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Evohome BDR91 CH problem - help pls?

January 2, 2019, 12:45 pm
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New to this excellent forum. I have a strange problem (Honeywell also looking into it). Here goes...

Currently have S-plan unvented system with two 2port zone valves, one controlling CH, the other HW. Each has a BDR91 connected named BDRCH & BDRHW. Also have CS92 thermostat isntalled on unvented HW cylinder. My ATAG IR32 boiler controls a Grundfos Magna pump. The boiler is fired up by either motorised valve trigger switch.

Evohome controller is configured as two 2port valve system with boiler relay set to NONE. The hotwater setup has CS92 bound, BDRHW bound to hotwater valve and BDRCH bound to heatvalve. RF signal all excellent.

HW setup works perfectly, triggers heat when needed and can control temp remotely etc. The trouble is with the CH where I configured 1st zone as radiator valve zone with one HR92 bound as sensor and actuator. When heat demand occurs it does not trigger BDRCH. RF check shows no signal, so I rebind HR92 and RF check only to see it go from excellent to no signal whilst HR92 is syncing. Basically the HR92 looses actuator connection to controller when syncing! I tried other HR92s and even changed BDR91.... same issue.

I experiment and change 1st zone to a zone valve and bind with BDRCH and one HR92 all with success and signal stays up. It works perfectly as a single zone system remotely etc. So whenever I want to create a radiator valve zone using HR92 as sensor and actuator it does not trigger BDRCH.

What am I doing wrong? Its driving me nuts. I hope someone can pint me to what must be an embarrassingly simple fix......

Oh btw I tried the factory resets, reboots, refresh, battery out etc....

Arno
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Home Automation Hub Without Permanent Internet Access

January 3, 2019, 8:12 am
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Hi all

I'm just about to replace some ancient dead X10 kit for something more up to date. The problem is that I don't want any control hub I use to be permanently connected to the internet or for any processing to be carried out in the cloud. I simply don't want to be reliant on having a cloud provider still up and running and have an internet connection just to control my lights etc!

I have no issues with connecting to the internet every now and again for firmware updates etc, just not for the day to day running of my automated kit. And no, I don't have any interest in controlling my kit via my phone while I'm out and about.

That being said, does anyone have any recommendations on a Z-wave / ZigBee (I'll probably standardise devices on one of these protocols) compatible hub that can run like this? Ideally, I'd like to be able to control things through a WiFi connected tablet, but it's not essential.
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Unexplained high gas usage by evohome/valliant during a weekend away.

January 3, 2019, 12:32 pm
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I hope you guys can help me figure out what happened a few weeks ago. I have mailed the manufacturers, but Valliant didnt bother to have someone with knowledge read the mail, and evohome couldnt come up with an answer.

So I have a reasonably isolated, but older house with 5 heating zone with one HR92/radiator each. Radiators only, no floor heating. 4 year old Valliant ecotec 5.5 gasheater (boiler temp set at 60C) and the first color version of evohome, using opentherm to communicate with the heater. We were a long weekend away, so I manually put all HR92's to 15C continuously. We left on friday, so by Saturday all rooms cooled down to 15C. The evohome system was able to maintain this temperature untill we returned by frequent requests for low heat (see picture with pink graphs for example of 2 rooms).
1.jpg

When I returned sunday night, I was shocked that I used about 7m3 of gas that Saturday, which is my daily usage the whole week before, when there is a person at home all day heating the living room to 21C, and a family in the evening.
2.jpg

Does anyone has an idea why the usage is this high, while the setpoint temperatures were very low??
Attached Images
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Opentherm not shutting off boiler in lyric t6

January 3, 2019, 2:39 pm
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My Lyric T6 has having some strange issue. This morning at 08:20 when the heating schedule switches back to 18c from 22c the boiler should switch off as the house was at 22c. Instead the burner remained turned on with a 60c flow temperature and the radiators were very hot meaning the lyric was asking for a full flow temp. This is full output as my boiler flow temp is limited to 60C.

