RE: Underfloor heating and HA control?

["Neil Ball" <neilball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Type of underfloor should not be an issue Paul as all systems will use
a
manifold distribution system where each loop of pipe can have its own
thermo-electric actuator fitted for full zone control.

The manifold will also be fitted with a manually controlled mixing valve
that delivers warm water to the UFH system rather than full boiler
temperature water so direct control of this is not required.

You will need to control the manifold pump and provide a demand signal back
to the boiler. Most UFH manufacturers have a wiring centre that includes a
pump relay and makes wiring up the system with conventional stats and
programmers easy.

If you want to roll your own HA solution then you would still use the
wiring
centre to keep things straight forward but replace stats and clocks with
your own temperature measurement and relay switching systems.


Now for the advert.....

Or if you want a commercially available system then it could be worthwhile
looking at Hometronic - you could guess I would get around to this at some
stage :-)

This system would include all of the modules you would need to control both
the new underfloor system and existing heating and allow you to zone the
original system down to room level if you want to go that far. It would
replace all wiring centres, stats, programmers and timeclocks. HA
integration could either be via simple electrical integration (volt-free
inputs/outputs) or possibly via the webserver if you wanted to hack the
protocol a little. There is no direct support for the hacked approach but
I'm sure this would not pose to much problem with some help from other list
members.

It will cost much more than a diy approach and does not offer as much
flexibility or the same academic challenge, but it will work out of the box
and the wireless aspect of the system should allow very simple
installation.

Feel free to drop me questions off-list.

Neil B.


-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Paul Gale
Sent: 19 October 2006 08:39
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Underfloor heating and HA control?

I'm going to be putting a wet under floor heating system into my loft
conversion. The floor will be a timber and real wood flooring. My architect
says this is possible and there are systems available to do this (rather
than embedding in concrete).

Obviously! I want to be able to control this and feed it into my HA system.
I currently use Smartfit connected to Comfort - but this is only a single
zone solution.

While we're doing this, we may also be doing a fair bit of work to the
house
heating system and may even be replacing the boiler. This would be a good
opportunity to finally create a proper zoned system - I'd ideally like to
be
able to control the temp in a number of zones around the house - if not in
every room individually.

So - any ideas or recommendations for:

a)	Type/manufacturer of the UFH
b)	Type and manufacturer of the control system
(automatable/with status control)
c)	Type of system to fit in the existing rooms?

Having Comfort, HomeVision Pro, HomeSeer and a xAP network, how might I
integrate this heating system? I'll also be getting CBus if that makes any
difference?

Thanks,

Paul.





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