Temp sensor instead of thermostats

[ghostrider1111]

I am planning the construction of a new home. I plan to have approximately 5 to 6 zones with automatic dampers. Will homeseer and elk be able to control the temps in the different zones with temp sensors and 1 thermostat or will I have to purchase 1 thermostat per zone?

[Jim Doolittle]

I'm no HVAC expert but I would think you would only need one HS-compatible thermostat that would act as master. Temp sensor feedback could then be transmitted to HS and events used to control dampers. The key is that you do not want too many of the dampers to close and cause problems to your unit.

I was thinking of opting for booster fans instead because these would not cause pressure issues but they would use more electricity and tend to be noisy. I am going to try one this fall and see how it goes.

[pete17c]

Ocelot/Leopard

I use an ADI Leopard/Secu16/Secu16i for all HVAC control . . . no 'thermostat' at all . . .

I have five zones of hydro-radiant heat and a single zone A/C system. I have at least one temp sensor in each room wired to a Secu16i, a Secu16 trips relays in a 'standard' (TACO, I think) pump controller (to avoid issuses w/ inspector mostly) to run the zone pumps, and the A/C is directly controlled by the Secu16

C-MAx runs a 'no-frills' thermostat program, with setbacks triggerd via homeseer changing a Leopard variable . . .

I have a very reliable, stand alone system . . . and it's easily controlled via homeseer . . .

Pete C

[ghostrider1111]

Thanks for the information.

[completelyhis]

Question about your SECU16I

I'm quite new to using x10 for zone HVAC, but so far I like your solution the best, I think. I do have a few questions, however:

1. does the SECU16I send x10 "commands" (in your case, temperature derived from analogue sensors) to Homeseer via the TW523?

2. Does the SECU16I function as a HVAC controller, or do you still need a seperate controller? If it does, how is it wired in? I have a gas furnace with an AC unit wired into it's own controller board. I'm not able to conceptualize how the SECU16I would interface with that.

Thanks,

Ian

[cadillackid]

I use an ocelot as part of my HVAC system but it could easily be used to do complete control over the system, esp if you are going to use Homeseer and temp sensors.. to control an HVAC system directly with an Ocelot SECU-16, you would take the hot from the output of the transformer on the furnace and loop it to one lug of 3 separate output relays on the SECU-16, then on each relay you would run a wire from the other terminal of each relay... one to the heat terminal on the furnace, one to the cool terminal, and one to the fan terminal.


want heat? you would energize the relay on the ocelot that is connected to the heat terminal of the furnace... which is easily done with the free plugins for the ocelot and homeseer..

want something closer to standalone? then you could use temperature bobcats and a "failsafe" script to set the system to a preset mode if homeseer went down...

even as elementary as starting a timer in the ocelot and homeseer zeroing it out every 3 minutes... if the timer ever got above 5 minutes you'd know homeseer was dead and the ocelot could run on preset values so your house wouldnt freeze...
-Christopher

[Jim Doolittle]

cadillackid,

Not sure if we have discussed this before. I have been kicking this idea around for a couple of years now. I have two RCS X10 thermostats but only use them for AC. I have 6 zone hot water heating.

I would like to connect three zones (Upstairs) to one RCS X10 thermostat and three zones (Downstairs) to the other RCS X10 thermostat. The RCS X10 thermostats would act a master controllers.

I am thinking that the system would only call for heat if the Upstairs Thermostat or the Downstairs Thermostat temperature was below setpoint. The individual zones for each of these stats would dictate the relative need for heat but once the Upstairs/Downstairs Thermostat was at setpoint the other zone requirements would be ignored.

I would like to eliminate the old round thermostats and go to something I could control via HS. 6 Zone solutions from RCS or someone else are cost prohibitive as well as Bobcats. So, I would like to use one-wire temperature systems.

My problem is putting all this together. The current system has the old round thermostats connected to relays that control 24V Zone Valves. I think I am looking at some combination of RCS X10 Thermostats, one-wire network (zonal temperatures), and Ocelot/Secu16 (relay control). I suppose I could do eliminate the RCS stats from the equation but I thought that might provide more friendly control for my wife and I have heard that someone wrote a pretty good plugin for the RCS X10 stats .

[completelyhis]

Like using Ocelot and Homeseer, but...WAF

I like the idea of letting HS contorl the system via Ocelot and temp sensors. I'd like to have it be automated in every zone, depending on time, occupancy, temperature, so on and so forth. The problem is, of course, the wife. She wouldn't be into having to go to the computer to increase the temperature downstairs in the theater room, for instance. She's not a big fan of VR, either. Is there a way to give HS control over the whole system for automation, yet provide a thermostat in everyroom? Perhaps a thermostat that would tell HS to turn it up or down, or am I needing to go in a different direction, such as a standalone system? if it is a standalone system, how would I get HS to be able to fully automate it, contorling dampers, sensing temps and occupancy at different times?

[cadillackid]

you know it almost sounds like a product Idea here.. low cost LCD display with a couple buttons on it that would merely talk back to the computer.. either via serial port, or RS485.. RCS equipment is expensive.. since ive got several products by them in use.. but with 1 wire being so easy and cost effective.. wouldnt it be nice to have something for ease of the user but didnt have any functionality so it would be cheap. even RCS WDU by themselves are rather pricey at 100 bucks a pop...

you also know with 1 wire if you want something to back-up the PC would be to operate your thermostats with say a basic stamp controller.. it can be put together for less than an ocelot and will take up to 16 1 wire sensors, plus you have other IO pins that can be set up as outputs or inputs, it programs in a form of PICbasic thats pretty easy.. has a serial port so you could talk to HS with it either via a plugin or script.. heck even write the PIC part of it to emulate RCS or HAI and use an existing Homeseer plugin for it..

just some ideas to kick around.... I have some ideas for you jim and how you might go about what you want to do.. we'll have to talk more so i can get a better idea of your exact setup.
-Christopher

[BorisB]

you know it almost sounds like a product Idea here.. low cost LCD display with a couple buttons on it that would merely talk back to the computer.. either via serial port, or RS485..

You mean something like http://http://www.acscontrol.com/Ind...rminal_MCE.htm ?

Nice, but still $100 a pop and would need a HS plugin written for it, but I would love to have these in a few places around my house.

[dmohr]

you know it almost sounds like a product Idea here.. low cost LCD display with a couple buttons on it that would merely talk back to the computer.. either via serial port, or RS485.. -Christopher

Local temp control could be through two push button switches connected to a Ocelot IO board. Response could be a cheap serial or USB VFD.

I really like the $8.95 membrane panel. I could configure that into complete audio/lighting/temperature control...

http://www.acscontrol.com/Merchant2/...CD-128X64-MBSW

But you can get much cheaper VFD or PLED displays.

Doug