wear-tracking information comprises the number of auxiliary heat cycles for which each of the plurality of heat element relays has been energized;generate a control signal to energize a first heat element relay of the plurality of heat element relays that comprises the lowest number of auxiliary heat cycles for which the first heat element has been energized; anddetermine whether a heat element fault exists, wherein in response to determining that a heat element fault exists, generating, by the controller, a control signal to energize a next heat element relay of the plurality of heat element relays that comprises the next lowest number of auxiliary heat cycles for which the next heat element relay has been energized.