HouseHeat system

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  • inqie
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Jan 2010
    • 7

    Originally posted by autolog View Post
    The problem I was having with CRCs is I think due to a bug in Linux (see this thread - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/655868)

    My solution was to install an older Linux build (version 2.6.28-19-ixp4xx #66-Ubuntu) pending this issue being fixed.
    Ooh thanks for that. I'm just about to migrate my FHEM setup to a new server so I'll have to watch out for this one.

    Comment

    • wywywywy
      Automated Home Sr Member
      • Dec 2005
      • 86

      Hi.

      I have read the entire thread but I am now even more confused!

      Currently I have a system boiler with a programmer, an analogue thermostat, and 6 radiators/rooms that I want to control. Standalone to start with, replacing the current programmer, then add PC control from my home server later on when everything is working.

      So do I buy...
      5 x Radio thermostat FHT 80BTF saving set Part no.: 646463 - 89 (£60 each)
      1 x Wireless heating control FHZ1000, 1 room Part no.: 617500 - 89 (£80 each)
      1 x Heat relays FHT 8 W Part no: 560098 - LN (£85 each)
      1 x FHZ 1300 Radio Home Centre PC Part no.: 620371 - 89 (£130 each, eventually)
      Is this right?

      But, what is the difference between a FHT80B and a FHZ1000? Do I really need a FHZ1000?

      Is there a kit with FHT 80B plus the TRV, without the window sensor? Just to save on cost. Their search isn't helping.

      Forgetting the USB interface, the total price is dangerously close to a Honeywell CM Zone system isn't it? In terms of reliability, is there any difference between the two?

      And also, how is it going to control hot water? Or am I going to have to keep the programmer?

      By the way Conrad's website is really rubbish in finding stuff!

      Thanks.

      Comment

      • russell_allen
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Oct 2010
        • 25

        As a minimum to properly get you started, you'll need 1 of these per zone you want to control:



        You need 1 of these per radiator:



        You then need:

        1. A computer controller (FHZ1300 or a Busware CUL1100 device for around 40 quid, see my blog for more on this)
        2. A boiler controller (FHT8W)

        Hope that clarifies?

        Russ
        Last edited by russell_allen; 22 November 2010, 10:38 AM.
        Russell's Home Automation Blog

        Comment

        • wywywywy
          Automated Home Sr Member
          • Dec 2005
          • 86

          Thanks. Especially the tip about the Busware CUL. Very interesting info, but will probably be a bit more time consuming than I had originally anticipated.

          So I *don't* need a FHZ1000, right?

          Thanks.

          Comment

          • russell_allen
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Oct 2010
            • 25

            The FHZ1000 is a central control unit that I believe allows you to from ONE unit control all of the thermostats centrally, if you're happy to manually program each room, and if you're going on holiday manually turn 'em all off, then you don't need it.
            Russell's Home Automation Blog

            Comment

            • autolog
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Dec 2009
              • 24

              Originally posted by wywywywy View Post
              So I *don't* need a FHZ1000, right?
              AFAIK you can only use one of either a FHZ1000 or a FHZ1300 as the FHT80B can only connect to one central device. So if you want to use PC control via the FHZ1300 then you can't use the FHZ1000 - something I discovered after I had bought one - my FHZ1000 is now gathering dust

              Comment

              • russell_allen
                Automated Home Jr Member
                • Oct 2010
                • 25

                Originally posted by autolog View Post
                my FHZ1000 is now gathering dust
                Can I just enquire, how much would you want for me to buy / borrow this off you for a few weeks?

                I'm using a CUL device to connect to my system, and I'm concerned that this may allow me to bypass the normal security of 1 device per controller. Good in that I can potentially make use of the device, bad in that it potentially means a CUL device can talk to any FHT install without a security layer!

                Russ
                Russell's Home Automation Blog

                Comment

                • autolog
                  Automated Home Jr Member
                  • Dec 2009
                  • 24

                  Originally posted by russell_allen View Post
                  Can I just enquire, how much would you want for me to buy / borrow this off you for a few weeks?
                  Replied via PM

                  Comment

                  • RoMania
                    Automated Home Lurker
                    • Feb 2011
                    • 5

                    Hello,

                    I am trying to find out how is the FHT 8W (heat relay) installed?
                    I saw the input is 220V, and I guess the output is the same.

