This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Multi Zone Heating System with PC Win-7 Control

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


Parents
  • Well Keylevel, can it use existing (Large bore presumably) motorised valves? Otherwise Clive will need a lot of plumbing at megapounds cost, no one wants to go near this kind of system for very good reasons. That system is fine for a new install, but retrofit could be very difficult. The other important point is that these systems have a very long time constant, control delay if you like. A lot of heat is stored in the pipes due to the water volume there so turning off the boiler, or even changing a valve doesn't stop or start the heating for a considerable period. Software which took this into account would be a good idea.
Reply
  • Well Keylevel, can it use existing (Large bore presumably) motorised valves? Otherwise Clive will need a lot of plumbing at megapounds cost, no one wants to go near this kind of system for very good reasons. That system is fine for a new install, but retrofit could be very difficult. The other important point is that these systems have a very long time constant, control delay if you like. A lot of heat is stored in the pipes due to the water volume there so turning off the boiler, or even changing a valve doesn't stop or start the heating for a considerable period. Software which took this into account would be a good idea.
Children
No Data