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Opentherm with Evohome

October 12, 2016, 6:11 am
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After a few months off the case, I am back at looking at boiler replacement options with an opentherm connection. To date, I have considered ATAG but there are no installers in my immediate area and, latterly, Intergas. Valliant said that it wasn't a goer and I still await a response from Viessmann. Technical support teams tell me that their installers have been given some training on the opentherm capability but as there are so many opentherm devices on the market they have to led by the device manufacturer.

One forum that I read recently suggests that Intergas boilers do not cope with Evohome multi-zoning. The advice is that it may be just as good to install a boiler with weather compensation and no opentherm. I know that Evohome does not use external weather compensation but I struggle to see how, for example, a variable boiler temperature (weather adjusted) would work with, say, optimum start on a HR92? Wouldn't the boiler be continually adjusting and the HR92 continuously learning?

Another forum suggested that as most of the savings benefit has already been accrued by installing Evohome, the cost/benefit of opentherm doesn't stack up.

I am also struggling to get my mind round how a system boiler works with opentherm? I have seen a reference in the past that opentherm only works with combo boilers.

What I am looking for is a replacement system boiler for an Ideal FF280 in an 'S'plan configuration. The two BDRs control the 2 motorised valves.

Am I wasting my time with this? I am really not keen to have my Evohome set up 'destroyed' whilst a well-meaning heating engineer learns on the job.
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Broken HR92?

October 12, 2016, 9:57 am
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Hi all

I noticed one of my rooms was not switching on in the mornings (evenings were okay however). On closer look, the battery status on the HR92 display showed zero bars. There was no 'low battery' warning received by the controller.

I swapped over the batteries from a known working HR92 (with two battery bars) but when re-inserted it still displayed zero bars.

I put brand new batteries in and still the same thing - zero bars

I have emailed Evohome and they have told me the warranty is 12 months and with the supplier. Unfortunately it was just over 12 months since I bought all the kit :(

Just wondered if anyone has seen the same problem with the HR92?

Thanks in advance
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How are messages actually sent? One Zone not working - how to debug :(

October 13, 2016, 6:55 am
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Hello!

my first post to the forum, and im afraid its a problem - sigh..... So I have had the evo home system installed for about 4 months and then all of a sudden I noticed that I could not override the temperature in my study, for some reason it is just not calling for the heating to turn on. The installer came out but basically had to leave after 4 hrs and to be honest got really fed up with having to wait every 4 minute. He called up Honeywell who told him it was interference by the WLAN or the computer in the study - which it is not, as I have turned all this off to prove it... so I have a few questions...

1) What is the actual message flow from the HR92 to make the heating turn on, for example...
---- Radiator valve has override set and opens the valve
---- Radiator valve sends packet / message to evohome controller - controller updates display showing new overridden temperature
---- Controller then sends packet/ message to the Heating Relay? Is there an ACK sent to the rad valve etc?
---- Heating relay turns opens valves, turns on pump, fires up boiler etc?

are there any acknowledgements or messages sent between these processes? Do all the messages go to the evohome controller, and then this in turn sends the required message to the relay etc?? I have searched and searched for this but cant find the information

2) In my scenario I have tested the radiator valve to the controller = 4/5 signal on all tests - it actually updates the value on the evohome controllers screen
3) I have tested the evohome controller to the HR91 relay, 5 flashing red lights....
4) I have used the phone app to change the value in the office, the evo home controller updates the display showing the new value, the new value gets sent to the radiator valve and is updated.
5) The radiator valve can talk to the evohome controller (as proved in step 2), the evohome controller can talk to the HR91 (as proved in step 3).....
5) ALL the other zones work fine, I can override them - heating turns on - I can use controller to change temp - heating turns on - I can use phone app - heating turns on.
5) why oh why is it not working for the study zone!

Any help really appreciated, its driving me nuts.. I have properly removed the binding, deleted the zone and rebound and STILL the same problem - I just don't get it... There are also no fault logs at all for COMMS etc etc!
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A few words from me

October 14, 2016, 5:40 am
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I've covered Evohome a few times in my PC Pro column, which I know some of you have seen.

