HouseHeat system

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  • IanJ
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Oct 2008
    • 6

    #46
    ...Just had a look at the HouseHeat section on "My Greener Home' following the previous post, which appears to be deliberately misleading...

    'My Greener Home' is not the main UK site for HouseTech's HouseHeat range - 'My Greener Home' is clearly a third-party re-seller...

    Also, the products are more expensive than buying direct from HouseTech...

    Comment

    • toscal
      Moderator
      • Oct 2005
      • 2061

      #47
      Came across this posting in DIYnot.com forums for the house heat system.
      IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
      Renovation Spain Blog

      Comment

      • IanJ
        Automated Home Lurker
        • Oct 2008
        • 6

        #48
        Hi Toscal,

        I might be able to throw some light on these points as I bought some HouseHeat stuff...

        1. The valve actuators look fine on UK rads ... in my opinion, more discreet than mounted at the top of the radiators, where they would be more 'in your face'...

        2. There is definitely centralised programming in the form of either the HouseMaster product, or 'PC Connect', although I can't comment in detail on these as I didn't go for either - I was happy to program each individual HouseHeat zone stat - not really a problem unless you have many, many zones

        3. I also looked hard at the Honeywell system. However, it is significantly more expensive than the system from HouseTech, and the functionality seems largely identical. Since one of the benefits of a wireless zoned heating-control system is cost savings (in addition to increased heating comfort/flexibility and reduction of CO2 emissions), it seemed a bit self-defeating to pay a lot of money for a system which is supposed to save money.

        Hope this helps,

        ATB

        Ian

        Comment

        • toscal
          Moderator
          • Oct 2005
          • 2061

          #49
          And I have been doing some more investigating.
          And it seems that you can do more than just control the rads. Don't know if the House Heat is compatible but looking at the rad actuators they seem identical. Have a look here www.homematic.com still seems as if they are working on the site. But it looks quite good. Don't know if it will be a success in the market.
          The House Intelligence website also has more info on the system as well. http://www.house-intelligence.co.uk/...ent/homematic/
          IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
          Renovation Spain Blog

          Comment

          • martynwendon
            Automated Home Sr Member
            • Feb 2009
            • 57

            #50
            took the plunge

            A couple of months back I got a single Thermostat Control and Rad Actuator and was pretty impressed with it.

            I'm now up to 4 Thermostat Controls / Rad Actuators and have just received the PC Connect hardware (FHZ1300PC) which allows control from a PC.

            The supplied software is pretty cr*p so I've been investigating alternatives, which are pretty thin on the ground. There's a DLL available as mentioned earlier in this thread for developing your own but it relies on the original software being installed which the DLL then "controls" via Windows API calls.....pretty cr*p too!!


            Happily though I've discovered http://www.koeniglich.de/fhem/fhem.html which I've managed to get working with the hardware. FHEM is a pretty basic piece of HA software, but it seems to work very well with the FHZ hardware and allows full control / event reporting of the Thermostat Controls, not to mention many other bits of kit that use the FHZ protocol.

            All in all I'm quite impressed, the FHZ1300PC is sat in Node Zero (garage) in a closed rack and it has no problems so far in picking up signals from the 4 Thermostat Controls. It's great to have central control over the radiators and be able to set all the parameters for each TC from one location!

            There's a TCP/IP interface available to FHEM so I'm going to code up a xAP or xPL gateway to it, which should open the HouseHeat stuff being controllable from a whole host of other software.

            My immediate plan is to start managing the radiators "intelligently" and control the heating in response to other environmental information (e.g. front door open for more than a minute, turn off radiator in hall, when door closed ramp up radiator temporarily to restore warmth, then drop down again once temperature is restored).


            Cheers,

            Martyn
            My Blog

            Comment

            • jtuggey
              Automated Home Lurker
              • Mar 2009
              • 6

              #51
              FHZ1350PC & HTTP server

              I've taken the plunge and ordered FHT80B & FHT8V together with the houseController from HouseIntelligence.
              I was looking at the ?manufacturers website (contronics) and I noticed they supply the FHZ1350PC rather than FHZ1000PC. Is there any significant difference between these two versions?

              Secondly; Contronics are advertising a http server (software only) at €49; damn sight cheaper than the WebConnect including PC etc. Does anyone have any experience of the http server? Thanks!

              Comment

              • martynwendon
                Automated Home Sr Member
                • Feb 2009
                • 57

                #52
                Hi,

                The 1350 is ethernet the 1000 and 1300 are USB.

                Although the picture on the HI web site is of the 1000, I received a 1300.

                I tried the HTTP server software but it's similar to the DLL that's also available in that it simply "controls" the underlying original software....it's all very clunky to be honest!

                I've got FHEM setup and running well now, it's perl based so maybe not everybody's cup of tea but it offers web and telnet interfaces for control / reporting.

                It's all working rather well at the moment!