                    How does it connect to a boiler which uses a cylinder for hot water? For example: http://www.vaillant.co.uk/homeowners...System-boilers

                    Comment

                    • fredd500
                      Automated Home Jr Member
                      • Jun 2009
                      • 29

                      I am no sparky so take proper advice before installing one of these, but for what it is worth, it is just a relay. You need a 240v supply to power it, but beyond that, I think it just switches what you give it. I wired mine in as a direct replacement to the timer/programmer that was there already but my boiler is a combi so I don't have to worry about providing control for the water heating part of the system (it is controlled automatically when I turn a tap on)

                      If you go to the Conrad site, you should be able to download the manual.

                      HTH
                      Chris
                      Chris

                      Automating my home in a family friendly way - My blog: http://www.cpmills.com/

                      Comment

                      • Jasper Warwick
                        Automated Home Lurker
                        • Nov 2008
                        • 5

                        An update on my experiences with the HouseHeat System; Over the last couple of years I have been gradually adding more HouseHeat controls to the central heating system in our 4 story house. We now have 6 room controls and 10 radiator valves. On the whole it has been a pretty painless experience, the batteries seem to last about two years which is very reasonable and they have made big savings in our fuel bills I would say we have cut our gas usage by about 20,000 Kw hours per year (£700) over the last 4 years. OK not all of this is down to the HouseHeat System, some of it is doing things like not heating the hall, keeping doors closed, having the windows professionally draft proofed. The system does require quite a bit of maintenance and checking to make sure it is working properly, programs get messed up and sometimes radiators loose the connection to the control box but all in all the effort is not that great and the benefits are huge. Generally I spend a little bit of time at the start of the autumn checking the system and then it tends to run smoothly for the rest of the winter.

                        The big change this year was the addition of the FHT 8W BoilerConnect box which links the individual room thermostats to the master boiler thermostat. I had put off adding this for a couple of years as I wa snot sure how tricky it would be to install and they were also over £200. This year I found that the price had dropped to under £100 so I took the risk and bought one. Installing it was a doddle I replaced the old central heating thermostat with the control box on the middle landing. I was planning to move it to the boiler cupboard but I am glad I now left it in full view. Programming it was very straight forward.

                        We have now started to use it on a day to day basis and I now wish I had bought one ages ago. The house is always warm and the boiler never seems to be running. I now leave the central heating on all the time and just use the timers on the room thermostats to control the boiler at night when I go to bed a quick visual glance at the control box tells me if I have forgotten to turn down one of the room thermostats and shows me which zones are requesting heat from the boiler.

                        Our central heating pump was also getting a bit noisy so I had it replaced with a variable speed pump which was about £70 more than the traditional pump but again it will more than pay for itself over the lifetime of the pump in terms of the reduced electricity that it it will use.

                        All in all I am very pleased with the system.

                        Comment

                        • Benn
                          Automated Home Lurker
                          • Oct 2012
                          • 1

                          Fht 8w

                          Originally posted by Jasper Warwick View Post
                          An update on my experiences with the HouseHeat System; Over the last couple of years I have been gradually adding more HouseHeat controls to the central heating system in our 4 story house. We now have 6 room controls and 10 radiator valves. On the whole it has been a pretty painless experience, the batteries seem to last about two years which is very reasonable and they have made big savings in our fuel bills I would say we have cut our gas usage by about 20,000 Kw hours per year (£700) over the last 4 years. OK not all of this is down to the HouseHeat System, some of it is doing things like not heating the hall, keeping doors closed, having the windows professionally draft proofed. The system does require quite a bit of maintenance and checking to make sure it is working properly, programs get messed up and sometimes radiators loose the connection to the control box but all in all the effort is not that great and the benefits are huge. Generally I spend a little bit of time at the start of the autumn checking the system and then it tends to run smoothly for the rest of the winter.

                          The big change this year was the addition of the FHT 8W BoilerConnect box which links the individual room thermostats to the master boiler thermostat. I had put off adding this for a couple of years as I wa snot sure how tricky it would be to install and they were also over £200. This year I found that the price had dropped to under £100 so I took the risk and bought one. Installing it was a doddle I replaced the old central heating thermostat with the control box on the middle landing. I was planning to move it to the boiler cupboard but I am glad I now left it in full view. Programming it was very straight forward.

                          We have now started to use it on a day to day basis and I now wish I had bought one ages ago. The house is always warm and the boiler never seems to be running. I now leave the central heating on all the time and just use the timers on the room thermostats to control the boiler at night when I go to bed a quick visual glance at the control box tells me if I have forgotten to turn down one of the room thermostats and shows me which zones are requesting heat from the boiler.