When I went into the lyrics "opentherm" display parameters by holding the button with 3 lines on it showed that the "control setpoint" was "60C" so the lyric was asking the boiler to provide 60c flow temp even though the heating should have gone off. Usually when the Lyric turns the boiler off the control setpoint drops to "10c". I had to turn the power off to the lyric and then it turned the boiler off once it had restarted. The communication Link is working ok as the Lyric shows under the opentherm what the boilers flow temp etc is.

The same has occured tonight the boiler has come on as normal and modulated through the evening but at 2230 tonight the thermostat has switched from 22c to 18c but the burner has kept going, the lyric is showing in its opentherm settings that it is asking the boiler to provide a 45c flow temp. The house is at 21.5 so the boiler should be off.

Any thoughts?
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Outdoor wifi repeater question. compatibility with Airport express

January 4, 2019, 1:15 am
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Hi, I have a number of apple airport express's around my home to get wifi in each room. I want to purchase a repeater suitable for outdoor mounting to get a signal at my gate so I can se tup an automated opening system. I am not sufficiently familiar with the tech issues.

Would product like TP-Link N300 Wireless Outdoor Access Point, Waterproof, do the job in that I can extend the apple network with this product.

If not is there a product that will match u with the Air Port express.
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Securing Evohome DHW Thermostat

January 4, 2019, 7:14 am
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Hi all,

First post here, but i'd like to thank all of those who have taken the time to explain the intricacies of the evohome system in various posts, especially Richard with his very useful videos.

Anyway to the point of the post...

My heating system consists of a Worcester Greenstar 24ri and a Worcester Greenstore unvented DHW cylinder in a S Plan system.

I have recently installed an Evohome system and hot water package, so am controlling both zone valves via BDR91s, and using the insertion probe.

Please note, I have retained the original duel stat. This has been wired in series with the evohome stat to ensure the duel stat relay must be closed for power to be supplied to the zone valve. Temperature settings are 65 degC on the duel stat and 60 degC on the evohome. This has been tested and functioning, reducing the temperature set point on either stat cuts power to the zone valve.

The system is functioning perfectly and as expected, but I would like to get some advice on the best method to secure the evohome stat in the sensor pocket of my Greenstore cylinder (this model has both an upper and lower sensor pocket). I should say these are dry wells with the Worcester supplied stat controller mounted onto outside of the sensor pocket.

Many thanks in advance,

Craig

P.S - so annoyed Worcester doesn't support OpenTherm
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Penguins

January 4, 2019, 8:06 am
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After watching Mr Attenborough on the tellybox over the xmas break, it suddenly dawned on me that in a room with more than one HR92, when they all adjust at the same time the noise sounds like penguins!

Anyone else noticed this?

P.
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Wired Radiator valves - Honeywell MT4/MT8

January 4, 2019, 4:54 pm
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I've just finished reading the monster thread called "Evohome is Noisy - please help me".

Beside the relief of surviving the experience I learned about the MT4/MT8 Small Linear Thermoelectric Actuator.

This seems like a miraculous device with lots of advantages: -

  • It is totally silent (no motors).
  • No batteries to replace.
  • It supports proportional control through PWM.
  • 24V version available (safe for bathroom use).
  • It responds immediately (although it can take 2 mins to fully open).
  • It won't lose connection due to interference.

It does have a number of downsides as far as I can see. For one it doesn't easily slot into the Evohome infrastructure unless you are willing to buy a relay device for every valve and sacrifice the possibility of proportional control of the radiator flow. Secondly it has no built in thermostat or display but to be honest I don't see that as a problem. I see Honeywell recommend driving it with something called Excel 10 or 12 but don't have much detail yet.

