My house has a floor heating system with a thermostat in each room. Each thermostat is connected via a 3-wire cable (+24V, ground, output) to an actuator which opens a valve, allowing heated water to circulate through pipes under the floorboards.
The thermostat is powered by 24 volts DC from the actuator. When the thermostat is triggered, it simply connects the output terminal to +24V, signaling the actuator to open the valve.
I would like to replace all the thermostats with Z-wave units. Does anyone know of a Z-wave thermostat that will work in this scenario? Ideally using 24 volt power but even a battery operated one will work because all it needs to do is close a 24Vdc circuit.
My house has a floor heating system with a thermostat in each room. Each thermostat is connected via a 3-wire cable (+24V, ground, output) to an actuator which opens a valve, allowing heated water to circulate through pipes under the floorboards.
The thermostat is powered by 24 volts DC from the actuator. When the thermostat is triggered, it simply connects the output terminal to +24V, signaling the actuator to open the valve.
I would like to replace all the thermostats with Z-wave units. Does anyone know of a Z-wave thermostat that will work in this scenario? Ideally using 24 volt power but even a battery operated one will work because all it needs to do is close a 24Vdc circuit.[/quote]
I think the “DC” part is the killer.
All normal A/C or Heater thermostats are 24v “AC” that I know of here in the US.
[quote=“integlikewhoa”][quote=“litby, post:1, topic:190117”]Hi all,
My house has a floor heating system with a thermostat in each room. Each thermostat is connected via a 3-wire cable (+24V, ground, output) to an actuator which opens a valve, allowing heated water to circulate through pipes under the floorboards.
The thermostat is powered by 24 volts DC from the actuator. When the thermostat is triggered, it simply connects the output terminal to +24V, signaling the actuator to open the valve.
I would like to replace all the thermostats with Z-wave units. Does anyone know of a Z-wave thermostat that will work in this scenario? Ideally using 24 volt power but even a battery operated one will work because all it needs to do is close a 24Vdc circuit.[/quote]
I think the “DC” part is the killer.
All normal A/C or Heater thermostats are 24v “AC” that I know of here in the US.[/quote]
Now that you mention it, I am not sure if my thermostats use AC or DC voltage. I just assumed DC because of the low voltage. I will double check with the manufacturer.
Unfortunately I am in Europe where the available selection of thermostats is much smaller, and because of the difference in frequency importing US market devices is not an option.
[quote=“litby, post:3, topic:190117”]Now that you mention it, I am not sure if my thermostats use AC or DC voltage. I just assumed DC because of the low voltage. I will double check with the manufacturer.
Unfortunately I am in Europe where the available selection of thermostats is much smaller, and because of the difference in frequency importing US market devices is not an option.[/quote]
Can’t help you with the large body of water between us, but yeah here all of our thermostat’s are 24v ac coming from the air handler. So any one of the honeywells, trane, ct101 and such all will have extra functions (2 or 3 stage cooling and heating) you wont need but they will work and show a temp read out some will show outdoor temp also.
That is possible but I’m not sure if that’s the route you really want to go… Or the best route.
As devices over here are different, I’m sure over there you may have a different solution that I’m not aware of. Also how many of these thermostat’s are you going to need? Those can get costly.
Well, the total is 10 if I replace them all. But I could probably bring that down to 5 if I just do this for the main rooms.
So far I have not been able to find a European market thermostat that has just a simple binary output. All the ones I have seen are of the type which communicate with some sort of controller.
Netatmo makes a thermostat. Ties in with their weather station. I know there is an app for the weather station. Not sure if the therm would/could be tied in.
Also going to just mention sinope…because I am still waiting for them to tie in with Vera.
[quote=“Inzax”]Netatmo make a thermostat. Ties in with their weather station. I know there is an app for the weather station. Not sure it the therm would/could be tied in.
Also going to just mention sinope…because I am still waiting for them to tie in with Vera.[/quote]
Nothing about z-wave on their homepage.
It’s looking like my best route forward is to get a second hand U.S. Vera and some thermostats off of ebay and then bridge the 2 Veras.
And maybe confining the heating control system to its own dedicated controller is not such a bad idea.
If you want to dedicate heating to its own controller I would look hard at Sinope. I might go that direction myself. If the vera goes down, you could still have access. If Sinope finishes what they claim they are going to do, and become compatible with vera then you can take advantage of either interface.
Sinope downside: what if they go under? They have been around for awhile and seem stable. Do your research. There is a thread with a Sinope rep updating progress.
