Radiator valves and ON/OFF command to the heater

Other Devices & Integrations Climate Control & Temperature Sensors
1

Hello to all. I’m new in the forum and I wish to buy a good z-wave controller.

The first use will be to control home heating.

I’m still benchmarking MCV Vera3 and HC2:

Main pros for HC" seems to be:

  1. Simplicity in accomplishing the “normal” tasks,
  2. HW aesthetic
  3. GUI aesthetic.
  4. GPS user localization (and, if I understand correctly, the ability to do task in function of the user distance from home)

The pro for MCV Vera3 seems to be:

  1. the fact you can write code to do anything, (but it seems in despite of ease of use…)
  2. WI-FI (I haven’t decided yet where to place the control center…)
  3. more compatibility with Z-wave device (accordingly to this page: http://www.vesternet.com/...e#.UmaHnRaUhFg)

Any suggestion to complete the banchmark will be appreciated even if I think there is some thread about this somewhere in the forum.

But at the moment I have some technical question.

Please forgive me if the question is trivial, but I’m a novice.

Now I have a gas heater with one unique zone and a thermostat in the living room.

I would like to install 12 radiator valves and setup 7-9 zones.

I would like to setup the controller for a hourly/weekly program with the desired temp for each zone, for each hour/day of the week.

Then I would like the controller could send every single program to each valve. I would like the valves has an own temp sensor and once they get the program from the controller they are able to open or close according to the program and the actual temp.
(It can be done either with weekly programmable radiator valves or by sending a new setpoint to the valve fron the controller when needed).

I would like to see from the controller GUI, and for each zone:
the programmed temp
the actual temp
the valve state

And, last wish, I would like to program the controller in manner that, when all the valves are closed, the controller could open a switch for stopping the heater (using the thermostat input of the heater).

I was looking to the Danfoss Living Connect, but they do not report the temp neither their status to the controller, so I cant read the state, the read temp, and I cant stop the heater.

Are there other Z-wave radiator valve that can report to the controller the read temp end their status?

If yes, will be possible to set up an OR statement in Vera 3 that will open a switch (like SSR303, or a cheaper one) when all valves are closed?

Thank you very much for your help!

Bye

Mauro.

2

It seems that at the moment exist only two TRV z-wave we can use with a standard z-wave controller:

Stella-Z
Danfoss Linving Z connect

The danfoss does not report the read temp nor the valve state to the controller, so the controller is not able to know if and when to switch off the heater. (I don’t want to add 7-9 (one per zone) temp sensors in addition to 12 TRVs!)

I’m not sure that the stellaz could report read temp and valve state to the controller.
And I’ve read that they are non compliant with a Fibaro HC2.

So, my last chance seems to be using VERA3 with Stellaz TRV.
Is anyone using this kit to control several zones?
Could someone confirm me that I could implement an OR statement (or scene or something else) that will cause a switch to open (stop the heater like using the heater thermostat input) when all valves are closed (read: no rooms need heating)?

Please help me… I want to start my home automation ASAP but I must solve this issue before.

THANK YOU!!!

3

Hi,
I’m in the same boat.
I’ve settled on the vera - seems to be a more active community than the hc2.
you’ve probably seen the report on the stella device: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,16915.0.html

I’m thinking of trying the same now myself.

Rob.

4

[quote=“robk, post:3, topic:177548”]Hi,
I’m in the same boat.
I’ve settled on the vera - seems to be a more active community than the hc2.
you’ve probably seen the report on the stella device: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,16915.0.html

I’m thinking of trying the same now myself.

Rob.[/quote]

Thank you Rob. I’m getting some reply also on HC2 (to be honest, more than here), but no solution yet.

Now I am evaluating two possible ways:

  1. HC2 with Danfoss, letting the heater managing its starts/stops with the internal thermostat
    main pros:
  • HC2 has (IMHO) e better gui and some features Vera doesn’t (i.e. geo)
  • better aestethic of the TRV
    main cons:
  • no control from the controller to the heater (that could mean less energy saving and shorter life of the heater)
  • no reading of the actual temp in the zones
  1. Vera 3 with stellaz (seems stellaz will not work with HC2)
    main pro:
  • control from the controller for the heater (if someone will confirm what I asked :“Could someone confirm me that I could implement an OR statement (or scene or something else) that will cause a switch to open (stop the heater using the heater thermostat input) when all valves are closed (read: no rooms need heating)?”)
  • reading of the actual temp in the zones (confirmations appreciated on this point too)
    main cons:
  • worst (again, IMHO) GUI
  • less features
  • worst aestethic of TRVs

Hope someone will add some helpful info…

I add an information that can be useful: my heater is a (very old) Vaillant VCW I 180 E. It should work with TRVs (the manual say to close the environment thermostat circuit in this case), and has 3 options for the pump:
p1) pump on/off managed by the environment thermostat
p2) pump on/off managed by internal heater thermostat
p3) pump always on

With solution 2 I think the best option will be p1
With solution 1 not sure wich option to choose to get the best tradeoff between energy saving, life lenght of the heater/pump and response time when a danfoss will open

Thank you for any further help.

Bye.

Mauro.