Hi, I really appreciate all of the information within the forum, there is some really useful guides and tips.
I am building a Multi-Zone Heating Control System using Secure Thermostat and Controller for the main area and then vThermostats, Multi-Sensors and eTVRs in each room. Using Pleg to do most of the logic within Vera UI7.
I would like to give something back to the Forum so I was doing to document each step including all of the PLEG logic etc.
Before I jump in does anyone have such a thing already ?
Would anyone like to volunteer to work with me on this?
I’m starting down a similar route. I was browsing the forum to see if anyone had set up a multi zone system using two or more Secure/Horstmann thermostats and a single boiler controller.
My house is long and thin. One end can be up to temperature and the other not, so I think that I need two or more thermostats. The boiler control will logically OR the output of the stats while TRVs at each radiator will locally control heat output. I realise that set points may be different for each zone so I might have to use Lua/PLEG to control these.
Do you, or anyone following this thread, have experience in using two or more Secure thermostats?
I live in a town house which is spread over 3 floors. Originally the wired thermostat was on the ground floor by the front door which was totally useless to control the rooms we occupy.
I now have Fibaro Motion sensors around the house and more importantly in the rooms we actually use. These are used to switch lights on, run scenes, security and the temperature for heating control.
I have the SSR302 (2 Channel Boiler Controller) and do not have any stats associated to it. I just select the room temperature i want the boiler to control to from imperihome with the use of PLEG and a multi switch. (Hot Water just runs on a schedule at the moment)
So far its been flawless heating the house to the desired set point. I will eventually add zone valves and give each room a set point etc.
Attached some Imperihome screen shots so get what I’m going on about.
Thanks for sharing your setup. I am brand new to home automation and to the MCV. I just got a Vera Plus, a Fibaro motion sensor and the same 2 channel receiver as you (the Secure SSR302) using Imperihome Pro on Android. Dabbling with PLEG but haven’t learnt much yet. I haven’t got a thermostat either and it seems I was trying to replicate your setup (without even knowing about it!). i am so glad you posted!
Could you help me with how you have set up the heating and hot water device widgets in the Imperihome screenshot (Screenshot_20161008-182030.PNG)?
I have created the same widget but chose the two default child devices of the receiver. The problem is mine has question marks instead of a temperature set point (see attachment). I understand this is the expected behaviour because the SSR302 doesn’t have a thermostat built-in. But how did you manage to get it to show the thermostat setpoint of 20C and 60C?
All I have done is put a value in the setpoint box through Vera when the heating is active. From there you can up and down the setpoint on imperihome by 1?C (This is adjustable to 0.1, 0.5 etc. On imperihome settings)
See Attached screen shot from my phone whilst travelling on a train home from work… Technology is cool “Sometimes”
Thanks, I got it set up. Indeed technology is cool!
Two things had caught me out: I didn’t know the boiler receiver’s child devices were treated as thermostats by Vera, and the temperature set-point fields in the web UI are not shown until the heating is turned on.
My plan is to set up zones using TRVs too. How would that work in theory? I assume each TRV would have a set-point and so the boiler receiver’s own setpoint needs to be ignored isn’t it? Whenever there’s a call for heat from a zone, the boiler would need to run irrespective of its own set-point. What would you then the boiler set-point to?
brownbr, sorry for going slightly off-topic! I am looking to create just the setup you described and I’m happy to do what I can with the stuff I have.
When you say your using TRV’s, would they also be Zwave devices?
If so, you could give them a local setpoint and when there’s a heat demand from either, you could use PLEG to use either demand to send the “HeatOn” command to the boiler controller child device.
With my setup, I’m using the boiler controller setpoint as my control setpoint in PLEG for whatever room I decide/select to use. So far this has been flawless with no hang ups. I did test it first to get it right before installing. The one thing extra I plan to do is add in the home/away mode and a coming home but, for this I need the geofencing to be reliable with 4 users. For me on my own with an android phone the geofencing has always worked but for some reason when I add my other half’s and 2 kids iPhones it doesn’t work reliably.
If your using separate setpoints on the TRV’s then the boiler controller setpoint can be ignored on the child device. As long as you send the “HeatOn” command to the boiler controller, the relay will energise. Just remember you have to send the “HeatOn” command say every 30mins if there is a heating demand so that the controller doesn’t de-energise the relay under it’s built in failsafe mode.
[quote=“RichDC, post:8, topic:192681”]When you say your using TRV’s, would they also be Zwave devices?
If so, you could give them a local setpoint and when there’s a heat demand from either, you could use PLEG to use either demand to send the “HeatOn” command to the boiler controller child device.[/quote]
Yes, when I get to adding zones. For now I am trying to replicate your system using PLEG.
A question if I may, I tried using the MultiSwitch plugin but Imperihome doesn’t seem to recognise the virtual devices. Which virtual switch plugin are you using as I can see yours do show in Imperihome?
I’m using the multiswitch plugin and imperihome pro.
If you have added the multiswitch in your Vera after initially setting up imperihome, you must refresh imperihome via the wizard so that imperihome pulls back newly added devices.
[quote=“RichDC, post:11, topic:192681”]I’m using the multiswitch plugin and imperihome pro.
If you have added the multiswitch in your Vera after initially setting up imperihome, you must refresh imperihome via the wizard so that imperihome pulls back newly added devices.
Richard.[/quote]
Thanks! I figured out that part eventually and have everything going as I want in PLEG using multiswitches:
A master control switch turns On or Off the automatic heating logic.
I have one set-point for the whole home for simplicity - this is set via the the boiler receiver’s central heating channel set-point.
One switch is called the “any call for heat” switch. If any zone is calling for heat, this switch goes On and in turn turns on the boiler central heating channel.
I have only one zone at the moment. This zone has a “calling for heat” switch - the switch is turned on if the temperature in the zone as reported by the Fibaro sensor is < the boiler central heating channel set-point.
How exactly do you handle the coding to send the keep-alive pulse to the boiler receiver? I have something going based on something I found on this forum, but curious to see how you do it.