                Martyn
                My Blog

                Comment

                • jtuggey
                  Automated Home Lurker
                  • Mar 2009
                  • 6

                  #53
                  Househeat & Myson TRV's

                  Hi all,
                  Been very impressed with the HouseHeat system. Connected via FHZ1350 and starting to setup a linux mini-server (NSLU2) to offer greater control. The only disappointment is that the housecontroller does not control the whole house - rather can select individual zones (rooms); would be good to have a 'house function' for holiday mode; override automatic/manual etc.
                  My room controllers keep flashing F2 on some radiators (indicating valve/actuator not fitting) - interestingly though no problems with other TRV's which are all Myson. I will contact HouseHeat for some advice...

                  Anybody had similar experiences? The manual suggests need 1mm extension pieces - where are they?

                  Comment

                  • al1234567
                    Automated Home Lurker
                    • Jul 2009
                    • 5

                    #54
                    Hi Martyn, did you get anywhere with the xAP or XPL gateway? I'd like to control these via HomeSeer if possible.

                    Comment

                    • martynwendon
                      Automated Home Sr Member
                      • Feb 2009
                      • 57

                      #55
                      Originally posted by al1234567 View Post
                      Hi Martyn, did you get anywhere with the xAP or XPL gateway? I'd like to control these via HomeSeer if possible.
                      Sort of, I've got a working implementation that currently will report all attributes of the FHTs as xAP BSC endpoints - it will send .info and .event messages appropriately.

                      It will also respond to .query messages to request current values of attributes.

                      I didn't get as far as implementing .cmd yet, but will do when I get some free time - not much motivation to do it at the moment since it's summer time and the heating isn't in use currently!

                      You're welcome to try it, there's a couple of caveats:

                      1) It's written in perl and requires a working install of FHEM (http://www.koeniglich.de/fhem/fhem.html) first since it talks to FHEM over it's telnet interface. I did consider writing a plugin for FHEM itself or even dispensing with FHEM and making a direct xAP<->FHZ Windows application / service but the telnet interface to FHEM was a quicker route to take since it's XML based and I already had some perl code for a different project that was 50% towards what was needed. Plus installing FHEM gives a reasonably functional web interface to control the system too and makes it really easy to change settings on multiple FHTs for example.

                      2) It's pretty easy to set up but you would need a working perl install too (I run both FHEM and xAP FHEM on a Windows PC using ActiveState perl).

                      3) When running it runs as a cmd process on Windows since that's what perl.exe runs as (couldn't get it to run under wperl.exe for some reason).


                      Other than that it's been rock solid running for the past couple of months and I've got the FHTs on xAP Floorplan showing room temperatures and radiator valve % opened / closed values.



                      Cheers,

                      Martyn
                      My Blog

                      Comment

                      • al1234567
                        Automated Home Lurker
                        • Jul 2009
                        • 5

                        #56
                        Hi, yes I'd like to take a look please if possible... I've ordered the PC connect and a couple of valves to play with.

                        cheers,

                        Al

                        Comment

                        • Kevin
                          Moderator
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 558

                          #57
                          Sounds good Martyn - I think I'll get some bits too shortly so I'll be in touch then, too - you never know it might coincide with your xAPBSC.cmd implementation ;-)

                          Comment

                          • fredd500
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Jun 2009
                            • 29

                            #58
                            I have come across what looks like the same system at Conrad Electronics. It is somewhat cheaper than House-Intelligence. Does anyone have any experience with this supplier? Is the system the same thing? Typically, I found them a couple of days late having just placed an order for my first bits of kit from HI (an actuator, a thermostat, the USB interface and a boiler interlock). If this is the same stuff, I assume I shouldn't have a problem adding it to my system when I come to add more rooms should I?
                            Chris

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

                            Comment

                            • martynwendon
                              Automated Home Sr Member
                              • Feb 2009
                              • 57

                              #59
                              I'm pretty sure it's the same kit.....

                              If the prices are correct then it's an absolute steal, e.g. at HI the price of a thermostat controller and actuator is £76 delivered!

                              Martyn

                              Originally posted by fredd500 View Post
                              I have come across what looks like the same system at Conrad Electronics. It is somewhat cheaper than House-Intelligence. Does anyone have any experience with this supplier? Is the system the same thing? Typically, I found them a couple of days late having just placed an order for my first bits of kit from HI (an actuator, a thermostat, the USB interface and a boiler interlock). If this is the same stuff, I assume I shouldn't have a problem adding it to my system when I come to add more rooms should I?
                              My Blog

                              Comment

                              • al1234567
                                Automated Home Lurker
                                • Jul 2009
                                • 5

                                #60
                                Wow, prices look good! Looking at the manual for the Conrad ones, there is an option to display the current temperature on the FHT rather than the desired temperature. I don't see this option on the House Intelligence units.

                                Anyone managed to get their HI units to display the measured temp?

                                Comment

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