So has anyone driven their radiators with this instead of full Wireless TRVs like HRT92? If so I'd be interested to hear how easy it was to drive (especially if you used PWM).
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Hacking modulating boilers with fake outdoor sensor

January 5, 2019, 12:27 pm
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I've posted about my issues trying to get my E32S (Rinnai/Atag) to work with OpenTherm which it claims to support (though I think it's in the moderation queue). Looking at Dutch forums it may not be possible.
It got me thinking about alternatives to try to modulate the flow - the boiler allows an external thermometer to be connected and has parameters to control a curve allowing the external thermometer to control the flow temperature (ie so when it's warm outside the flow temperature will be lower as we expect there to be less heat demand). Obviously this isn't quite as good as a genuine opentherm connection.
The manual contains expected resistance readings for the temperature sensor at different temperatures, and I wondered whether it might be possible to use a digital potentiometer (controlled by arduino/raspberry pi etc) to provide a fake outdoor temperature reading, and thus indirectly control the flow temperature (as the curves to use are also printed in the manual)
Has anyone tried anything like this? Am I being silly?

My main issue with this plan is that I have no way of easily knowing what the heat demand is at any given moment - though I gather this can be read from the Evohome protocol as it goes over the air (using HGI80 or a homebrew version).

I have experience with ESP8266s so I'd intend to try something with one of those, but would be grateful for any suggestions/advice. Obviously if it works I'll publish details! (though it would probably only be relevant to people with modulating boilers that don't support OpenTherm properly/at all)
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Rinnai/Atag E32S and OpenTherm bridge

January 6, 2019, 5:08 am
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Apologies if this appears twice - the original may be in the moderation queue but I've not seen anything!

I have a Rinnai (made by Atag) E32S condensing boiler. It claims to support OpenTherm in the manual and has terminals marked OpenTherm on the boiler connection block. Rinnai sell a controller called the RS100 which apparently allows it to be controlled in a modulating fashion and I assumed that it also used OpenTherm technology.

I bought and connected an Evohome OpenTherm bridge. Initially it flashed red as expected. I bound it to the controller and it started to give three red pulses (not sure what that means but I assumed it meant it wasn't talking to the boiler). I shut down power to everything and when it turned back on it was doing the green pulse as expected.

A signal test shows 5 flashes on the bridge, but there's no "Excellent" on the controller like there is with the BDR91s (though the help text suggests that's normal).

The boiler is behaving as if there's nothing controlling it other than its normal behaviours. It's only firing when the volt-free demand contacts are closed (from the valve microswitches), and sitting at the maximum temperature rather than modulating in any way. The manual for the RS100 controller suggest that when the boiler is being successfully controlled over the bus it will ignore its volt-free contacts so I assume that the boiler is not hearing the bridge at all.

I have the older, non-wifi version of the Evohome controller so my debugging opportunities are limited. I have access to a multimeter and oscilloscope - though the fact the bridge is powered at all suggests it's not a physical issue and I'm starting to wonder if my boiler doesn't actually talk OpenTherm at all?

Does anyone have any advice on debugging this or anything on Rinnai/Atag E-series boilers?

thanks
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Evohome OpenTherm and Rinnai E32S

January 5, 2019, 4:36 am
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Hi,
I've been using evohome for a while and it works well - but I've been frustrated by an inability to modulate the temperatures - either I run a low boiler temp and have trouble heating when it's cold, or go high and lose the condensing efficiency.
My boiler is a Rinnai E32S and the manual claims it supports OpenTherm, and it has two connectors marked "OpenTherm" so I'm fairly confident it should work. Rinnai sell an "RS100" controller which connects there and sounds like it might use the OpenTherm protocol.
I bought an OpenTherm bridge and connected it up. Initially it flashed red as expected; I bound it and it started to give three red pulses at a time. I figured this might be "can't talk to the boiler" so turned off all the power, and when it turned back on it was flashing green as expected.
However, the boiler is not behaving as if there is any OpenTherm control at all. When I disconnected the valve microswitches that normally cause the boiler to fire, it did nothing despite there presumably being demand (at least, the BDR91s had opened the valves). When I reconnected them it fired up to 85C (I'd set the max temperature to 85C as according to the RS100 documentation the boiler fires to the lower of the OpenTherm temperature demand or the max setting)
Even when there is no hot water demand and very little heat demand (only one HR92 calling for heat, with a setpoint 0.5C above the temperature) it fires to 85C. The RS100 manual suggests that when the boiler is under remote control it ignores the heat demand contacts.

