Control of the heating

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The control of your heating system depends on your equipment, and the installation of a heating controller is more complex than other uses (except for auxiliary heating).

We recommend that you consult your electrician or heating engineer unless you have the relevant skills and knowledge.

Contents

First step

Before you control your heating system, the first step we suggest is to :

  • Track your energy consumption (electric, gas in particular), from official and private counters
  • Monitor indoor temperatures, which depend mainly on your consumption

Auxiliary heating

This is the simplest solution, for example to warm country house before you get there.

Just plug a wall plug on an electric heater (do not exceed the power of the wall plug, often 10 Ampere).

You can then:

  • Add an eedomus "heating zone", choosing to use the thermometer to target a precise setpoint
  • Or simply switch the heater ON/OFF (that has to be set directly at the target temperature), using a calendar if you wish

Electric heating

Controling an electric heating unit can be achieved with relays.

There are two main methods:

  1. Using a control switch to directly switch the heating unit on/off (the relay can be inserted into the electrical panel or at the level of heating)
  2. Using the command pilot wire (an additional wire on the heating unit), in countries where available

In the case of the control switch, temperature control is set either :

  • At all or nothing (with the heating unit preset to a specific temerature). This is the simplest method, notably setting the heaters to when you are present.
  • By enslaving a temperature measurement unit. We recommend, for example, a ST814 thermometer. (Remember to add programming) The eedomus box then acts as a virtual thermostat.

Boiler

Boilers and central heating can be controlled centrally by a communicating thermostat. It is also possible to control each radiator (see Thermostatic valve in the section below).

The boilers can be controlled generally by a contact (that closes the thermostat). Contact may be "co-located" at the thermostat, or remote. Contact can be 220V or different. Check your heating or part number of your boiler.

Devices best suited for control of a boiler are:

  • A dry contact (relay from a Fibaro), the temperature measurement will be made from another device (eg Everspring ST814). The eedomus system software contains a thermostat program that will turn the dry contact according to the desired target temperature
  • Full thermostat, type Horstmann, consisting of a thermostat battery (with a LCD display and a local control) and a relay "dry contact". It may be operated through the portal eedomus or locally.

Thermostatic valve

Thermostatic valves allow central heating systems to regulate the temperature in each room. There are z-wave thermostat valves (manufacturer Danfoss).