Home heating automation

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118253167#Comment_118253167

According to Schneider Drayton site;

• To recalibrate the radiator thermostat, twist the cap to the minus '-' position and hold there for up to 5 seconds, until you see a continuous blue LED.

Alkers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254346#Comment_118254346

Yeah, this works for me in much quicker than 5 seconds. Blue light comes on and you can hear the TRV cycle from one extreme to the other

Alkers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252452#Comment_118252452

I think I have it sorted now, jut pressed the pin in a few times and reinstalled the TRV and all seems to be well now

Alkers

Sorry for multiple posts!

Have just had my first warning that some of my TRV batteries are running low and now coming across Drayton's statement not to use rechargeable batteries - what a faff.

I installed a fully charged pair of high capacity Lidl brand AAs, which I've found excellent in other device, only for them to show as low again in the app literally two days later. I replaced with a pair of duracell AAs I had lying around and they show full capacity.

Has anyone found any rechargeables which work well in the TRVs. Environmentally and financially, I don't want to be using non-rechargeable batteries!

deezell

Common rechargeable batteries such as Nicad or NiMh have only 1.2 Volts per cell, so will appear to be flat compared to Alkaline which have 1.5V per cell. The battery monitor built into the TRV is not configurable for different nominal voltage. The Nickel rechargeables will drive you nuts in the long run even if they were suitable, as they lose capacity over a number of recharge cycles, especially if you run them till flat, until you are only getting a fraction of their new capacity. Skips are full of power tools powered by Ni battery packs, which are often useless within a year or so of multiple recharges or a damaged cell from overdischarge.

Lithium ion batteries are expensive, and have to be intelligently recharged or they will be destroyed. They also need circuitry to downconvert Li voltage of 3.7 to the 1.5 at the terminals of an AA battery shell. Here's a version of an Li powered AA battery pack, it even has a standard micro USB charger port.

https://www.photospecialist.ie/pale-blue-4x-aa-lithium-ion-rechargeable-ba

At €35 for 4, that's €17.50 per TRV. Fully charged capacity is 1.56 Ah, compared to decent alkaline of 2.6Ah. It wouldn't break the bank to try out a set. These batteries would have built in overdischarge monitoring, so would probably go 'flat' without notice, possibly before the TRV could even give a battery warning.

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261958#Comment_118261958

I use them, they do go a lot faster but its less harm on the environment

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261938#Comment_118261938

How many seconds? I can't seem to get mine to register and they just flash blue and then nothing....hold it too long and it goes to the red to reset itself

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118263689#Comment_118263689

You do have the TRV on the valve when doing this? You might need to use an adapter depending on which valve body you have. The pin may not be being depressed fully, or it may be too tight. Make sure the TRV valve pin is not sticking.

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118264204#Comment_118264204

It's on, it works on 99% of the radiators and they all look the same

deezell

You may just have a faulty TRV, or, if it calibrates on the other TRV valve bodies but not the one it's currently on, this can only be because the valve body is faulty ,sticking pin not going downfully or not returning fully up. If you very carefully grip the pin lightly with a pliers, maybe a bit of tape on it, and try pulling it up, see if its not fully home. Lube the pin an depress it up and down rapidly,then refit TRV and run the calibration. The valve may be fouled or corroded internally, and needs replacing.

lordgoat

Hi all so I'm swapping out a Flash Programmer Model: 31033 as wired below for a Tado HW extension kit

The issue is the Tado wiring instructions only has one N connection and I'm wondering what to do with the N loop.

Thanks

This is what it looks like on the wall

deezell

Just ignore it. It's not serving any purpose on the Flash by the looks of it, its just there to provide a convenient terminal for neutral out if needed.

willciviceg5

Hi I’m trying to replace a wired room stat with a Tado wired starter kit and am having difficulties finding the right wiring instructions for my model thermostat. Could anyone advise what way this should be wired in. Thanks in advance.

deezell

Live in, brown, to COM on the Tado. Live out, black, to NO, normally open on the Tado. Cut back and tape up neutral Blue and green/yellow Earth, or park them in two of the unused terminals to the right of COM. The other black wire on your old stat is just a local loop from 5 to 2, not used on the Tado.

deezell

Tado offering refurbished kits at much reduced prices. A lot of these are opened returns from black friday impulse buys I reckon.

https://www.tado.com/ie-en/certified-refurbished-promo?utm_source=intercom&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=refurbished21_ec_en_m1

Frustratingly, although you are on Tado ie Irish site, the prices are presented in £Brexit. I contacted Tado and complained (bitterly and patriotically), that we are in the EU, use the Euro and are not part of Boris Britain. I received two replies, one from sympathetic and apologetic Nick, who said;

"I apologize for this terrible mistake. We have no intention to imply Ireland is in UK. That would be utter disrespect of glorious Ireland. We will take care of the matter urgently.

