Alternatives to Randall TP5 room thermostats

[chris@xxxxxxx (Chris Davenport)]

I am in the process of building a new house and intend to install
an underfloor heating system provided by Nu-Heat Ltd.  In their
suggested design they have recommended using Randall TP5 room
thermostat/programmers to provide independent control over the 7 heating
zones in the building.  Each programmer is connected, via a central
wiring cupboard, to one or more motorised valves on the heating manifold
and works, as far as I can tell, by simply switching mains voltage to
the motorised valve on or off.

What I'd like to do is separate the programmer function to a PC whilst
leaving the thermostat function in the individual heating zones.
Ideally each room/zone should have a wall-mounted thermostat with an
LCD temperature display and simple set-point controls.  A centrally
located PC should provide the 24-hour, 7-day programming function for
each of the zones, by switching in series with the thermostat. I shall
probably put 7 override switches in wiring cupboard to allow operation
of the heating if the computer should fail.  I hate those VCR-style
programmers and the thought of having to re-program 7 of them from time
to time fills me with dread.  A Windows-based front-end which I can
re-program from the comfort of my study is much more what I have in
mind.

I'm happy to write the software myself but does anyone have any
recommendations or thoughts on suitable room thermostats and PC interface
hardware?

Regards,

Chris.

--
Chris Davenport
chris@xxxxxxx
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