#What hardware for a quite old and complex heating system

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

dim viper
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Hi,

I bought a house recently, built in 1979 and I'd like to make the heating system smart to lower my heating bill. The main idea is to be able to control temperature per room and adapt heating schedule to the (detected) presence of people in the house.

My heater, a Buderos Logano g234 isn't compatible with anything smart AFAIK, so no luck on that side. But it works by simply maintaining water at some temperature. So if no water is requested, it doesn't consume much as it only loose heat through the insulated boiler. For now, that's acceptable. I guess I'll get a smart heater when that one die.

Now, for the radiators... I have 4 wired thermostats. From what I understand, they act like temperature activated switches. I might be able to simply replace them by smart switches that know nothing about temperature and offload the temperature handling to a server app (does one exist?). Of course, I would also need smart valves attached to each radiator (what model?). These valves will have the job to measure the room temperature and to adapt the water flow depending on the room temperature... And, most importantly, trigger the switch that controls the valve/pump upstream of the radiator, if it's not already enabled... And turn it off, if not other radiator needs pumping.

Is my plan sound? Does the hardware exist? Does the software exist?

I can program stuff if needed, if there are already some heating system libraries out there; I don't want to start from scratch, I don't have enough free time for that.

I have looked quite a bit at Tado and it's really what I want... Except it doesn't seem to be compatible with my setup as my heater doesn't support OpenTherm.

feral dust
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Easiest would be using https://better-thermostat.org/ and ble/zigbee thermosthats/valves for the heaters, as well as a dedicated temp sensor for measuring temp in the middle of the/each room.
telling better-thermosthat about those items and it will adjust the valves according to set target temp and current room temp.

Better Thermostat
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Get started with Better Thermostat for Home Assistant.

fresh solstice
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Versatile thermostat also works well but fundamentally does the same job

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As for hardware, the sonoff TRVZB valves are very capable, cheap, and work well for me, and their temperature sensors are fine. Nothing special but work well enough

dim viper
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Versatile thermostat is an alternative to better thermostat?

dim viper
fresh solstice
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Yes, just a different integration

dim viper
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And what would I use to control the pumps? Can any switch do the job? My pumps are currently controlled by "dumb" thermostats and I need to integrate them in HA. Otherwise, a radiator can open and request 38°C/100°F and it won't get it unless the relevant pump is pumping.

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I'm only planning now and I have 0 XP with HA. So I'm aware I might be asking basic stuff.

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MH... Shelly pro 4 PM seems to be exactly what I need. It would make my setup dead simple as long as it can communicate with the thermostats on the radiators.

fresh solstice
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I'm not sure about the shelly but I know some smart switches have issues with inductive loads like pumps. Should be fine though

dim viper
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Good to know, I'll double check the model I choose is fine.