I have purchased one of those thermostats to test with my Vera Edge and it is not behaving as expected.
I should first say that I have not connected it to my heating system yet, as I figured I should be able to add it to my network and test the communication while running on batteries before I unplug an existing thermostat. Maybe it needs to be connected before it can work at all, in which case this post is moot.
Anyway it looks like pairing it with the network worked. It has configured itself as a thermostat with the appropriate controls. When I send a command to it from the UI 7 Control Panel, I get the “SUCCESS! transmit was OK” message back but the thermostat does not react. Nothing changes on the display.
If I try to send a poll message, I just get a “polling failed” message.
Can someone who is using this type of thermostat help me out? Or is it simply that it has to be connected to my 24 volt system before I can expect any response from it?
These CT30 will operate as battery powered and hardwired.
As battery powered they are very very very weak, I could not get them to work properly. They tend to not wake up from sleep (Power saving).
As hardwired, (Encluded or Paired, with 24 v supplied to thermostat), they work well, PROVIDED that you have the later z-wave firmware module.
There is a method to determine Z-wave module firmware and battery or hardwire powered status from the touchpanel. Google the method, or I will post later. (I believe you press upper left corner until it shows firmware #, an “R” after the number indicates battery powered)
Ok, that explains why it took a number of attempts before it would pair with the network. If you do have a link to instructions how to find the firmware version number, please post here. I read somewhere that with earlier firmware versions it would work fine if paired on battery power and then connected to 24 volts AC, which is why I have included it before connecting it at the wall.
So I got it mounted and connected. I have it connected (W terminal) to an actuator which opens the valve to allow water to flow through my floor heating system.
It seems to work, at least in terms of activating the heating - the floor does become warm.
But I am struggling a bit with understanding the actual operation of the thermostat. Blame this on the fact that I am European and not familiar with U.S. thermostat standards.
For instance, there are three operation modes: heat, cool, and off. What is the normal mode of operation in my case when there is only heating? And why is there an “off” mode? Does “off” just mean that the thermostat is powered off and not regulating the system? And why would anyone want to power off a thermostat? And it’s not turned completely off anyway, the display is still active. :-X
Right now I have it set to “heat” which seems the most logical to me. The attached image shows what the thermostat looks like in UI7 mobile.
As you can see I have the target temperature set to 22 degrees Celsius. However, the display on the thermostat shows 21.5 so it is off by half a degree. This is consistent so whatever temperature I set remotely, the thermostat shows half a degree lower. Any idea why this happens? Could it be some parameter setting?
The instruction manual isn’t helping much, again probably because I am not familiar with American HVAC standards.
I purchased this one as a test in order to find out if I could use American thermostats in my scenario. Now that I have proven this as a fact, I need 8 more so I went out on a limb and purchased a set of 8 used RCS TZ45 thermostats off of eBay. Amazing how you can get these originally very expensive items for almost nothing.
Cool - regulates room temperature by calling for cooling
Heat - regulates room temperature by calling for heat.
Off - no regulating of room temperature.
There is a setting for “Swing” which is the amount of difference in degrees from the “Setpoint” IE 22 before the thermostat calls for heat. It is always more then 1 degree. The display temperature can be calibrated.
Thanks. I have no problems with the firmware issue because I did include the thermostat before connecting the C wire.
I understand the swing setting, but should not the set point on the thermostat display show the same value that I set by way of the Vera?
[quote=“litby, post:6, topic:190342”]Thanks. I have no problems with the firmware issue because I did include the thermostat before connecting the C wire.
I understand the swing setting, but should not the set point on the thermostat display show the same value that I set by way of the Vera?[/quote]
The units I have do differ by .5 degrees at times.
If you get communication errors, un-pair the thermostat and re-included as a powered device. Made a world of difference for me.
Including as a battery powered device was what caused my communication problems, the distances were not far, but the thermostat would go deaf after entering sleep. If I manually changed something on the thermostat, communication would work until it entered sleep again.
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