I would like to automate our heating system: Ideally, a target temperature should be set for each room and the heating system should be automatically regulated accordingly.
We have the following setup consisting of
Underfloor heating, with the valve controls located centrally on each floor
Zigbee temperature sensors for each room
Buderus heating system, connected via MQTT and esm-esp
How can this best be achieved with the existing setup? Is it sufficient to control the boiler via esmp-esp and adjust the valves manually once? Alternatively, are there valves (ideally connected via Zigbee) for the underfloor heating that can be controlled automatically, for example by transmitting the measured value from the temperature sensors?
Maybe the way my Homematic thermostat switches the valve is completely over-engineered, but given the lag and the „training time“ the thermostat needs to adjust to the room size and the respective delay of the underground heating, I would not be bold enough to build a logic that‘s equally reliable and spot-on the target temperature. Just my 2 cents.
Room thermostats usually quite dumb (stay on until target temperature is reached and stay off until before that value). So I did the same dumb heating control but controllable via OH.
I just added a Shelly Relais between the Room thermostats and the valves. This is very cheap and super easy since you usually have a lot of space where your valves are located.
In OH I can even decide whether my OH should control the heating or my room thermostats that are still connected to the valves as a switch to the Shelly (usually this is not required but this would keep stuff working if my OH system would be down for a couple of days due to broken hardware). Just make sure that you override the room thermostats decision when your own logic has a different opinion on heating requirements.
Interested to see how you achieve this. I have a 6 zone hydronic system with an integrated valve controller handling the valves for each zone. Mechanical thermostats in each zone activate the valve controller.
My first approach was a simple wifi switch on the boiler itself that would cycle off in the evening, on in the morning. Works OK, but is still subject to kids messing with the thermostat settings, and no adjustability for individual zone temp. Simple on-off for the boiler on a schedule.
I’m thinking of adding a shelly wifi relay to handle on-off for each zone based on input from temp sensors I already have in place. Because of the long lag times with in floor heating I think this approach might be sufficient. If not a smart thermostat in each zone might have to be the proper solution.
(Just saw DrRSatzteil post, sounds exactly like what I’ll be setting up :), essentially using shelly’s to jump the thermostat input on demand by OH. Works for gas fireplaces too)
Yup, except I already have the valve controllers in place to actuate the valves based on a mechanical thermostat in each zone, but the functionality is just like what you’ve outlined.