But for those who haven't, I've massaged (and slightly updated) some of those articles for a blog post on the Vesternet site.

Hope some of you find it useful. If you're an 'expert' user it probably won't tell you anything that you don't already know, but for those considering Evohome it'll hopefully be a useful starting point.

P.
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Cortex and Hikvision IP Cameras

October 14, 2016, 5:43 am
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Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience on getting the Hikvision IP cameras working in Cortex? I've set the substream to MJPEG and am using the URL given by Hikvision but nothing is coming up on screen.

I've tried to add the user name and password to the URL and into the Cortex camera object but still no luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I was planning to add a number of additional cameras.

Thanks,
Nad
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S-Plan vs Y-Plan for Evohome ?

October 14, 2016, 6:27 am
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In another thread I was talking about adding the hotwater kit to my system which is currently gravity circulation for the hot water cylinder, and decided that I would do a conversion to S-Plan next year:

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbull...ll=1#post28246

However I'm now wondering, what are the pros and cons if I were to make it Y position with a mid position valve instead of S-Plan ? Since I'm converting it anyway I could go either way.

My main point of interest, is how does the Evohome's control of the two, 2 port zone valves in S plan or the mid position valve in Y plan differ in terms of valve positions during both TPI modulation and after the system goes off ?

In an S plan configuration, if heating is active and hot water is not, when the heating is turned off is it correct that the heating zone valve would close immediately, thus forcing the entire flow from my boiler during the pump overrun period to flow through the automatic bypass valve ? This is not ideal from the point of view of dissipating excess heat in the heat exchanger to avoid kettling. I already have a fairly long pump overrun period to avoid the boiler generating small steam bubbles when the pump flow stops.

My question is, what does the Evohome do on a Y plan configuration when hot water is disabled and heating is running, (mid position valve fully in the A position) and the heating is then also turned off - does it keep the mid position valve energised in hold mode in position A, or does it completely remove power from it to let it fall back to the HW position. (Port B open)

What I would ideally like is that when hot water and central heating are both turned off that the mid position valve drop back to Ports A and B or B only so that the latent heat from the boiler heat exchanger can circulate via the hot water cylinder during the pump overrun period, rather than circulate via the automatic bypass valve like it would on an S plan configuration. Of course this would raise the hot water temperature very slightly, but the benefit is the boiler heat exchanger is quickly and effectively cooled to prevent kettling as an automatic bypass loop won't remove much heat compared to the cylinder loop.

Does anyone here use Y plan and know what the valve does under these conditions ?

Another difference - in S plan mode does the CH zone valve modulate on and off in each TPI period ? I'm assuming it must since most people would fire their boiler using the limit stop switch in the zone valve.

However what does a mid position valve in a Y plan configuration do during TPI modulation of the boiler during the period of time when the boiler is supposed to be off - does the mid position valve stay in the B (heating only) position, or does it drop back to the mid position, or even the hot water only position ? I'm assuming it must stay in the heating only position otherwise it would cause undesired heating of the hot water cylinder during each TPI cycle in heating mode ?

Any other pros and cons of S plan vs Y plan in relation to Evohome or in general that I should consider before deciding which way to go ?
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Wanted - Heatmiser Touchpad (v2 protocol)

October 14, 2016, 11:06 am
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I'm after a Heatmiser Touchpad v2, also badged as a JG Touchpad (they of Speedfit plumbing fame). It looks like this


If anyone has one they'd like to sell, or has seen one somewhere, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!
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beginners project help

October 16, 2016, 1:44 pm
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Hello,
I am trying to find a home automation solution that will enable me to the following to start with. I did consider a Raspberry pi with OpenHAB but think I would struggle with the coding. Is there a product and or interface that would easily let me do the following using my pi? Thanks for your help :)

I want to place a motion detector outdoors on the rear of my property that turns on an interior light if an intruder approaches. i only want the light to stay on a set amount of time. I want some control of when it is active and not active, like only during the hours of darkness for example.

p.s i learnt html years ago when the internet first came about and built a basic website so i will be able to learn basic commands just daunted by all this stuff id have to learn for openhab whilst im older and not as bright

Thanks,
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Evohome cylinder strap on sensor incompatible ?