There isn't much scope for debugging - I have the old Evohome controller (non-wifi, Jan 2014 software). When I do an RF test of the opentherm bridge, I get 5 red flashes on the bridge but no indication on the evohome controller to say excellent/good etc (with the BDR91s I get "Excellent (2)" - though the help text on the evohome controller suggests that there will only be an indication on the bridge itself.

Grateful for any advice. Are there any other tests I might be able to do?
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New heating control product from Honeywell - Launches at CES2019

January 7, 2019, 2:19 pm
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EvoHome Hot water temperature incorrect

January 8, 2019, 10:15 am
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Just a quick question really before I go speaking to my plumber...

I’ve noticed since the install (about 6 weeks ago) that the water temperature indicated on the controller never gets to the 60 degree target and usually is to be found around the 45 degree point, dropping down to 15 or so when we’ve used a fair bit of water from the tank (210l unvented).

I was starting to get a little concerned and looked into it some more today. The water temperature at the tap is 60 degrees (handheld IR thermometer). So that’s a good thing. But the controller is reporting 40 degrees and has been doing so for the past hour, despite the HW demand being 100%.

My only thought is the sensor must not be contacting the tank correctly, but are there other possibilities? And is the sensor easy enough to have a look at / adjust without calling out the installer? I’m not familiar with unvented tanks so it’s all a bit new to me :)
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Evohome CH zones only trigger the boiler if the ‘central’ zone is also on

January 9, 2019, 1:30 am
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I have an Evohome with HW and CH systems in a S-plan configuration. It works except for this one issue that I hope someone has solved.

The HW works fine.
The CH triggers when the Kitchen demands heat, but all the other rooms do not independently trigger the boiler, i.e. only get heat IF the Kitchen also needs heat.
The Kitchen is set up without any HR92 (just a standard TRV) and gets its temperature sensor from the Evohome controller unit (in the kitchen).
All other rooms are set up with an HR92. All binding and signal strengths are fine.

Zone configurations:
Kitchen: Heating type = Zone valve; sensor = Evotouch sensor
Other Rooms: Heating type = Radiator valve; sensor = remote sensor (i.e. HR92)

The system summary shows that the demand % for the boiler control is the maximum of any zone (e.g. 100% if living room is 100% even if kitchen says 0%), but despite this the boiler/pump only goes on if the kitchen also demands the heat.

Advice is requested on how to set up the configuration so that any room can demand heating when needed, independent of the kitchen. Is this even possible?

I have a BD91 wireless relay for HW and a BD91 for the CH. These were wired into the legacy boiler system exactly as per the previous “non-smart” timer.
The CH system has a single motor controlled zone valve.

At the moment my workaround is to set the target temperature in the kitchen higher than the kitchen radiator/TRV setting can achieve so that the boiler/pump is never “off” during the set period, so if the HR92s in other rooms need heat then they can get it, but this means the kitchen is sometimes unnecessarily warm. Also sometimes if the oven is on / sun coming in etc. then the kitchen ‘overheats’ and switches off the boiler as it doesn’t need heat, which switches off all the other rooms.

Thanks for any advice.
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Multitude of EvoHome Issues on new install

January 10, 2019, 1:35 am
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Hi all,

I have just had EvoHome installed in my home (by an installer) and I am having more problems than I care for. I have searched through this site and can't see the same problem, but I do see similar things.

1. Some rooms never get up to temperature after the heating has been on for hours. I have 10 zones, mostly with 1 radiator in each. The zones which are set to 18c get up to temperature fine. Some of the rooms which are set to 21c never get above 18c. Only when I set the temp to 35c, do I see an increase in temperature. This is after maybe 2 or 3 hours of having the heat on. I have one room which never gets above 16.5c, it's a small bathroom/toilet with an uninsulated concrete floor - but I would have expected the boiler to be pumping heat continuously until it gets to temperature. It has a 1.5m external wall, all other walls are internal.It has a window which has secondary glazing. The heat loss should not be greater than the output from the radiator.
I have a 40Kw boiler, and at the time, I was pushing heat to only 6 of the 10 zones.

