Can someone offer advice on Zone heating - im clueless?

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  • mushymatt
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Sep 2013
    • 3

    Can someone offer advice on Zone heating - im clueless?

    Hi There,

    I hope someone wouldn't mind offering me some advice.


    We have quite a large and interesting house - it was once a small single room bungalow about 40 years ago but since then the house has been extended massively. Its now a 4 bedroom two story bungalow with large double rooms, a dining room and 2 reception rooms. Between these rooms we have large hallways/landings and because its a bungalow it has a very large footprint with a single thermostat in the center of the house which is next to useless.

    In addition to this - because the house over the years has been greatly modified the central heating system is massively over complicated with some radiators heating up very quickly, while others (that have been tagged on to the existing system at a later date) take hours to get upto temp.

    I would estimate in the house we have a total of 18 rads so its not practice to run round the house turning rads down/up to minimize costs of heating mostly unused rooms.

    Other issues we have - our bedrooms are rarely used, and our living room space is used constantly. So im looking for a system that will switch off rooms when not in use, and keep the rooms we use constantly at a nice temperature - and Im guessing with other rooms turned off the boiler will be more efficient at pushing the water/heat around?

    My hope is this will also lower our heating costs and extend the life of the boiler...


    Now I loooove the idea of being able to control all this from my phone/pc. Its my understanding systems out there will do this - the "eQ-3 MAX!" system looks like a good option, but Iv not had much luck finding any info on it.


    So now you know the situation - would this seem like a realistic option, is there anything Iv missed, is there any options iv not considered?

    thanks!
  • Otto-Mate
    Founder
    • Jan 2004
    • 882

    #2
    Welcome mushymatt

    We moved to motorised valves a couple of winters back and it's been great. We have the Hometronic system which has been very reliable. The only down side I'd say is the price of adding web control (see our video here - http://www.wordpress-1219309-4387497...c-systems.html ).

    We've had an eye on the MAX! system for a while now and it does look very interesting - especially that £50 web gateway (there seems to be a subscription though after the first few years). Be interested to hear from anyone that's using it?

    Thanks

    M.
    Editor AutomatedHome.co.uk


    www.facebook.com/AutomatedHomeUK
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    Comment

    • mushymatt
      Automated Home Lurker
      • Sep 2013
      • 3

      #3
      Originally posted by Otto-Mate View Post
      Welcome mushymatt

      We moved to motorised valves a couple of winters back and it's been great. We have the Hometronic system which has been very reliable. The only down side I'd say is the price of adding web control (see our video here - http://www.wordpress-1219309-4387497...c-systems.html ).

      We've had an eye on the MAX! system for a while now and it does look very interesting - especially that £50 web gateway (there seems to be a subscription though after the first few years). Be interested to hear from anyone that's using it?

      Thanks

      M.
      Cheers Otto.
      - please could you offer me a little more advice on my thinking....


      We actually have 14 rads (not 18 - Seems I cant count). So if I wanted a 3-4 zone (full system) we would require 14 x motorized valves, 3-4 thermostats, and possibly the Web gateway.

      Can you tell me what happens with the existing (wired) thermostat, and how does the Max!/Hometronic system control the existing boiler - Or is there something obvious im missing here (is an extra gadget needed)?

      Comment

      • Otto-Mate
        Founder
        • Jan 2004
        • 882

        #4
        We have undefloor heating on the ground floor and radiators upstairs. Here's the kit we used...

        1 x Hometronic Manager including power supply
        1 x Hometronic Manifold Controller with expansion card
        1 x Interface relay for control of manifold pump and heat demand to boiler from UFH
        6 x Hometronic wireless room sensors for UFH rooms
        10 x Hometronic Radiator Controllers for upstairs rooms
        1 x Hometronic Boiler Relay for heat demand from radiators to boiler.

        You can see a photo of the underfloor manifold here - the control stuff is along the top..



        M.
        Editor AutomatedHome.co.uk


        www.facebook.com/AutomatedHomeUK
        www.twitter.com/ottomate
        www.instagram.com/automatedhome/

        Comment

        • mushymatt
          Automated Home Lurker
          • Sep 2013
          • 3

          #5
          Originally posted by Otto-Mate View Post
          We have undefloor heating on the ground floor and radiators upstairs. Here's the kit we used...

          1 x Hometronic Manager including power supply
          1 x Hometronic Manifold Controller with expansion card
          1 x Interface relay for control of manifold pump and heat demand to boiler from UFH
          6 x Hometronic wireless room sensors for UFH rooms
          10 x Hometronic Radiator Controllers for upstairs rooms
          1 x Hometronic Boiler Relay for heat demand from radiators to boiler.

          You can see a photo of the underfloor manifold here - the control stuff is along the top..



          M.

          Looks complex

          So with that in mind I would have to get a gadget to manage/talk to the boiler end - Do you know what that might be from the Max system - or us the gadget (im pretty clueless can you tell!) be a generic device that the wireless thermostat connects too?

          Comment

          • Otto-Mate
            Founder
            • Jan 2004
            • 882

            #6
            Just added some more info on the eQ-3 MAX! here Matt...



            Boiler control appears to be the weak link though.

            M.
            Editor AutomatedHome.co.uk


            www.facebook.com/AutomatedHomeUK
            www.twitter.com/ottomate
            www.instagram.com/automatedhome/

            Comment

            • skiv71
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Apr 2013
              • 14

              #7
              Have you seen my offering?



              Thanks

              Neil

              Comment

              • JimNoble
                Automated Home Jr Member
                • May 2005
                • 14

                #8
                Heatmiser's worth a look...

                Heatmiser are market leaders in the manufacture of room thermostats and controls for underfloor heating.


                Jim

                Comment

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