Best regards,Nick"

Then a followy-upper from Nicola, who sternly lectured me for suggesting we were worthy of independence from perfidious Albion. She stated;

"The Ireland section of the tado° shop is merged with the UK section. The prices are shown in £ as intended, it is not an error.........Any purchases from Ireland will be normally charged in Euro equivalent of the displayed price."

Maggie Thatcher would be proud.

theintern

I'm pretty good with home automation, but the array of options and different configurations in this area have me scratching my head.

Just moved into a new house, with an air to water heat pump. This controls three separate zones.

• Downstairs 1 - Underfloor heating to living room
• Downstairs 2 - Underfloor heating to kitchen/hallway
• Upstairs - All a single zone of those new kind of lo flow radiators

These are controlled via 3x Heatmiser v3 Slimline thermostats.

I run Home Assistant so would love to replace these with smart thermostats. Do I need to buy 3x something? What would be a good solution for this that would

• Ideally be "local control" within Home Assistant so I don't have to worry about cloud services
• Allow me to control each of the three zones for automations and controlling schedules.

Appreciate any recommendations on what would be a good solution. Cheers.

sonyvision

Moving into a 2nd hand house, 2 zone system.

House was a 4 bed with a 2 story extension added on. I notice when the hot water (zone 2) or rad heating (zone 1) are switched on individually, The radiators in both examples get hot in the two story extension.

Bought a drayton system, going to install smart TRV's in the house to overcome the extension heating up all the time. Annoyingly instead of connecting the new extension to the existing pipe work after the zone valve, it was connected before the zone valves.

Hoping for a smooth install, checked the backing plate might need to swap the channels as per drayton diagram but hopefully that's it.

On the drayton system, I had it installed in my old house in 2016, thermostats broke in 2019. Contacted them, asked if a new one could be bought. I was unlucky I had gotten the last of the old system and now not manufactured anymore. As a sign of good will the company posted me a new unit including 2 thermostats units FREE OF CHARGE. Swapped in the units and been running without issue. Top level customer service.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118291742#Comment_118291742

This particular stat, the V3 slimline, is a mains operated standalone thermostat/timer, programmed locally and not equipped with wireless connectivity. As a straight swap, the Heatmiser Neo V2 would fit directly in place of the Slimline V3. The L, N, A1, A2 and remote sensor terminals are the same, though the neo can have an extra remote sensor, but these RT terminals are unlikely to have been used in your install

The neo thermostat can be linked wirelessly to the Neo hub, which in turn can connect to your Internet and give you App access to the stats, and is compatible with HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa, IFTTT. Neo stat V2 lists at £72, Neo Hub at £150, so £366 at UK list prices, about €450 with VAT and exchange rate. You could also use three straight wired Tado or Netatmo wired smart stats on the same wallbox plate, these stats are battery powered so would only need the A1A2 wiring from the Slimline, and their respective internet receiver hub/bridge. Tado refurbished would be good value here, A starter kit of stat and bridge plus two extra stats is currently on offer for £99 and 2 x £75, a total of £249, about €300 with Irish vat and exchange. This is the link for the tado deal for these items;

https://ie.shop.tado.com/57445679299/checkouts/0e8ce966a089992a1438889fb7fb6639

The site is a bit of a basket case with prices in UK £ (see my previous rant), but everything else seems set up for Irish address and presumably no messing with UK sourced delivery and the customs disaster that befalls such packages. Less than €300 at the moment for 3 stats and internet bridge, for way more Smarts than the Neo.

You'd get a few quid back on the Slimlines on Donedeal.

EDIT: This Irish Neo supplier's prices are competitive even when you add VAT. 3 Neo + Hub is €400, out of stocks though on the individual stats, but worth a ring.

https://www.warmth.ie/product-category/heatmiser-thermostats/neo-thermostats/

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118292061#Comment_118292061

Why not get it replumbed after the zone valve, or get an extra zone valve fitted and get a Drayton kit 3 with 2 CH zones and 1 HW zone. This way you have better options when adding TRV's later.

Blue4u

FYI for Drayon

In order to recalibrate your radiator thermostats, please follow steps below; 

• First, twist the cap in the + direction for 8 seconds until the valve fully opens, and the red light comes on.
• Release the cap.
• Then please twist the cap in the - direction for 2 seconds until the blue light comes on and the valve closes.
• This ensures that the radiator thermostat is applying suitable pressure to the radiator pin when it is supposed to be closed.

sonyvision

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118293767#Comment_118293767

My honest answer is no plumber wants to know about the job. I have contacted 7 different companies plumbers and only 1 guy actually came to the house.

