Smarter Heating Controls?

[KenB]

Here's a bit from my Blog about tips and gadgets for making a smart heating monitoring system.

http://sustburbia.blogspot.com/2010/09/monitoring-your-heating-system.html

Regarding the cheap water flow sensors from China,  the data sheet refers to the pipe connections as G 1/2.  This is how they commonly refer to a 1/2" BSP male thread in the pneumatics and hydraulics industry.



Ken

[Ted]

This is very timely as we are right in the middle of ripping out an oil combi boiler and putting in a solid fuel Rayburn, so the wireless TRV actuators are of some interest. Have you used these at all?

[KenB]

Ted,

You fell into the same trap I did with the Conrad Electronics website - you cannot post a direct link to their product - very lame.

If you go to the conrad electronics website - just do a search on radiator thermostats.

I have not used the wireless TRV actuators, because I cobbled together a system using a 1W power resistor to heat up the wax bulb and shut the valve off.  I only have 8 rads in my house so I guess I can live with a few watts of dc power to shut down the rads that are not needed.  It's probably better than the batteries you'd need to keep the wireless units running.


Ken

[SimonHa]

This is very timely as we are right in the middle of ripping out an oil combi boiler and putting in a solid fuel Rayburn, so the wireless TRV actuators are of some interest. Have you used these at all?

Likewise; I'm in the middle of a complete CH renewal. After much agonising I have decided the run 15mm copper everywhere and have a 7 port UFH manifold at the centre of the house, running the radiator circuits. I did consider switchable TRV heads (I don't think RF were available when I started planning!) but decided with my house layout that it was better to have a radial design with smaller pipes.

Most of the zones have 2 or 3 rads on them, the idea is that each zone has a primary room (which is used to control the zone on/off) with the other room(s) just having a regular TRV(s). For control I'm planning to use a 1-wire network for temp sensors and a relay board (http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=1554 probably) for the 24V actuators. Software TBD...

Simon
PS. the manifold took some finding - in the end I chose one by Emmeti as you could easily get 15mm fittings (it was either this or Polyplumb with plastic fittings)