October 17, 2016, 2:37 pm
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Hi All,

I decided to go ahead with a gravity circulation (plus immerser) to S-Plan conversion earlier than I originally planned as discussed in other threads.

I have the hot water kit and have been doing some preliminary testing before the real conversion work begins later this week, however I seem to have hit a stumbling block. The cylinder is a vented, 95 litre combined indirect loop and immerser system, currently connected in a gravity loop configuration - eg very slow to reheat and requires the boiler temperature set very high to get any gravity circulation....so we tend to use the immerser a lot, especially in summer.

Just so I could play around with the evohome hot water configuration I went ahead and installed the strap on sensor on the cylinder - I cut back a section of insulation about 1/4 of the way up as documented, cleaned the copper until it was nice and shiny then fitted the sensor and strap. The sensor is bound and the relay is connected to a test power lead so I could finish the binding process.

I thought a good test would be to turn on the immerser and see what the reading went up to - well, it went up to 34 degrees and didn't go any higher, even though after an hour turned on the hot water coming out of the tap was easily 50+ degrees. :(

Anyone have any ideas ? Is it possible that the cylinder has a double skin, and therefore the outside copper layer is not in direct contact with the hot water, preventing me from getting a meaningful reading ? When I remove the sensor and touch the copper it feels cool (less than body temperature) to the touch, so 34 degrees seems plausible given how cool it feels.

Or could it be that the location of the immerser element near the top prevents much heat transfer to the casing of the cylinder low down where the sensor is installed, and that heating via the indirect loop which I believe is nearer the bottom would heat the bottom of the cylinder much more ? (Grasping at straws here)

If it is double skinned I guess that means an insertion sensor would be necessary - there is an insertion hole through the top for the thermostat for the electrical element that could potentially be used, however (a) this would disable the immerser not leaving it available as a backup (not a big deal if the new configuration performs much better) and (b) the insertion sensor provided with the hot water kit looks bigger diameter than the existing thermostat.

I'd have to pull the existing thermostat out and measure it to be sure of that, I have replaced it in the past however I don't recall exactly what size it was. If the insertion hole is too small for the sensor I'm kind of screwed even though I've ordered all the hardware to do the S-Plan conversion ? :confused:

Another question - is it normal for the hot water sensor reading on the controller to only update once every 8-10 minutes ? This seems very infrequent if you had a quick re-heat cylinder - it seems that overshooting the set temperature would be a problem if it could continue to heat for another 10 minutes after the set temperature had been reached ?

This is not a quick re-heat cylinder but it seems strange to me that HR92's would report their temperature every 4 minutes but the hot water sensor only every 8 minutes.
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Planned Maintenance - Total Connect Comfort & Lyric server outage - March or October

October 18, 2016, 12:21 pm
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I have received two emails this evening warning me of the above.

One in Spanish saying:-

Se va a realizar un mantenimiento programado de los servidores de Total Connect Comfort & Lyric en la fecha siguiente:

Inicio: 19/10/16 4:00 AM (GMT)
Fin: 19/10/16 5:00 AM (GMT)

& one in English saying:-

The Total Connect Comfort & Lyric servers will undergo planned maintenance at the following point in time:

Start: 19/03/16 4:00 AM (GMT)
End: 19/03/16 5:00 AM (GMT)

I assume the Spanish dates are correct and we are not being retro-informed of an outage in March !

FB
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Economy Mode Quick Action - Changing Setting

October 18, 2016, 1:31 pm
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Does anyone know whether the Evohome Economy Mode Quick Action default value of 3deg C is no longer changeable.

