Re: 1 year on, still looking to "HA my heating"

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Worcester / Bosch also have a good reputation, and our Potterton
has=20=20
been trouble-free for fifteen years (Which? also rated Potterton most=20=20
reliable & best, ahead of even Vaillant) ... don't forget to
consider=20=20
an electric boiler option ... people seem to assume gas is best, and=20=20
get taken to the cleaners on boliers & connection ... a few =A3k
buys=20=20
quite a lot of electricty & the payback period for a gas
installation=20=20
can be long, these days !

Chris


On 23 Apr 2007, at 22:15, Paul Gordon wrote:

> OK, so work rather forced me to postpone my plans to HA-ify my central
> heating system for a while, but I'm back on the case now, I have
> budgetary approval from the "FD" (aka SWMBO), and British
Gas today
> refused to certify my current boiler safe, so that rather puts the
> pressure on to sort something out.
>
> There are just sooooo many choices available and decisions to
make=20=20
> that
> I am having a hard time seeing the wood for the trees, so any advice,
> thoughts, experiences from the group would be most welcome!
>
> The main decision drivers are:
>
> I have a mains-pressure combi boiler & standard radiators. The
boiler
> *will* need replacing, so I need to select the "best" (most
suitable)
> replacement. I have a preference currently for a Vaillant model,=20=20
> since I
> have heard only good things about these, but I am open to any
> suggestions regarding this choice. I have fairly low mains water
> pressure, (Thames water!) so I need a boiler that will work well in
> these conditions. Clearly I will be replacing with a condensing model,
> but I have no desire to re-engineer my heating system, so I will be
> staying with a mains pressure combi design, to keep the job to
> (hopefully) a straightforward boiler swap-out. Important=20=20
> considerations
> for the boiler choice are the best flow rate available (given our
> already low mains pressure, so minimal losses in the boiler itself are
> key), and the fastest response time to produce hot water (to wit I
> believe there are models that maintain a small reservoir internally of
> water that is kept "hot and ready") - just like SWMBO... ;-)
> (perhaps that's too much information!)
>
> I have Comfort G2 installed, and I want this to be the main control
> system for the HA control over the heating. - Specifically, I want
> Comfort responses able to switch the heating based on alarm state, and
> the ability to manually control and monitor the system status both
> locally from any location in the house, and remotely via phone or web.
>
> I have CBUS lighting installed, and I have a CBUS UCM linking this to
> Comfort. Thus CBUS switches anywhere in the house can trigger Comfort
> responses. I also have a CBUS PAC for more complex logic/processing
> where required.
>
> I have a 24x7 HA PC running Homeseer, this is fully integrated with
> Comfort via a UCM and a Comfort plug-in. This is not to be regarded as
> part of the "core" system, since a PC is not guaranteed to
be 100%
> reliable (although mine *is* pretty damn stable as it happens). What
> this does give me however, is the web interface into Comfort, and all
> the additional "nice to have" layers on top of the core
functionality.
>
> I have a CAT5 cable run going to each of my radiators, installed in
> anticipation of wanting to install remotely controllable rad valves at
> some point. I currently have TRV's on all but one of my rads.
>
> Zoned control might be "nice", but I don't view it as an
essential
> requirement; - we don't have zoned control now, so we won't miss what
> we've never had, plus we live in an old, leaky Victorian house, so
> "zones" are a little bit of a nonsense here, since heat
moves around
> between rooms all the time anyway, with not much we can do to
stop=20=20
> it! -
> The house is, pretty much, 1 big open plan zone in effect...
>
> I don't need independent control of hot water & heating. In fact
I=20=20
> don't
> need any control of hot water at all (after all, it can't turn
the=20=20
> taps
> on for me can it!) - actually, yes - I *do* know that I *could* in
> theory automate taps to do auto-filling of the bath for instance, but
> that's for the next house!. All I want this time round is heating
> control.
>
> Oh, and I always have a preference for a wired control system over a
> wireless one where possible, since I have yet to experience a wireless
> system that has never let me down. (with the possible exception of my
> DECT phones?). On that note, X10 as a control system is a no-no
as=20=20
> well,
> - just not reliable enough, and I'm in the process of expunging
> virtually all X10 from my house anyway.
>
> Based on the above information, I'm thinking that maybe the Honeywell
> Smartfit system would be a good fit for my needs... - Does anyone here
> have one of these? - does anyone here have one integrated with=20=20
> Comfort?
> Does it work with my design of heating system (i.e. mains pressure
> combi) - and what the **** is the difference between
"S-plan" & "Y-=20
> plan"
> anyway?
>
> Anyone care to offer any other suggestions? - obviously I've looked at
> the Honeywell Hometronic system as well, but this does seem like=20=20
> massive
> overkill for my requirements. I am absolutely set on the integration
> with Comfort; - I don't want to bring into the house another disparate
> HA system with its own control mechanisms... - Integration is
key!=20=20
> I saw
> quite a few systems at the Smarthome show last month, but almost=20=20
> without
> exception, they were closed, proprietary systems with their own
> controllers and so on.
>
> Right, I think I've rambled on long enough now...  Thanks for reading
> this far!
>
> Paul G.
>
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