I’m puzzling how to solve this situation. We have what is in Dutch called “stadsverwarming”, which should translate as “district heating”: a continuous flow of warm water supplied to our house. We now have a very simple manual 1-2-3 “thermostat” with which you open or close the warm water supply to the house. Additional all the rooms have radiator thermostats. I want to replace to radiotor knobs by Danfoss Living Connect. But I’m afraid there would still be warm water flowing even with all the radiators closed, because the main valve is opened (it will have to be to make the Danfoss work). Therefore I want to replace the manual main “thermostat” by an automatic valve and have it opened and closed by Vera. I’ve found that the Honeywell Y-VC8015 is able to do this (https://www.regelvisie.nl/pages/Woningen/zoneregeling/stadsverwarming/stadsverwarming.html, sorry only dutch). But that will have to be controlled as well. What switch, temperature reader or thermostat should be able to do this? Or is there even a simpler solution?
Welcome!
If the main valve is just open/close than you could perhaps use a Z-Wave relay to control it (and some temperature sensor). However, I think others have looked at actively controlling their heating with Vera (through programming) and a common theme seems to be the limited resolution of temperature values in Vera (i.e. full degrees). Some have resorted to non-Z-Wave temperature sensors (and appropriate Vera plug-in).
Perhaps a dedicated (Z-Wave) thermostat, that also allows you to control/override the schedule with Vera, is a better solution?
Thanks @oTi@ for your patience to understand my specific situation! I agree a thermostat should be the most appropriate way to control the valve. In the mean time I’ve found out from Honeywell that the valve needs an on/off switching potential-free contact - but even with the help of Google, I’m having a hard time understanding that and, more importantly, finding out if there is a z-wave thermostat that could do that. Also, as far as I know the only z-wave thermostat available for Europe at the moment is the HRT4-ZW. Does anyone know if the HRT4-ZW is an “on/off switching potential-free contact”?
For reference, in case you hadn’t found it yet: HRT4-ZW topic.
[quote=“marketing flyer”]HRT4-ZW with ASR-ZW receiver
Wireless Z-Wave electronic room thermostat and ASR-ZW receiver with TPI energy saving software - avoids disruptive and time consuming wiring - compatible with most heating systems. With proven Z-Wave wireless technology using the 868.42 MHz operating frequency, the thermostat unit features a constant RF status display with its receiver being mains powered with volt free contacts.[/quote]
Sounds promising?
The HRT4-ZW will work with stadsverwarming. By the way, do you have a digital meter on the heating system? If so, this meter measures the flow of water as well as the temperature of the inflowing and outflowing water to calculate the amount of Joules consumed. That’s what you are being charged for, so if all radiators are closed you pay nothing (except for a tiny amount of heat lost through the pipes)
This all helps very much, thanks! I’m first going to try the Danfoss’s alone, see how that works and then decide whether or not to control the main valve as well.