How is see it, fit a Smart TRV on all rads, connect it to zone 1 to call for heat all central heating will be connected. If the TRV is set to lower temperature it should close off the rad.

Ideally I want an upstairs/downstairs but given the position of a rad down stairs it would be a large enough job to reconnect all the pipe work. Plus I just bought the house so any unnecessary cost I want to avoid.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297403#Comment_118297403

It's a sad reflection of the trades industry when a relatively small job is deemed unattractive as there is so much money to be made from new build fitouts, the bloated cost of which is piled onto the unfortunate first time buyers who are so desperate for a home that they just pay up an shut up.

Get the full Trv suite, add in the signal extender to make sure all trvs have a decent signal. You'll at least see where your cash is going. A friend was quoted €10k to connect the rads in an attic conversion down to the existing system. The 3 new rads were on the walls, just pipework required. Quote was over the phone without even a visit. C'est la vie.

sonyvision

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298058#Comment_118298058

100%. Had a plumber in today swapping out 5 valves for 5 TRVs fixed a leak and reran some pipe work. 280 and he was a brother in law of a good mate got him in today and only called him Tuesday.

But your right, going to have all smart TRVs. So drayton system 275, plus 8 smart valves at 47 each. Not sure range extender cost but can't be that expensive. Much cheaper than ripping up flooring, rechasing pipe work through the house even if I could get someone!. Just madness really.

I will update the chat when I have the system setup next week, hoping for a plug and play might need to change 1 channel on the wall plate. Father in law was an engineer should I struggle, his first job was building a nuclear power station. I'm sure he can sort the control panel wiring haha.

Paulzx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298753#Comment_118298753

Please tell me it wasn't Chernobyl!😀

Don't let him near your heating if it was!

justme112

Edit: Tado just replied saying the control unit is not compatible.

Looking for advice on what equipment I would need to be able to control all 3 zones through Smart Thermos & App. I've tried to contact Tado a few times over the past week but I think they're a bit slower coming back after Black Friday.

I have a 3 zone system - 1. Hot Water 2. Downstairs Heating 3. Upstairs Heating

Gas Boiler - Potterton Assure 24 system.

I have R37-HW EPH controller unit with 2 EPH Thermostats, 1 downstairs and 1 upstairs - hard wired (photo attached)

I've been looking at Tado as it's easy to integrate in Homekit and the prices seem reasonable in comparison to others. Would be grateful for any help here, thanks

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118321293#Comment_118321293

You just need two wired Tado thermostats to replace the two EPH wall stats. Leave the controller in place to control HW via the manual cylinder stat, and set the two CH zones to always on. The Tado stats will provide both timing and thermostat control of their respective zones.

Here's a kit from Amazon.de source which consists of the Tado V3 starter kit, stat and Internet bridge, plus an extra stat. Still at black Friday prices. Simple self install, just two wires. It's described on the .de site as a kit for UF heating, but its just the wired starter kit plus an add on wired stat.

https://www.amazon.de/radiator-thermostat-yourself-compatible-Assistant/dp/B09G7227MM

€220 plus €6 I think for postage. I bought this during BF, took 3 days from Germany.

Refurbished from Tado's own site is about €20 less when you convert £ to €, I just don't understand why the Tado ie site is in £, tax is correct, and it will be sent without messing from EU, postage free.

deezell

The reason they say controller is incompatible is because their controller, which gives Tado app setting of HW timing, has only one CH channel, which is a wireless connection to the main stat. The add on stat could still be wired in place of its EPH, and a live back to the stat from the old EPH CH2 output is easily connected from the live in to the Tado wireless controller, aka the Extension Kit. The wiring of this and removal of the EPH is a bit trickier for the DIYer, hence my advice to leave the EPH controller, and just replace the two wired stats.

carlito57

Any recommendations for a smart replacement for a Horstmann H47XL?

Current setup is:

Zone 1: Underfloor heating

Zones 2& 3: Downstairs and Upstairs Rads

Zone 4: Hot water

Oil boiler

Thanks!!

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118409627#Comment_118409627

Do you have wired wall stats to the three CH zones? If so, Cast a warm eye on Tado, and on Horstmann pass by, or rather. bypass it by setting all three CH zones to always on, the Tado app will take over the scheduling and temperature settings.

If you have no wired wall stats, a Drayton Wiser kit 3 plus an extra single stat and receiver can be used to provide 3 wireless stats back to the receivers, which can be wired in place of the Horstmann.

ctlsleh

Have 2 x nest thermostats for upstairs/downstairs and hot water zones with traditional/manual TRVs on the rads ……..2 of the kids now in college so was thinking of upgrading to smart TRV system so I can turn off the heat in their rooms while they’re away.

am I mad or is it worth it?