Closed-loop programming and control of a combustion appliance

An auto-programming control system for a combustion burner having a gas valve assembly and/or a fan that is controllable to provide a plurality of burner firing rates of the combustion burner, comprising:

• a controller configured to control an air-fuel ratio of a fluid flow to the combustion burner by controlling the gas valve assembly to control an amount of fuel that is provided to the combustion burner and/or controlling a fan speed of the fan to control an amount of air that is provided to the combustion burner;
• a memory in communication with the controller;
• and
• wherein the controller is configured to control the gas valve assembly of the combustion burner to fire the combustion burner at each of the plurality of burner firing rates, and at each of the plurality of burner firing rates the controller is configured to:
• set an initial air-fuel ratio setting;
• receive from one or more combustion sensors a measure of a combustion constituent exiting a combustion chamber of the combustion burner at the initial air-fuel ratio setting;
• determine a difference between the measure of the combustion constituent exiting the combustion chamber and a combustion constituent set point;
• adjust the air-fuel ratio setting until the difference between the measure of the combustion constituent exiting the combustion chamber and the combustion constituent set point is below a threshold, and then save to the memory the adjusted air fuel ratio setting and an association between the adjusted air-fuel ratio setting and the corresponding one of the plurality of burner firing rates;
• and
• move to a next burner firing rate of the plurality of burner firing rates and repeat.