After a long time of research I finally took the plunge into the fascinating world of Home Automation.
My first project is to automate the heating system. This sounded easier than is was, because I wanted it a solution which would continue to work even when my server would crash. I think I have found one, and can only prayer it turns out to be a good one
My first idea was the following combination
-FHZ 1300PC
-FHZ 1000 for the living room
-FHT 80B for other rooms
-FHT 8W to control my heating valve (I have city heating an no advanced HVAC)
The 8W should listen to al the thermostats and thus be able to efficiently control my heating needs.
I almost bought this… when I read that the FHZ 1000 can not be controlled from the FHZ 1300PC. So I decided to put a FHT 80 B my living room too.
Now the question is, does anyone know if the 80B can operate without an attached valve (stellbetrieb)? I have no thermostat radiators in my living room so I can not control them with a FS valve. But I do need a thermostat to control my heating.
The „Stellantrieb“ is only an electric motor wich comes with several adapters for valves from different brands. You have to unmount your themostat or handwheel and replace it by the motor. The FHT 80b measures the temperature and the motor drives your existing valve.
If your valve does not fit with the adapters coming with the set, you may have to install new ones. This should be done by a pro!
The FHT8W aren’t very popular - at least i have never heared of them before. I don’t know if a FHT80b will operate without an attached valve, but an attacked 8W. The worst case scenario is, that you would need to attach a valve to some dummy piece of pipe.
Yes, I know this, Toni. What I need to know is if an FHT 80B can operate WITHOUT being connected to a ‚stellantrieb‘. I know the FHZ 1000 can operate without being connected to valve motors but I can’t find information about if the FHT 80B can too.
Without an FHT8W (that is the case i only am aware of) you need to have at least 1 valve attached to something (it may be a dummy pipe). Otherwise the FHT80b will not operate.
Having seen the manual of the FHT8W and seeing that it shows the percentage the FHT80b is requesting, it seems like an attached value is mandatory.
An extra ‚stellantrieb‘ is not a problem I guess. The question remains if I need to connect the valve (stellantrieb) to a pipe for it to work? Or does it also function just lying on the table?
The Room thermostats FHT80b broadcast the engine set valves in.
8W receives these radio signals and evaluates them.
In addition no heater set valve is necessary.
This also functions without set valves. These give anyhow no feedback.
Greeting Helmut
As I understand so far from my correspondends here is that the FHT80B needs to be connected to a valve in order to broadcast. Therefore a dummy valve for the living DOES seem necessary.
so, i have testet, and it unnecessary to buy a RF-valve.
It was a little complicated with the limits in the unit grow clear for me, that`s why the delay.
Sorry for my bad english.
PDF in English:
Basis of our solution is the use of the radio-room controller system
FHT from ELV. Electronic heating controller that System periodically send wireless commands by the control algorithm to the calculated valve opening on the heating valves mounted drives. The FHT 8W reads the radio commands, too and determines whether in the Heating system is available. If this is the case, turns on the relay. In addition, the display shows the switching state „on“ and the green LED is turned on.
If there is no heat, the relay falls off. In Display this state is represented with "Off and LED not lit.
The relay contact is in an appropriate way to combine with the heating system and can then on this act, that energy is saved, if no heat exists.
To keep costs low, for example by to achieve that the burner is not turned on, if none of the radiator heat decreases.
The same applies for the circulation pump, which, as already described in many Heating continuously at full capacity shall be operated and a not small amount electrical energy consumed.
In automatic mode, the received from regulators are Values per minute compared with the corresponding limits.
If the valve opening is equal to the limit, or has this is exceeded, heat is present. For the respective controller associated segments on the display are turned on.
I have purchased the equipment now, and am trying to configure it properly.
The FHT 8W is quite a challenge with experimenting for the correct threshold values for each room thermostat.
And oh boy, is it fun to play with these toys! FS20 here I come
Next week I hope the FHZ 1300PC will arrive and then I have to look for some helpful links to help me with ipsymcon. And perhaps ipshomeconfig although I don’t yet know if the latter is a ‚must have‘ tool.
Just ordered some HW aswell, am interested to find out how well things work for you.
Personally my impression was that the fht 80b was a bit sub-obtimal.
In the end I decided on buying a
FHT UTS (to do the temperature control)
FHT AS1 (to switch my heating on and of)
I agree tht also this is not perfect (lack of display and lack of timer in the unit), but the solution seems to be a bit cheaper so I will see how it goes.
Hi Ray,
One of the most important things I wanted for my heating system was that it would continue to operate if my server was down. I must say that this works perfectly with the FHT 80B so I can not say otherwise than that I am very satisfied with the solution I chose. It works completely independent of my server but I have the possibility to influence things.
After the first succesful experiment I have put the FHT 80B in every room of my house. So this is what I have now:
-7 FHT 80B’s each controlling a radiator through the FHT80V.
-1 FHT 8W which ‚reads‘ the FHT 80B’s and turns on the heating valve (I have city heating which is controlled through an open/close valve in the pipe) if one of the rooms needs heat
Each room has it’s own temperature schedule which is contained in the FHT 80B by itself.
I have the opportunity to adjust the temperature through my server using the FHZ 1300PC. I use this when:
-I’m out of the house for several days. I then set all FHT 80B’s to manual and 15 degrees.
-When I’m returning I set them to automatic so the FHT 80B programs can take over.
-I’m going to sleep. I then set all FHT 80B’s to 16 degrees. The next day, the FHT 80B program itself controls the temperature again.
Under construction is some software which I’m writing to be able to control the heating through my windows mobile phone and a more complex heating schedule.
For me personally this solution works very well and is one of the cheapest I’ve seen. I must admit however that there are sometimes difficulties transferring commands from the FHZ to the FHT. If you send to many to quick, some commands get ‚lost‘. I’m planning to resolve this annoyance through the use of my own software which will monitor if the change has been committed and if not, resend it. I will also use the 116 seconds interval here, as described in others topics on this forum.
But in the end, the system usually runs on automatic and performs quite good now for the last months!!
My windows 2003 server is also almost never down. But it could happen and I don’t have a backup server. So in a worst case scenario it could happen that my server crashed, and the shops are closed for the weekend of hollidays. I would then have no heating for one of more days This isn’t a risc I was willing to take. And I don’t need to now either.
And I still can control the system to the fullest using my server if I want to.
I indeed use the 8W because ‚something‘ had to switch the valv. It can’t be on all the time if all radiators are closed. That would cause some technical problems.
Of course I want to do more than just heating now and again of course will I use a web service
Perhaps you are right and this is besides the subject here. So I’ll drop a private mail
