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Comfort to Heatmiser WiFi thermostat Integration
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 Posted: Thursday Oct 4th, 2012 08:46 am
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yanza
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After developing previous PC (Windows Media Center) to Cytech Comfort integration software, YANZA has been offline for a while working out what people (the millions who don't already have it) need from Home Automation, the answer (apart from Comfort security, etc.) is to save money.

The average UK home energy spend is nearing £1,500, 60% being heating. The UK spends £33 billion on domestic energy each year. Getting everyone to turn down their heating by just 1 degree C could save 10%.

YANZA has Heatmiser WiFi thermostat cloud based remote control in beta testing. Please subscribe (see yanza.com website) if interested.

More importantly (for this forum) YANZA would like to ask the forum if there is interest in adding Comfort support to link Cytech Comfort to Heatmiser WiFi domestic heating.
For example, when Comfort is set to away mode, the heating goes off.

Please reply to this forum so everyone can share in the discussion.

Please also look at our survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2N2R6KY

Thanks

yanza.com



 Posted: Thursday Oct 4th, 2012 12:37 pm
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slychiu
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Welcome back to the Comfort Community, Yanza



 Posted: Thursday Oct 4th, 2012 12:37 pm
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slychiu
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Welcome back to the Comfort Community, Yanza



 Posted: Thursday Oct 4th, 2012 05:01 pm
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schford
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Sounds very interesting - heating is the only thing left for me to integrate!



 Posted: Friday Oct 5th, 2012 01:30 am
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ident
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Is it necessary to leave your PC on all the time for this? I think there will be resistance to using a PC for such home functions



 Posted: Friday Oct 5th, 2012 08:09 am
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yanza
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Hi ident

I think the ground is gradually shifting as to what hardware is suitable for Home Automation.

I think there will ALWAYS be a place for dedicated 24/7 hardware like Cytech Comfort, mine has been working flawless for 10 years.

However, people are relying on their home PC for new functions, TV on demand, remote access to their music and video, remote access to their documents, so they are starting to leave their computers on 24/7.

YANZA has done three surveys. The first showed 71% leave a PC on 24/7, the second showed it was 26%, the survey in this forum shows 50%. A bit of a spread, and average of half, but a few years ago I suspect it would have been much closer to 0%.

In this instance, the Heatmiser WiFi thermostat is designed to work stand alone, and in my experience has saved money without the PC being on 24/7. A lot of the work is done in the cloud, which is 24/7, where the user can refine the heating patterns and where the learning is done to make minor adjustments to the WiFi thermostat schedule the next time they communicate. Also the PC doesn't have to be on 24/7 as the WiFi thermostat can be used via iPhone and Android, or even any browser, the PC/cloud combination is there to add extra "glue".

I don't see dedicated hardware like Comfort going away, just more PC integration, the best of both, especially as PCs become more reliable and people do start to leave them on 24/7!

So to answer the question, no it is no necessary to leave the PC on 24/7, the WiFi thermostat will work stand-alone, with maximum energy saving modifications each time the PC is switched on, especially with Comfort integration such as "turn heating off when Comfort goes to away mode".

yanza.com



 Posted: Friday Jan 11th, 2013 01:20 pm
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jmwhooper
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Hi Yanza

Came across this thread, I'm looking to find a way to provide 2 way comms between comfort and heatmiser via RS485, can this be done with a UCM?

Thanks



 Posted: Saturday Jan 12th, 2013 04:10 am
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ident
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The Universal UCM is our solution for interface to 3rd party systems, see the forum at http://www.comfortforums.com/forum94/

The Universal UCM can be ordered with  Rs485, Rs232 or Ethernet interface

It allows baud rate, etc to be configured as well as start, stop bits and other protocol information
You can send any command to the device and receive messages from the device and assign to Counters, sensors or other  comfort elements




 Posted: Saturday Jan 12th, 2013 07:40 am
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yanza
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There is already a post on this
http://www.comfortforums.com/view_topic.php?forum_id=47&highlight=hometronic&id=918
including some documentation. However Heatmiser also publishing their own interfacing documentation on their website. The thing to watch is that a checksum may need to be calcuated and I'm not sure how Comfort would do this. The WiFi versions certainly need to checksum to be calculated.



