Internet controllable hot water / central heating module

[kent_phil]

Hi,

Has anyone any experience of central heating / hot water control modules that are controllable over the web - our control electrics are playing up being many years old and it's time to replace.

Fancy putting in something that is web usable rather than the old style lcd panels and we could turn on remote when coming back from holiday - potentially even tie in the couple of electric underfloors we have.

I've found heatmiser and going to chat with them but anyone any practical experience of these or recommendations?

Thanks,

Phil

[VEX]

The one I have used and recommended In the past has been the Honeywell Hometronic syste distributed here by Sensible Heat. Very clever two way radiator valves that are controlled by a central processor. Then you can hang hang thier web access thingy on it to give you Internet and iPad access.

It is not cheap though and I noticed the other day the LightwaveRF have launched something although thier reputation is not that brilliant from what I have heard.

V.

[rossmc88]

I just bought one of these Heatmiser thermostats yesterday, I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival I love gadgets

http://www.heatmisershop.co.uk/thermostats-c1/wifi...

I'm planning on hooking it up to my Worcester Bosch 28CDI

I have a combi, so I don't need hot water control, but they do another unit which has that capability

I'll post back how I get on, it should arrive tomorrow

If anyone has any advice, let me know!

[Jonnas]

rossmc88 said:

I just bought one of these Heatmiser thermostats yesterday, I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival I love gadgets

http://www.heatmisershop.co.uk/thermostats-c1/wifi...

I'm planning on hooking it up to my Worcester Bosch 28CDI

I have a combi, so I don't need hot water control, but they do another unit which has that capability

I'll post back how I get on, it should arrive tomorrow

If anyone has any advice, let me know!

I have been looking at these too although I have two zones in my house so I would need two of them which is getting a little pricey! Also, they dont seem to do a wireless version as I really need to move the thermostat around with me.

However, would be interested to hear how you get on.....

[rossmc88]

Why would you need to move it around with you, just carry your phone around with you inside your house and control it from there!

That's what I'm planning on doing

[Jonnas]

rossmc88 said:

Why would you need to move it around with you, just carry your phone around with you inside your house and control it from there!

That's what I'm planning on doing

Because my hysteresis isn't anywhere near as good as a thermostat!

The location of my current thermostats is in a very long corridor and there are all kinds of problems with air movement and one end of the house sucking heat out of the other. The thermostats also end up fighting with each other so you sit in a room elsewhere and the tmperature fluctuates all over the place. I want the thermostat in the room that I am in and I don't want to be manually adjusting it all the time for the reasons above.

I saw the benefit of the WiFi element as that you could warm up the house before you arrive home or turn down the temperature after you left if you forgot to do it on the way out.....

Edited by Jonnas on Thursday 15th November 16:01

[Puggit]

The screenshots show lots of different room temperatures:



Surely this means each room needs its own radio-enabled thermostat and valve on radiators?

[kent_phil]

Thanks for the feedback so far - interested to hear how the HeatMiser stuff works out

[Muncher]

Puggit said:

The screenshots show lots of different room temperatures:



Surely this means each room needs its own radio-enabled thermostat and valve on radiators?

We are just about to install the Heatmiser system, we have 17 zones and the touch screen panel but we are debating whether to add the Internet interface, I'm not sure it's worth the cost at £300 odd...

[rossmc88]

Jonnas said:

rossmc88 said:

Why would you need to move it around with you, just carry your phone around with you inside your house and control it from there!

That's what I'm planning on doing

Because my hysteresis isn't anywhere near as good as a thermostat!

The location of my current thermostats is in a very long corridor and there are all kinds of problems with air movement and one end of the house sucking heat out of the other. The thermostats also end up fighting with each other so you sit in a room elsewhere and the tmperature fluctuates all over the place. I want the thermostat in the room that I am in and I don't want to be manually adjusting it all the time for the reasons above.

I saw the benefit of the WiFi element as that you could warm up the house before you arrive home or turn down the temperature after you left if you forgot to do it on the way out.....

Edited by Jonnas on Thursday 15th November 16:01

Being a poor non director type, I only have a 2 bedroom house with 1 zone so a simple on/off is all I need. Fair enough if you need more control.

[fourpointsixgt]

British Gas do the remote heating app for your smart phone,you can control your heating from it,I've got it. so when I'm working late I can delay the "on" for a few hours or vice versa if I'm finishing early. You can also see the temperature in your house from it and even set parameters to send you a text if the house gets too hot or too low.

It won gadget of the year in Gadget magazinr

[orbit123]

We installed the full heatmiser system last year. About 20 zones and have it controlling UFH, radiators and outside lights. So far it has been brilliant - couple of failed touchscreen stats but they changed them no problem. Ours is all hard wired (12v) which we could do as renovating - it was a fair bit of work to install. They have a lot of wireless sensors but thick walls in our house tend to be an issue with wireless and running the cat5 wasn't too bad.

I got the netmonitor unit for internet control but the version we have doesn't have an "app" for iPad etc so we use the browser on mobile phones. I need to send it back and they will upgrade to the app version - this will be even better and mean we can control much more easily.

I think it will pay for itself in a few years as we leave heat off in a lot of areas we don't use much (dining room, spare room etc).

It was mostly our electrician that installed it but I was pretty involved so ask if anything I can help with.

ETA - I think worth paying attention to their wiring requirements. Ours had to have shielded cat5 between the control units. Although it is cat5 cable it doesn't use ethernet to communicate.

Edited by orbit123 on Saturday 17th November 21:14

[Muncher]

I didn't know it could control lights as well? Do the requirement state it needs to be shielded? I must admit I haven't read them yet.

[avocado]

I've built exactly what you're talking about using an arduino (google it). Email me for info.

[orbit123]

Sorry for late reply. The cable between the control units should be shielded - I expect as it tends to run alongside the power. You can control most things with it but it's focussed on heating. I think they're missing a trick with that and should develop it further - they have been ahead with all the internet control stuff and it does work. I can switch on outside lights or heating on my way home etc.

I had a look at using raspberry pi to it all but in the end just needed something that we knew worked.

[kent_phil]

Going with the HeatMiser gear - looks like positive feedback, particularly good to see that it really does work.

Thanks for the heads up on the Arduino - I don't fancy a self-build for this application but have another use for these, more hours down the drain tweaking!

Cheers,

Phil

[kent_phil]

As an update to this in case anyone else is searching - I ordered the HeatMiser solution and fitted it this week.

Does exactly what it claims, easy to install and configure although not the most user-friendly way of setting up the wifi config.

Wish I had done this a long time ago.

Cheers,

Phil

[eliot]

Something like homeseer and z-wave trv's would do the same thing and much more besides, such as interface with your alarm system and lighting - creating rules so your lights come on as you walk abot for example.

[Kananga]

orbit123 said:

Sorry for late reply. The cable between the control units should be shielded - I expect as it tends to run alongside the power. You can control most things with it but it's focussed on heating. I think they're missing a trick with that and should develop it further - they have been ahead with all the internet control stuff and it does work. I can switch on outside lights or heating on my way home etc.

I had a look at using raspberry pi to it all but in the end just needed something that we knew worked.

Do you know if using unshielded cable might work ? The chaps who installed our system had run unshielded Cat5 from each manifold/wiring-centre to the central 'hub'. If I understood things properly, we can install the netmonitor in the location where these Cat5's run to, so that each wiring centre is linked to the netmonitor. The only thing is that the muppets put in unshielded Cat5, so I'm not sure if it will work?

[Muncher]

I can't say for sure but when wiring up mine the instructions did say to use shielded cable. I suppose it depends on what kind of interference the cables are exposed to?