It’s zwave, but no details if you can incorporate it into a home automation setup, or like it’s previous zwave effort is only uses the zwave protocol in a closed way to talk between the base receiver and control.
I’ve emailed Horstmann, but no reply yet. Got to admit I’m getting pretty frustrated with the European thermostat situation - in my opinion any company that lists thermostat control with zwave in Europe is guilty of false advertising, 'cos it simply isn’t available, (unless you count Danfloss’s individual set back valves - and I don’t).
Update: Horstmann tell that, “At the present time this feature is not supported however it is something we are looking to implement going forwards once certain issues are overcome.” Hopefully they will, it would be a huge missed opportunity if they don’t - i’d have purchased their previous ASF model if it had had this facility, as I’m sure many other european vera owners would have too.
Hi Dave, i’m impressed! Everything I’ve read, and horstmann’s replies to my emails suggested this wasn’t possible!
Did you have to write any Lua code? or did it just work? Does it work well, can you read the temperature and alter the set-points?
If the answers yes, I’d love some help setting it up - the as2 isn’t too expensive, but I don’t want to buy and install one just to end up tearing my hair out in frustration!!
Cheers.
PS I still think Horstmann is missing a huge opportunity here - with so many choices in the US, you’d think they’d enable similar functions in their product over here - makes me think there could perhaps be some legal/patent issues outside the US on thermostat functionality?
There was an element of hair tearing! The Thermostat was installed by a plumber and “commissioned” by him, which basically pairs the Thermostat to the receiver. Unfortunately I’m not entirely sure how I got it to work. I bought a jumper cables from Maplin, connected the jumper on the back of the Thermostat (J7) and followed the instructions I had received from Horstmann. I think if I’d had the instructions from Horstmann I would have done the “commissioning” myself, the main issue seemed to be un-pairing the device, and then pairing with Vera, then re-pairing the the Thermostat and Receiver. I wish I had a walk-through that I could guarantee would work, but it can be done, and I can set set-points but there is no temperature display. I did no Lua coding, and more techie person than me may be able to do more. I posted screenshot in another post
Good luck, by the way, Horstmann clearly have someone in their tech department who understands all this, he’s just not “customer facing”! If it’s any help I contacted Steven Taylor STaylor@horstmann.co.uk who was helpful in passing my questions along.
No, I haven’t bought one yet, there seem to be a couple of UK frequency z wave thermostats just around the corner, (not holding my breath), whatever I buy needs to integrate seamlessly with Vera and SQ connect iphone app, so that the rest of the family can use it, not just me!
I’m not convinced this solution is going to fully meet my requirements - i only have two!
That I can set the set-point via Vera,
That Vera reports the temperature sensed by the thermostat.
As Dfhage confirms, it’s the latter that isn’t working.
All the US market thermostats can do both of these things through Vera, so there’s still hope for a future solution.
I looked at the Horstmann and decided the Zwave element was more for Horstmann’s benefit rather than as an open standard to be used by Zwave enthusiasts.
Decided to go for a temperature sensor (EZmotion 3in1) instead and do the thermostat bit within Vera itself.
It’s worked out well and has the advantage that the room temp can be varied according to time of day, overnight, away from the house, etc. Since it is also a PIR it can be used to set the temperature back a few degrees when nobody is in the room. Helps enormously with heating bills given today’s horrendous energy costs.
Just checked out Horstmann’s website and it looks as if a change has been made to the HRT4-ZW description!
Underlining is mine:
The HRT4-ZW is designed to be easy to install in combination with an ASR-ZW receiver to provide excellent control of room temperature. The HRT4-ZW does however incorporate further functionality that may be utilised by incorporation in a larger Z-Wave system. The HRT4-ZW may receive set point temperature messages from another controller and may be used as a temperature sensor. For technical information on interoperability, download HRT4-ZW THERMOSTAT MANUAL Z-WAVE INFORMATION from the downloads menu at the conclusion of this section.
That sounds as though we finally have a European thermostat that is of use with Vera! I’m writing to Horstmann to get confirmation, but I’m pretty hopeful given the description above. The price makes it a no brainer for UK Vera owners who want to control a CH boiler.
[quote=“terencec, post:12, topic:166748”]Decided to go for a temperature sensor (EZmotion 3in1) instead and do the thermostat bit within Vera itself.
It’s worked out well and has the advantage that the room temp can be varied according to time of day, overnight, away from the house, etc. Since it is also a PIR it can be used to set the temperature back a few degrees when nobody is in the room. Helps enormously with heating bills given today’s horrendous energy costs.[/quote]
hello,
how did you manage to switch on and off your boiler? which zwave tool did you use?
I’d like to do it that way as well, but haven’t figured out how to control the boiler from Vera…
Just ordered a HRT4-ZW after talking to a really helpful guy in Horstmann’s tech support, should arrive on Monday. Theoretically It will display the thermostat’s temperature measurement and allow me to set a set point via vera and sq connect.
Not yet Eric, but i’ve had a reply from Micasaverde suggesting that it will/should work with the forthcoming firmware update - which is due in the “next few days”, the email also said that if it didn’t work after the upgrade to contact them.
SO, i’ve kept the thermostat, hopefully It will work eventually.
I’ve mentioned in all my correspondence with Micasaverde that its in their interest to get this working, as it’s presently the only available stat for europe and other countries on the same 868.42 mhz frequency.
i’ll be annoyed if they don’t, but on the upside it’s a great stat, really simple, well designed and responsive. (it is a very simple on off at set point operation, no timers etc, so perfect of a zwave system once it’s working).