2 zones but 3 room stats?

Deanicus

Hi,

Sorry to be clogging up the forum with my threads but whilst looking into getting a smart thermostat (thread here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057406191) I realised that my system makes no sense, at least to me.

My property has 3 floors, each floor has its own thermostat. However the heating has only 2 zones. Two thermostats are in 1 zone and the last one in the other.

Why would it be setup like this? Does it not make sense to have 1 thermostat per zone?

antoinolachtnai

It certainly does sound highly 'innovative'.

You really need to check how the whole thing is wired. You might be able to do this simply by turning the stats up and down in various combinations and see what the valves do.

Deanicus

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

It certainly does sound highly 'innovative'.

You really need to check how the whole thing is wired. You might be able to do this simply by turning the stats up and down in various combinations and see what the valves do.

Yeah that's the plan. To be honest I have never really used the zones, it has always been both on or both off.

My thinking is that it might be a "backup" so the system can get readings from 2 places in case one is unusually cold or unusually warm in which case the heating would turn on/off when it was not the ideal thing to do

youtheman

Are you saying that your controller has 2 zones, but you have 3 thermostats and 3 zone valves. My brother has this in his house, just means that 2 zones will be timed to come on together (but each still has their own thermostat so will control the temperature separately).

However, 2 zone controller, 2 zone valves and 3 thermostats sounds odd. You could, in theory, have two thermostats in parallel in separate rooms in the one zone, but can't see why you would want this.

Deanicus

youtheman wrote: »

Are you saying that your controller has 2 zones, but you have 3 thermostats and 3 zone valves. My brother has this in his house, just means that 2 zones will be timed to come on together (but each still has their own thermostat so will control the temperature separately).

However, 2 zone controller, 2 zone valves and 3 thermostats sounds odd. You could, in theory, have two thermostats in parallel in separate rooms in the one zone, but can't see why you would want this.

Not sure about the valves to be honest but I think it might be 3 zone valves (from memory there are 3 white boxes in the hot press that light up when the heating is on).

So if I am understanding you right, are you saying that whilst they are controlled via 1 zone, the two linked thermostats are capable of turning on/off the rads on their respective floors?

youtheman

Yes. You have it in one.

antoinolachtnai

It could be that there are two thermostats which can 'call' the same zone valve. So if it is below the setpoint on either of the two top floors, then the heat will come on for the whole zone (which might consist of the two floors).

Deanicus

youtheman wrote: »

Yes. You have it in one.

So I finally managed to test it and it is indeed as you described. Whilst both stats are on the one zone, the control the heating on that floor separately.