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

["Paul Gordon" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, I would be interested in the UCM, - thus far, Smartfit seems to
be
the best fit for what I want, but I need to do a little more research
first, just to be certain that it is suitable for use in my design of
heating system. (I can't imagine it wouldn't be, since it's hardly
anything esoteric).

Why are you getting rid of it out of interest? - have you not
implemented Smartfit? - have you used it & decided to remove it? - Was
Smartfit inadequate in some way?

Paul G.


-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Paul Gale
Sent: 24 April 2007 08:49
To: UKHA_D Group
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] 1 year on, still looking to "HA my heating"

You could go the Comfort Honeywell Smartfit route.

In fact, I'm probably going to sell my Comfort Smartfit UCM -
interested?

Seems to fit what you want?

Paul.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Paul Gordon
> Sent: 23 April 2007 22:16
> To: UKHA_D Group
> Subject: [ukha_d] 1 year on, still looking to "HA my
heating"
>
> 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
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, 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
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 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
> don't
> need any control of hot water at all (after all, it can't turn the
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
> 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
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-
> 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
> 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! I
> saw
> quite a few systems at the Smarthome show last month, but almost
> 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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