wireless controls

brians947

Hi all. Looking for some help. Last year I changed my boiler. I know want to upgrade the heating controls. When the boiler was changed I hot them to add another motorized valve to the system for the hot water tank. So I now have 3. Up stairs rads, down stairs rads and hot water. The new valve isn't connected to anything at the moment. The other two are connected to the thermostats and have share a live feed. I don't know if this live feed is connected to the boiler. Is there anyway in finding this out. What I want is a 3 zone system. If I have all the valves closed then the water flows back to the boiler but doesn't shut off. Don't know if that helps. Any advice on what controls. Have looked at Honeywell and heatmiser. If the power supply coming to thermostats and motors is not from boiler is there anyway to link to boiler by wireless for turning it on off.

youtheman

Normally it is a external volt free contact that will switch on your boiler. Easiest way to check this is to manually open one of the existing 2 zone valves (using the over-ride faclity) while the controller is 'off'. If this fires your boiler then it is a volt free contact (alomost certainly, unless some-one has wired its ome other way).

Your timer (or controller) outputs a 220 Volt supply through a thermostat and onto the actuator of the zone valve. So all that this does is cause your zone valve to open (if the controller calls for it, and the temperature is below the set point on the thermostat).

So in summary, there are two completely different circuit types. A 220 volt loop from the controller via the thermostat to open/close the zone valve. If you have three zones then you have three separate circuits. Then all the limit switches on the zone valves are wired in parallel such that any zone valve open will fire the boiler (this is the second circuit - volt free).

brians947

Ok I'll try that when I go home. At present there is a timer beside the boiler which controls the boiler for coming on and of for what I have it set at.

brians947

so i tried what you said. Well the boiler comes on and stays on with all the valves closed. It heats the water in the loop to what ever degrees the boiler is set and then the flame goes out. as soon as a valve is opened again and the cooler water enters the boiler the flame starts again. Is it possible to get a wireless transmitter and receiver to turn the boiler on and of when lets say the new wireless thermostat opens the valve.

youtheman

brians947 wrote: »

so i tried what you said. Well the boiler comes on and stays on with all the valves closed. It heats the water in the loop to what ever degrees the boiler is set and then the flame goes out. as soon as a valve is opened again and the cooler water enters the boiler the flame starts again. Is it possible to get a wireless transmitter and receiver to turn the boiler on and of when lets say the new wireless thermostat opens the valve.

You're confusing me now. You say the boiler comes on when all the valves are closed, and the flame goes out when the valve is opened. This is the exact opposite to what you would expect

Do you have an existing twin channel programmer, with two separate room stats ?.

brians947

What I'm saying is if boiler is running and I close the valves the water goes through bypass valve and into a loop. When the water in the loop reaches the temp that the boiler is running the flame goes out. If a valve is opened the bypass valve closes as water is know moving around the system. Since this water isnth at the temp the boiler is running at the flame comes back on. The boiler is connected to a single channel controller. The two motorIzed rad valves are controlled by thermostats. I replaced the existing controller a few years ago as it was just a bog standard wedge device giving little control. There is no cable going from the boiler up into the hot press.

youtheman

If I am reading you correctly you have a single channel controller driving two zones via thermostats and zone valves. And you have fitted a third zone valve (for the hot water), but it is not connected to anything.

So you will need a three channel programmer plus a cylinder stat, and most probably a wiring station (a junction box to connect all the wiring).

The bypass valve and cut outs you mention are part of the standard 'internal controls' of a boiler. The programmer, thermostats and zone valves are the 'external controls'. The external controls are supposed to do the control, and the internal controls are essentially a back up in case the external controls don't do their job.

brians947

I have been looking at wireless controls such as Honeywell and heatmiser. The issue here is that they all require a hardwired link to boiler from the junctIon box. Am looking to find out if there is a wireless link that I can use between the junction box (that would be linked to the wireless thermostats and hardwired to valves) and the boiler. I don't want to be pulling up carpets and floorboards to run a cable.

youtheman

You can get a wireless thermostat and locate the receiver next to the boiler (assuming your wiring control junction box is located there), and your thermostat (transmitter) wherever you want. Minimum wiring required. I did this when I converted my system from 2 zone to 3 zone. Bought a 'Sunvic' unit in B&Q.

JohnnieK

Either way your still going to have to run some cables. By the sounds of it the live feeds for the two existing zone valves are taken from the spur for the boiler.

Are the zone valves located away from the boiler in the hot press? If so you would be better of running a 4 or 5 core cable from the boilers location to the hot press, all other cabling from the stats is coming back to there anyway.