Netatmo thermostat would also be an independent interface. I was hoping their therm could be tweaked to work within vera.
My house has a floor heating system with a thermostat in each room. Each thermostat is connected via a 3-wire cable (+24V, ground, output) to an actuator which opens a valve, allowing heated water to circulate through pipes under the floorboards.
The thermostat is powered by 24 volts DC from the actuator. When the thermostat is triggered, it simply connects the output terminal to +24V, signaling the actuator to open the valve.
I would like to replace all the thermostats with Z-wave units. Does anyone know of a Z-wave thermostat that will work in this scenario? Ideally using 24 volt power but even a battery operated one will work because all it needs to do is close a 24Vdc circuit.[/quote]
I have almost exactly the same setup (underfloor water heating, different zones, Europena Z-Wave). The only difference is that the thermostats I had in the house provided 240VAC of current to open and close the actuators instead of your 24VAC. In any event, I am using the Qubino flush thermostats and they work. Much cheaper then any of the ‘smart’ thermostats out there, but you don’t get a wall display - you need to use your tablet/smart phone to see and change the thermostat. The only issue is that Vera doesn’t support them perfectly - you need to use the ‘Auto’ setting (not Heat) on the thermostat and Vera tech had to modify a variable to make sure the heat setpoint got set correctly, but since that got done a month ago, they’ve been working seamlessly.
Unfortunately I have to have the wall displays. No way I could get my wife to just use an app, she still walks around both floors of the house clicking on wall switches rather than just click once on the scene button outside the bedroom to run the good night scene. In the 18 months since we got started with Z-wave she has not even once used the wall mounted tablet in the kitchen to make use of the automation. ;D
I have purchased a Radio Thermostat CT30 off eBay. I am going to install it and test it in one of my rooms. If it works as a standalone thermostat with my system I am going to buy more of them plus a US frequency Vera and bridge it with my existing network.
[quote=“litby, post:13, topic:190117”]I have purchased a Radio Thermostat CT30 off eBay. I am going to install it and test it in one of my rooms. If it works as a standalone thermostat with my system I am going to buy more of them plus a US frequency Vera and bridge it with my existing network.
I will report back on[font=Verdana][size=78%] the results.[/size][/font][/quote]
That really isn’t such a good idea, you can expect problems with frequency jamming.
This is why there are different frequencies, think mobile phones for starters, emergency services for others.But if your Ok with having your phone [font=Verdana][/size][size=2px]jam up other Z Wave device then go for it.[/size][/font]
Unfortunately I have to have the wall displays. No way I could get my wife to just use an app, she still walks around both floors of the house clicking on wall switches rather than just click once on the scene button outside the bedroom to run the good night scene. In the 18 months since we got started with Z-wave she has not even once used the wall mounted tablet in the kitchen to make use of the automation. ;D
What you described is NOT automation … it is an alternate access method.
With Automation … there would be no need to click anything … it would do everything as expected.
That’s where you wife might like it. It turns on the lights as she comes home. As you move around the house lights come on/off as expected.
Lights that come on late at night because of motion are dimmed so as not to disturb others …
If you have multiple zones … the temperature there is set based on occupancy and/or normal schedules …
[quote=“zedrally”][quote=“litby, post:13, topic:190117”]I have purchased a Radio Thermostat CT30 off eBay. I am going to install it and test it in one of my rooms. If it works as a standalone thermostat with my system I am going to buy more of them plus a US frequency Vera and bridge it with my existing network.
I will report back on[font=Verdana][size=78%] the results.[/size][/font][/quote]
That really isn’t such a good idea, you can expect problems with frequency jamming.
This is why there are different frequencies, think mobile phones for starters, emergency services for others.But if your Ok with having your phone [font=Verdana][/size][size=2px]jam up other Z Wave device then go for it.[/size][/font][/quote]
Fair point, but I am not worried about that at all. I live out in the sticks and nothing around here uses the 900 MHz bands. The only mobile phone frequency usable in my area is 800 MHz LTE which has been specifically implemented by the providers to get better coverage. Some of the uplink frequencies in that band are very close to the European Z Wave frequency and would be as likely to cause interference as would GSM 900 with 908.42 MHz - and I have never had any such problems.
And if it does not work, I have not even wasted the $34 I paid for the thermostat because I can use it as a stand alone.
When I said automation I was referring to lighting, which is automated pretty much like you described. And I would certainly call pressing a button to activate a scene, which configures lighting for night time all across the house, automation.
My wife is a lawyer. What do you expect? ;D
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