Holiday home heating control over the internet

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  • dkleeman
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Apr 2012
    • 20

    Holiday home heating control over the internet

    I would welcome advice about controlling a holiday home heating system via the internet. The house has permanent broadband internet and is in a poor area for mobile coverage. It does have a Vodafone Sure Signal femtocell so mobiles devices will work but really the signal is going over the internet.

    There is an underfloor heating system with a proprietory controller, which is hard to replace, but it can be overridden with a single relay that will effectively enable or disable the system.

    I have seen SMS control boxes that have two relays in them and tell you their status. This is an option, if I use Vodafone, but I thought it might make sense to try to get the same simple functionality using the internet. I do not really need to put automation anywhere else in the house, so I think that I am after a simple internet gateway that can switch a couple of relays and let me know the status. If it could tell me the temperature of a wireless thermometer too that would be a bonus.

    I was wondering if Z-Wave could do this with a Mi Casa Verde Vera Lite - Z-Wave / Internet Gateway, a Fibaro FGS211 Switch Insert and an Everspring ST814 Temperature / Humidity Detector?

    Or mabybe there is something simpler like the Global Cache iTach IP2CC Wired TCP/IP to Contact Closure/Relay (link).

    Does anyone have any advice?

    [crossposted in heating forum]
  • ianh100
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Dec 2005
    • 21

    #2
    Hi, I am actually looking to do exactly the same, I would like to be able to check and set the thermostat and turn hot water on and off.

    You can get a WiFi device from heatmiser, this looks to be the cheapest and simplest I have found so far but does nto quite do what I need to do. Costs look to be about £160

    I have looked at Z-Wave but the price soon starts to rack up when you only want heating control. I was very interested in using Z-wave as I wanted a z-wave lock as well but the euro frequency locks look pretty poor in comparison with what you can get in the US.

    I was talking to the guys from lightwave RF at the gadget show, they will have a thermostat that can be controlled via their gateway shipping in a few months. Cost of the gateway and thermostat less than £200.

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    • ianh100
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Dec 2005
      • 21

      #3
      Update

      Just a quick update, I installed the Heatmiser solution a few months ago as I needed hot water control as well as heating. The solution was easy to set up and has been rock solid so far. I have also configured some open source software on a Raspberry PI, this allows me to see what the heating system does over time, in particular when my guests feel the need to turn up the heating!

      More on the software here http://chris.gg/2012/07/how-to-set-u...-raspberry-pi/

      I will be getting a Zwave system installed in my main property soon but that is part of an integrated energy management system.

      Regards

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