Motorized dampers off the Omni II Pro possible?

[Wazoo]

I'm splitting some zones in my home and the HVAC firm we are using suggested several Honeywell motorized dampers.

The question at this point is whether or not I need a Honeywell controller board as well placed inline... or whether it can all be done off the Omni II Pro board.

Anyone have experience with this?

[Pete]

I have an Omni Pro II and have considered utilizing dampers in my forced HVAC home. It would be easy to do with the HAI Omni Pro II. My old 2 story home had a furnace/AC for one floor and a second one for the main floor. I was building a home and investigated zoning with forced air. At the time decided to damper just the returns and put two sets of them (one for heat and one for cooling). I have a friend who has an HVAC company and he talked me out of the motorized dampers in that he said they were too much of a headache. Today just use magnetic covers on the high and low returns depending on the season, room, floor of the house.

What's nice with the Omni Pro II is that it is expandable with both thermostats, relays, temperature sensors etc so you can do just about anything with it. I am guessing the the Honeywell controller board would work with a Honeywell integrated system (thermostats) which most likely wouldn't be as flexible/intelligent as an Omni Thermostat (I have those - very nice).

[anogee]

I think you need both, assuming that the Honeywell controller board you are speaking of is a zone controller. Normally you have one thermostat per HVAC unit and the Omni communicates with the thermostats. If you are going to add dampers, you add a thermostat in each room with a damper, then you need a zone controller between the thermostats, dampers and HVAC unit(s). The Omni can still control these thermostats, but the zone controller controls the dampers AND the HVAC unit. Yes, the Omni could control the dampers itself, but what's going to control the HVAC unit? You can't use a thermostat to control it anymore, because you don't just have one, you have several, on in each room with a damper.

Once it is set up, you can have the Omni set each room thermostat, but its the zone controller then controls the HVAC unit and adjusts the dampers.

[Wazoo]

I think you need both, assuming that the Honeywell controller board you are speaking of is a zone controller. Normally you have one thermostat per HVAC unit and the Omni communicates with the thermostats. If you are going to add dampers, you add a thermostat in each room with a damper, then you need a zone controller between the thermostats, dampers and HVAC unit(s). The Omni can still control these thermostats, but the zone controller controls the dampers AND the HVAC unit. Yes, the Omni could control the dampers itself, but what's going to control the HVAC unit? You can't use a thermostat to control it anymore, because you don't just have one, you have several, on in each room with a damper.

Once it is set up, you can have the Omni set each room thermostat, but its the zone controller then controls the HVAC unit and adjusts the dampers.

Ok... that makes sense. Thanks for the info.

Paul