I do have a couple of radiators in the house which are not zoned. BUT, these are set to "frost", so there is little to no heat in these radiators.

2. Hot water temperature is showing online as "NaN". When I search for this term, I find nothing. When I search for "no hot water temperature", I am only seeing results for "wrong hot water temperature". Is this a signal issue? It was working when it was first installed, I could clearly see 47c.

3. This is probably linked to the above. My controller is showing the following errors:
COMMS FAULT
HEATING VALVE
ACTUATOR

Before purchasing EvoHome, I hired a RF test kit and found the sweet-spot for the relay, controller, and TRVs. When I test with the actual kit I have bought, I get a "good" signal from the Hot Water relay to the Controller (heating is working fine except point 1, so I did not test). So I know of no reason why there would be a COMMS FAULT.
In it is nigh on impossible for me to get the relay closer to the controller without drilling holes everywhere and going underneath the floor then drilling through concrete.
If the RF test (twice) was fine: what should I be telling my installer to look at?

Hot Water on the app and controller was showing as ON, but there was very little water, the return pipe to the hot water tank was not hot, and the relay was not showing as green. When I manually put it on, it would turn itself off after 30 seconds.

If any of this has been covered elsewhere and you have links, I am happy to read through to save covering old ground.

Thanks in advance.
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New ZWave hub - Smartthings, Harmony or Pi+Home assistant

January 10, 2019, 4:21 am
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Hi,

I have a Fibaro Lite hub which is long in the tooth and not very programmable.
I also have: Fibaro Dimmer 2, Fibaro 2xswitch modules for lighting, TKB + Aeotech 13A plug switches, Aeotech Gen 5 multisensors and a couple of Fibaro flood sensors.

I'm looking for a new hub...

What would you folks recommend? I expect diverse answers, but I'm interested in any nuggets of info like specific problems with a particular platform or particular plus points.

Many thanks - Tim


So far, the candidates seem to be:

Pi + Home Assistant (keeps it local under my control - but is it "wife friendly"?

Samsung Smarthings - looks polished if all my devices work? (Saw a whine that dimmers broke a while back, eventually fixed)

And Harmony seems to allude to both participating in an existing ZWave network - but can it also take sole control of devices and be the ZWave master?

Use cases:

Must have good iPad and Android app (native or 3rd party)

Must have website based control (local preferred over portal, but I will consider portal only solutions)

Should have good scene programming. The Fibaro Lite "block scenes" are very limited and tedious to set up. Equally, whilst I could write everything in perl talking to a RESTful endpoint, I don't really want to get that raw :) Although plus points for an API endpoint in addition to native competent scenes.
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Evohome Controller wont connect to internet

January 10, 2019, 4:54 am
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The controller has been fine for 18 months. Nothing changed in home environment now suddenly it wont connect. It does all the Wifi connection fine but then fails to actually connect to Internet. I've disabled everything to try and see if its clashing with something but cant resolve the issue. Anyone come across anything similar?
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Need an experienced Evohome installer for a location in Sidcup, Kent

January 10, 2019, 1:13 pm
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I'm monitoring my mother's house, which has a 5 zone Evohome system installed. It's critical for her wellbeing that the heating system is reliable.

Tonight the temperatures reported by the app are just not getting up the set points and some are actually dropping.

The original installer was very inexperienced and I don't want him back so can anyone recommend a good engineer in that area who can look at the whole heating system for me sometime soon and determine what's going on with it?
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Evovhome installation Norfolk

January 11, 2019, 12:28 am
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Hello All,

Just asking if anyone on here lives near Great Yarmouth Norfolk and fits the Honeywell Evohome system, what is required is the electrical installation only, all the radiator control valves are installed, so just hooking upto the Baxi Solo 24 he boiler, stored hot water system.

I did a search on the Honeywell website, sent out e-mails with no reply so this is my next choice to find someone who can install it for me.

Thanks in advance
Glen
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Is the app down?

January 11, 2019, 11:20 am
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I can't log in, I've tried the password reset which appeared to be successful but I still can't log in, any ideas please?
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