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Multi Zone Heating System with PC Win-7 Control

AncientMariner
I think that I may have been here before, but I am trying to source a multi-zone heating control system suitable for a village hall.


There are 3 heating zones - gas fired wet system, No Hot Water control required as separate.  Motorised valves for each zone. Existing control is via three domestic programmers which are in a small cabinet and get poked and fiddled with on an almost daily basis.  This results in gas being consumed overnight or Sundays when no one is there and worse. The boiler consumes about 60 kWh of gas in the first 30 minutes.  So far this month 3.7 MWh of gas used. Worst day being 2nd Dec - 587 kWh when it was on 24/7 from the afternoon before.


My preference would be control from the Manager's Win-7 pc which is located in a normally locked office.


So far, two systems have been suggested. One a purpose built system with remote access as well for circa £4.5K /£5K installed. The alternative being as off the shelf Siemens system which can only be controlled by either an Android or Apple phone. This would be circa £1,500/£2K installed.


In both cases wi-fi would be used as well as remote access via internet. The hall has BT Business Internet with wi-fi, plus 2 Ubiquiti UniFi Access Points.


So, are there any Android emulators which would be up to this. The thoughts of 3 zones on a weekly calendar may be a bit fiddly, but without seeing the controlling APP, does start to take me out of my comfort zone.  (I do not want to be the only person who can program it etc to the point where I have too much ownership...)

Thanks.

Clive


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  • 0
    This is a nice little Rasberry-pi project for you Clive, costing a couple of hundred quid! I suggest a system as follows:


    You need to add relay GPIO outputs sufficient to control all the valves and the boiler. Throw away the home controls.

    You need to run a real-time clock, a cheap GPS module will give you a perfectly accurate one.

    You need temperature sensors for zones, not thermostats which people will fiddle with, use the analogue inputs and a few semiconductor sensors in convenient boxes.

    Then a little simple software will get it all running, which can be improved with a booking database and pretty user interface for the manager.

    You can add Mikes buttons as well, for use when someone arrives and the booking is not made.


    No problem, job done, a nice little task to do over Christmas!


    All of the other bought systems will cost much more than you have been quoted to produce something half as good, you can do all the bells and whistles you like, proportional temperature control, frost stat, Wireless control via wi-fi etc with a couple of add on modules and a bit more software (almost all of which already exists).

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  • 0
    This is a nice little Rasberry-pi project for you Clive, costing a couple of hundred quid! I suggest a system as follows:


    You need to add relay GPIO outputs sufficient to control all the valves and the boiler. Throw away the home controls.

    You need to run a real-time clock, a cheap GPS module will give you a perfectly accurate one.

    You need temperature sensors for zones, not thermostats which people will fiddle with, use the analogue inputs and a few semiconductor sensors in convenient boxes.

    Then a little simple software will get it all running, which can be improved with a booking database and pretty user interface for the manager.

    You can add Mikes buttons as well, for use when someone arrives and the booking is not made.


    No problem, job done, a nice little task to do over Christmas!


    All of the other bought systems will cost much more than you have been quoted to produce something half as good, you can do all the bells and whistles you like, proportional temperature control, frost stat, Wireless control via wi-fi etc with a couple of add on modules and a bit more software (almost all of which already exists).

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