 Posted: Sunday Jan 13th, 2013 01:53 am
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slychiu
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The universal UCM can be programmed to calculate various kinds of checksums and CRCs



 Posted: Thursday Feb 21st, 2013 10:19 am
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ndh
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In discussions with Cytech it would appear they are agreeable to considering doing the Heatmiser Integration using the UUCM / RS485 (soon I think).

For those of you that don't know them the Heatmiser products are very prevalent in the UK and elsewhere and are OEM by lots of other companies. They come bundled with underfloor heating kits etc. with other suppliers name on.

At the simplest level you can take say a 12v (touchscreen) themostat and wire it into a Comfort Zone and 12v supply.  You then programme what you require e.g. turn on a discrete relay (or Cbus, Dynalite etc.) to control the boiler / electric underfloor / fan / blinds etc.

Once you have multiple zones etc. then it becomes more complex in providing overall control and that is where Heatmiser provide their Touchscreen to 'co-ordinate' and make configuring / adjusting easier. Where you have a Comfort system that might be a preferable route to take as you may not want additional devices and may want things like heating set back on Arm.

Although I have no looked closely it would appear my Vaillant boiler has both low voltage control connections as well as mains level. The latter being for the traditional time clock  / thermostat configurations. The manual actually states the low voltage connections are not for use in the UK but I have not researched this further.

In my configuration I have a kitchen / bathroom extension with underfloor heating and since that may be heated say in the morning (before work) I would typically have a single channel stat, possibly with probe and then elsewhere another dual zone (rads & hot water) for the rest of the house with pump, some motorised valves and TRVs. Valves mean an occasionally used bedroom could be generally isolated and then turned on from (say) a wall switch (Scene Control Switch; Cbus etc.) Once 'On' it can be part of any overall control e.g setback on Arm.

Considering involving Comfort in heating controls is something for anyone to consider as it may improve control  / save cost etc.  My experience is that it can work well but perhaps with some for of override in case of rare problems.  In the case above the individual stats could be configured to continue operation without Comfort present.  In any event a couple of manual switches could provide continuous operation of heating and hot water.

Where Comfort is integrated with Heatmiser at the network level it is possible for the KT03 touchscreen to provide a variety of controls.

As ultimately the objective for Cytech would be to sell more product it would be good for as many people to feedback their interest etc. here, so Cytech can gauge the benefits.

Nigel



 Posted: Thursday Feb 21st, 2013 04:04 pm
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palmlodge
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I have a 5 zone Heatmiser v2 system - no wifi - but has RS485 I/F

As for PC's having any control over my house ? Never. It will never be robust enough.

Last edited on Thursday Feb 21st, 2013 04:05 pm by palmlodge



 Posted: Thursday Feb 21st, 2013 05:16 pm
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yanza
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Some news on this project, especially with the last comment "As for PC's having any control over my house ? Never. It will never be robust enough."
Fair point, well made.

Even though the research (see previous post) pointed to an average of say half of people leaving a PC on 24/7, and thus is being suitable for HA (and the YANZA software was certainly robust enough), the decision was made to convert this home energy saving project from software to hardware. Immediately I'd like to say that converting it to hardware it is in in no way meant to compete with Comfort, they are very different, if anything it might compliment, and this thread is to generate all round interest.

I'd also echo the recent comment from ndh re: Comfort/Heatmiser integration and I'd hope that the ultimate aim would be for many disparate but compatible players in the HA/HEMS space to be able to sell more product.

For those who are interested in saving home energy (heating) which I suspect ought to be most people, the YANZA project is currently just about to move from prototype testing into pilot testing, please visit the yanza.com website and contact us if you would like to find out more, and of course continue to support Cytech.

YANZA



 Posted: Thursday Feb 28th, 2013 12:15 pm
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ndh
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My previous post reposted to Heatmiser RS485 thread.

Heatmiser RS485 - Comfort Integration anyone?

Catch you soon Yanza


Last edited on Thursday Feb 28th, 2013 12:16 pm by ndh



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