                          Our central heating pump was also getting a bit noisy so I had it replaced with a variable speed pump which was about £70 more than the traditional pump but again it will more than pay for itself over the lifetime of the pump in terms of the reduced electricity that it it will use.

                          All in all I am very pleased with the system.
                          Hi Jasper,

                          Very interesting. I have invested in several room controls and the FHZ 1000 control. I was wondering whether to go the whole hog and buy a boiler connect box to control my Worcester Bosch 42 cdi combi boiler and replace the Boss therm BPS 242RF controller but wondered how tricky the wiring in would be. You say it was easy?

                          Did you purchase a FS20 AS1 switching receiver or did you wire from FHT 8W to your boiler?

                          Comment

                          • lostboy
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Nov 2009
                            • 11

                            I've been a Househeat user for almost three years now, with 16 zones over three floors in a Victorian brick built house. Most zones are single rad/actuator per FHT80B, but one has four rads and another has two. I've had to use two FHT8W to provide the boiler control (max 10 zones each), wired direct to the boiler instead of a thermostat/timeswitch. They offer a volt free contact capable of handling 240v, so I wired them in parallel (if any one FHT8W calls for heat the boiler will react). Please note that most boilers will provide 240v to these contacts so you must either be comfortable in wiring mains voltages, or get an electrician.

                            The FHT8Ws are sited in the basement in the middle of the house and pick up the signals from all floors quite happily. The only reason for using an FS20 I can see is if you have trouble receiving all the signals at the boiler location, which might be the case if the boiler is in an out-house or garage. In which case you could use the FHT8W to FS20 link as a transmission relay. I use FHEM and an FHZ1300 to monitor what's going on, and for occasional setting adjustments. This takes care of adjusting any time drift on each thermostat and daylight saving time changes. I monitor the FS20 radio signals from the FHT8W so can see when the boiler demand is on. I've set all the FHT8W demand limits to 15% actuator opening.

                            I believe that the combination of the FHT8W and the in room FHT8 equipment in sufficient zones (with TRVs elsewhere if needed) fulfils the minimum heating control requirements in the "Domestic Heating Compliance Guide". Although no-one's likely to know, the replacement of a control element seems to fall under the provisions of the requirements.

                            I've found the system reliable overall and battery life generally about two years, although I've just replaced a number of batteries which were the original ones after 33 months of use. The equipment does let you know when it's time to replace the batteries, the actuators complain audibly, but intermittently (so it's difficult to track down in a house with 20 actuators), whilst the thermostats have a visual display. Thankfully the battery low warnings also appear on the FHEM collected data.

                            Chris

                            Comment

                            • Jasper Warwick
                              Automated Home Lurker
                              • Nov 2008
                              • 5

                              Originally posted by Benn View Post
                              Hi Jasper,

                              Very interesting. I have invested in several room controls and the FHZ 1000 control. I was wondering whether to go the whole hog and buy a boiler connect box to control my Worcester Bosch 42 cdi combi boiler and replace the Boss therm BPS 242RF controller but wondered how tricky the wiring in would be. You say it was easy?

                              Did you purchase a FS20 AS1 switching receiver or did you wire from FHT 8W to your boiler?
                              I would really recommend getting the boiler connect box. In my case the wiring was very simple, I just replaced the main house C/H thermostat with the boiler control box. It took about two hours from start to finish. Basically the box needs a mains lead to power it and the C/H switch lead back to the boiler, from what I remember there was a single 240 live cable, a neutral cable and the boiler control line. I ran the 240v and neutal into the boiler box power connector then took a spur off the 240v into the boiler relay and connected the boiler control line to the other terminal of the relay. Works perfectly!

                              I didn't use the switching receiver as the boiler control box is in the middle of the house so there are no signal problems.

                              Jasper.

                              Comment

                              • vetinry
                                Automated Home Lurker
                                • Aug 2011
                                • 8

                                As per my other thread, I am currently evaluating a few options for my house. If I choose to go for the househeat system, do I need to have more than one boiler control unit to control my zone valves, which themselves switch the boiler and the pump. I think that I will leave my UFH zone alone because it is working well, and just focus on the upstairs and downstairs zones.
                                I'm still not absolutely sure of the differences between the FS20 system (eg which thermostat allows display of actual temp / two way signalling) and HomeMatic. Does HomeMatic allow boiler control either with a specific controller or via a switched actuator.
                                And I like the idea of being able to centrally control the system. What can I do via controllers, pc, ipad etc
                                Thanks
                                Steve

                                Comment

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