Re: Re: HouseHeat

["Martyn Wendon" <martynwendon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Kevin,

I'll take a look at OPNMax which does sound like it could be ideal.  I run
a
lot of perl stuff already (on both Windows and Linux) e.g. the asterisk and
zoneminder connectors, so it wasn't a big deal for me to add FHEM to an
existing server.

With regards to the multiple actuators, I've not tried this myself, but the
FHEM command ref at http://www.koeniglich.de/fhem/commandref.html#FHT
gives
commands for "actuator" being all associated actuators and
"actuator1 -
actuator8" being the individuals.

I think that on the RF side of things it would be a case of trying it and
seeing how far you can push the reception, a single Thermostat Control and
Radiator Actuator would let you test the ranges in your house?

>>>>This is interesting to me because of the confirmed delivery
of messages

You can do that on the FHZ stuff too in a fashion, since you can send
commands to the FHT and then request it to send back all it's settings a
short while later.



Martyn

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Hawkins" <yahoogroupskh@xxxxxxx>
To: <xap_automation@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 11:09 AM
Subject: [xap_automation] Re: HouseHeat


--- In xap_automation@xxxxxxx, "Martyn Wendon"
<martynwendon@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi Kevin,

>
> FHEM was pretty easy to setup and get running, although it's written
in
> perl
> which may have drawbacks for some people I guess.

One of the ideal platforms for this is the OPNMax (the embedded xAP
controller based on the Linksys NSLU2 Slug).  For £50 you could have a
standalone xAP controller with the heating control nicely integrated and
the
scheduling and logic already provided.  Aside from Perl it also has a web
interface,  DB for logging and a graphing application...   My Linux
familiarity is nil though...


>
> My xAP gateway is also written in perl and so far I've got it
representing
> all the available settings / measurements from FHEM as BSC endpoints
> sending
> ..info messages at startup and every 5 minutes and .event messages as
> things
> change and get reported from FHEM.  .cmd and .query will be next on
the
> list
> of things to do, once I've got those up and running people are welcome
to
> it!

A lot of this code may already exist if you were to dovetail it into
OPNMax....

>

>
> I did spot though that each thermostat control can control up to 8
> radiator
> actuators and you can send commands via FHEM to manually control each
one
> as
> a percentage "open".  Therefore in theory if you already
have temperature
> measurement in rooms via another method, then with the PC Connect Kit
and
> 7
> actuators at ¢G40ish each you can effectively control 8 radiators
for an
> outlay of less than ¢G500, which I think makes it reasonably cost
> effective?

I had thought that the thermostat controls - whilst being capable of
linking
to 8 different rad controllers treated them all as one zone - ie sent the
same % value to each - or at least proportional ones to allow radiator
balancing  .  I hadn't expected it to allow 8 different temp setpoints to
support 8 independent % openings via the FHZ...      What I had thought was
maybe the HouseMaster might be useable in such a fashion... but maybe that
can only talk to thermostats.  Keep me posted

>
> The RF side of things is also pretty impressive since I have my
controller
> in node zero, which is in an enclosed rack in the garage

RF range is one of my concerns as my internal walls are mostly three feet
thick and my house is long so several to go through....  they don't seem to
offer an RF repeater.

I notice that  HouseIntelligence have now put up the HomeMatic products
which use the encrypted bi-directional protocol - this has a slightly
different looking thermostat.  This is interesting to me because of the
confirmed delivery of messages but my only route to integration would be
via
the DLL... plus the HomeMatic controller is expensive ..so although you
gain
on one side you lose on the other...  the existing FHZ based solutions
still
look to be the right way to go...

K



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