Can I use smart TRVs as an alternative to zoning

jumbone

I am replacing a load of rads and asked the plumber about zoning the system and he advised it would require too much upheaval.

Could I use smart TRVs to achieve the same end goal? i.e. Only heat the room I'm in/ subsections of the house

What kind of ecosystems would exist that satisfy these requirements:

• No reliance on cloud service
• 
  
• Control from phone with decent UI (OK if that means only accessible from LAN as I plan on setting up a vpn server for other purposes)
• 
  
• Openish ecosystem in case I go down home assistant rabbit hole in future
• 
  
• Traditional controls also available I. E. A wall programmer/boost button
• 
  

Also, more of a plumbing question but it possible put a TRV on the heating coil in the hot water cylinder? I'm theory it's just a weird shaped rad right?

jumbone

Currently have no smart home stuff of note so total green field environment here.

Have cat6 all through house, decent WiFi

Got a couple of old rpi2 boards lying about

kirk.

Hadn't thought of that where you've a heating system that's isn't plumbed for zoning

I think it's possible with a TRV on each rad and a valve on the cylinder coil to achieve the same

I'd check with the plumber on the boiler side if its a suitable arrangement from a safety viewpoint . He might want something like an auto-bypass valve fitted not sure

Tree

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057758281/home-heating-automation

But also, the Drayton Wiser is great for those of us who want a cloudless HA set up. Their phone app is cloudy but when you have it set up you don't need it so much.

TRVs in most rooms (except hall and bathrooms). And the Wiser integration now has a passive mode, which is great for the rooms you want to warm when other rooms call for heat but you wouldn't otherwise be pushed.

jumbone

I'll check out the Drayton wiser system on YouTube

My main reason for for wanting the extra control is because we have an awful lot of rooms that aren't used simultaneously. I. E. I don't want to heat 3 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, sunroom and utility of I'm wfh and only occasionally potter out of my office to visit the bathroom or kitchen.

I know most 'smart' heating stuff is usually more related to individual room stats and how to most efficiently keep rooms at preferred temperatures, varying the time they come on at etc.

Would I be able to achieve something like this in addition to pseudo-zoning the system without having to have stats in each room - Heat kitchen, hall and sunroom 50% (like 2 or 3 on an old style 1-5 trv) and keep the living room at 21 degrees, where only the living room has a thermostat

To borrow a term from the lighting side of things I guess I want to have a couple of preconfigured 'scenes' and an app to trigger then. Heat would only be used manually or on timers - don't think I would want it 'figuring out' to turn on without being asked because it thinks it's learned my preferences

jumbone

A colleague told me he has a freestanding thermostat/control thing they can move around the house (think it's nest) and bringing to whatever room they sit in ensures the room is kept at the temp they want.

I couldn't tell if he meant it just heats the room they're in or that it heats the entire house but cuts out when the room he's in gets to the temp desired.

What I couldn't figure out how it new where it was in the house! Can it accurately tell which rad/trv is closest to it or maybe he has to set it when he changes room?

I could tell he wasn't really into having a full scale chat about his heating controls so didn't pry to much

kirk.

You can't close off rooms that are unoccupied and switch off heat there obviously

You'll need a minimum temp everywhere

Tree

With the Drayton integration in HA you can set up scenes no problem. I have a bunch of ones like "Tree is away" for when I'm not home but my OH is and sets everything a degree cooler and has my office on "away". Weekend set differently to weekdays. Automation that checks if I'm home and my alarm is set to decide whether my home office should be warm or away.

jumbone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205344#Comment_121205344

Do you mean all rads would have to be on a small bit any time the heat is on OR are you advising against keeping a room permanently off

NewClareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205268#Comment_121205268

I installed the Honeywell/Resideo Evohome system about 18 mth ago. So far I'm very happy with it. The only difficult part was that I'd non-standard TRV"s on my system, so they had to be replaced. This is actually very unusual as they supply adapters for most valves.

It's saved us a fortune as we have a large house with only the two of us. While it has remote access via the cloud it is completely self-contained with no loss of functionality.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121209532#Comment_121209532

Afaik you're not supposed to have hot and cold areas in a house , you're probably already aware anyhow. In case that's what you planned , probably not anyhow

The TRVs and cylinder valve should mean rads and cyclinder operate effectively as zones i think, so I think it works

Just check with plumber on syncing the operation of valves with boiler operation.

The conventional zone setup the valves or a manifold unit trigger the boiler via electrical contacts

NewClareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121209532#Comment_121209532

It is generally advised to keep a minimum temperature in all rooms, to avoid damp. It is certainly not necessary to have all rads on at the same time, to maintain a minimum temperature.

In our case I keep all tha the house at a minimum temperature of 16c. The radiators in the upstairs rooms only come on in very cold weather.

CONMIKE12

Aqara Smart Radiator Thermostat E1, REQUIRES AQARA ZIGBEE 3.0 HUB, Smart Thermostatic Radiator Valve with Voice Control, Geofencing Support, Compatible with HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant and IFTTT : Amazon.co.uk: PC & Video Games . I use these on the radiators in my house. Have been working flawlessly for over a year now. They are on special offer at the moment.

Glencarraig

Looking for a bit of advice/help with my heating/water timer. It's a now obsolete Honeywell T8677B1006 unit which seems to have a fault in the clock display, its now showing F:24 in the display. Not knowing a lot about plumbing/heating my question is in order to replace the timer with something new would the entire Honeywel Smartfit box and all the various sensors etc. in the hotpress have to be replaced despite the fact that the timed heating/hot water setting are still working. This timer only controls the downstairs heating and hot water as I have a split system for upstairs on a separate timer. Thanks in advance for any advice.

NewClareman

It looks like the whole system will have to be replaced, from this link.