Zoning 3 storey house- advice needed please

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  • Newtozoning
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Sep 2013
    • 7

    Zoning 3 storey house- advice needed please

    I've just come across this brilliant forum and seen it's full of experts on home heating and zoning. I'd like to ask any of you out there whether you think there is a better way to do what I'm currently looking into. I hadn't even heard of Evohome etc. until I stumbled upon this forum today. Any advice is appreciated.

    We have a Victorian house with 3 floors:
    Ground Floor = 2 lounges, 1 office, 1 kitchen, 1 toilet (7 rads + 1 towel rad)
    1st floor = 2 offices, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (5 rads + 2 towel rads)
    2nd floor = 3 bedrooms (5 rads in total)

    There are currently 2 Baxi Solo system boilers working in tandem via a relay and the whole house effectively gets heated without zoning. There is a simple old Honeywell programmer for heating and/or water and 2 room thermostats. All rads except for towel rads have TRVs fitted.

    Our gas bills have of course been sky high in the winter months so we were planning to zone each floor off as the relevant pipework is easily accessible within a 3m run.

    The plan was to use 3 Honeywell Cm927s (1 for each floor) + a separate programmer just for water + zone off the towel rad in one bathroom so that this can be efficiently used during summer. The pipework for the towel rad in the other bathroom is inaccessible.

    I like the idea of the Cm927s because I want the boilers to switch off when the temperature has been reached in the room that I am working in. If I then move to another room, I want that room's temperature to govern when the boiler switches off. If my wife then works in another room on a different zone, it should be that room within the zone that determines when the boiler switches off. That's why I like the portable stats as I think they will give me the most control. The only thing that isn't so easy is having to turn TRVs up/down whenever you leave a room.

    Any suggestions on whether this is the best way to do this or is there something better?

    Thanks in advance
  • Newtozoning
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Sep 2013
    • 7

    #2
    Am intrigued by the Evohome product. The S-plan Evohome says it is for a home with 1 zone. Wouldn't this still mean that when the boiler calls for rads to be heated up, the hot water is still flushing through most of the house's pipework and wasting money as a result? Or have I misunderstood this?

    In my case I'm now thinking that I can either redo the pipework to zone it into 3 zones using motorised valves
    or
    I could install the Evohome without altering any pipework

    Which way is best?

    Comment

    • Newtozoning
      Automated Home Lurker
      • Sep 2013
      • 7

      #3
      Can't find the answers to these questions in the forum so hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction.

      With the HR80 trvs, is it 1 = 1 zone? What do you do when you have 1 room with 2 radiators (the room is 1 zone)?

      Am not sure which kit I need. The sundial pack is obvious for DHW and CH and the zone kit as well. Which kit do you buy when you need more than the 8 zones?

      Comment

      • skiv71
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Apr 2013
        • 14

        #4
        Hi,

        Please check out my post in the general forum....



        I'm sure what you're trying to do is achievable

        Kind regards,

        Neil

        Comment

        • Newtozoning
          Automated Home Lurker
          • Sep 2013
          • 7

          #5
          Neil, thanks for your info. It's overly complicated/advanced for my needs as I'm just looking into heating control to save me money. Am looking at a very basic setup now and will zone-off everything at a later date.

          Comment

          • Newtozoning
            Automated Home Lurker
            • Sep 2013
            • 7

            #6
            Should have added that if I understood your system correctly, it operates through wifi only which is not something I would want for several reasons. Firstly, I find wifi is too temperamental and more importantly, not everyone has or wants to use a smartphone to control the heating. I like RF portable stats because anyone in the house can pick them up and move them to whichever room they are in.

            I looked at the HouseHeat system but cannot see the point in programmable TRVs for anyone other than the most routined person. It should really all be done with a central controller.

            Comment

            • skiv71
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Apr 2013
              • 14

              #7
              Hmm... I see your point. We just have a cheap tablet that acts a house remote control.

              I did look into physical stat like devices... and the digimax 210 was the only item that came close... but it has no provision for altering the set point according to time of day (something i change up to 4 times a day).

              I know my system looks busy (complicated) but thats only because i have furnished it with everything i could do. Like a show case.

              Anyone looking to adopt the system, can choose as few (or as many) control scheme's as they like.

              You may find this of interest, i just got the gas meter onto my system last night.

              So i'll be logging usage, cost etc from today

              Thanks for looking though.

              Neil

              --------------------------------------------------

              Oh, and i completely agree with a central solution - easier to manage, customise etc
              Last edited by skiv71; 27 September 2013, 09:03 AM.

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