I thought I changed it to 5deg C a few months back but I cannot see any place now to change this setting.
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BDR91 Back Boxes

October 18, 2016, 3:11 pm
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If your fitting the Honeywell BDR91 to a back box you may well find that some back boxes will not allow the BDR91 to fit, some folks then fit a blank face-plate and drill it to allow cable entry to the BDR91, well after going through 5-different makes (MK, MB, LAP, Schneider Lisse... etc) I found these that allow the BDR91 to clip nicely into place: http://www.screwfix.com/p/british-ge...ack-of-5/81051
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Is there a way to control via a web interface

October 19, 2016, 1:17 am
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Im finding the Evohome app totally unintuitive except for basic things and the controller very fiddly.
Granted I haven't read through the whole forum but wondered if there may be a web facing alternative.
I'm particularly interested in being able to change the heat programming.

Thanks

David
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Boiler Pump/Fan cycling at random? Evohome at fault?

October 20, 2016, 12:48 am
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I have a full Evohome setup, controls UFH and individual room rads.

During the night, the pump (or could be the fan?) activates for 30 odd seconds or so, then quickly dies off and repeats this every ??-20minutes or so. The boiler does not fire - or didn't on the 3-4 cycles of this.

The system isn't calling for heat (BDR91s are unlit for hot water/ CH) but the pipes in the airing cupboard are warm from the system firing up earlier in the night (as per normal)

My son's room is kept at 17 degrees, and last night the room temperature was reading 17 degrees throughout the hour I spent scratching my head trying to work out why the boiler was activating the pump(?) or fan(?).

Sticking my head in the airing cupboard sounded like water was being circulated, but as I said the boiler wasn't firing. The pipes were slightly warm so the system had been on the last 30mins properly.

It did this 3-4 times before I eventually gave up and put a pillow over my head.


--> Now, could this be because the room temp was flicking above/below the room stat at 17 degrees? This causing the boiler to start the ''fire up'' sequence, then the temp would rise slightly, causing he boiler to start the ''shut down'' sequence....before the temp would flicker again and the boiler would fire back up....BUT...Evohome's controls preventing the boiler from cycling too often was ''regulating'' these on/offs?

How can I prevent this? Any suggestions on what could be causing it? Due to the boiler being near the bedroom these unwarranted activations are really bugging me at night.
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Evohome heating/security integration

October 20, 2016, 1:46 am
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Within the app, if you have the Honeywell security system installed, under connected rules, it says “you can have your security system trigger quick actions for your comfort system, pretty neat huh?”

Well, actually, it’s not very neat. It’s only partially implemented and there’s a huge flaw in the bit that works.

Back in August, I made Honeywell aware that if one un-sets the security system via the app, it made the heating system revert back to the normal schedule from the economy setting that it sits in throughout the summer. Now that the weather is somewhat cooler, the optimum start for the heating is kicking in but it has become apparent that un-setting the alarm knocks this off.

To give a concrete example, the main bedroom is set to get to 21C at 7:00am. The optimum start kicks in at 6:20am and the alarm is unset via the app at 6:30am. The result is that the bedroom heating goes off until 7:00am. This only applies to a zone where the optimum start has already been triggered as it’s only at the moment of un-setting that the normal schedule is applied to the system.

Regarding the partial implementation, the app lets you trigger quick actions if the security system is either partially or fully armed. That’s great, but, assuming I set that up and use the keypad to arm the system, that doesn’t have any effect on the heating whatsoever. Hardly living up to the “Total Connect” moniker I’d suggest.
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Vented to unvented project with Evohome using Megaflo cylinder

October 20, 2016, 9:07 am
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I've had Evohome for about 12 months now on my Y-plan vented system (heating and water controls). It works ok most of the time but I do get some phantom switching on of the heating shortly after the heating program has finished - I've put this down to the heating BRD91 having not great reception which I will fix with this project.

What I'm doing (with the aid of a couple of plumbing friends) is moving to a Megaflo unvented cylinder system, and moving the cylinder to the loft whilst I'm at it, allowing a bigger bathroom. We start work tomorrow.

I upgraded the Evohome system myself, being reasonably ok with electrics and will be doing the electrics on the new system. But things are a little more complicated as the Megaflo cylinder comes with its own 2-port valve for the HW control, and the manufacturer wants installers to use the Megaflo's water thermostat with the HW 2-port valve, this is a safety requirement (to stop the cylinder overheating) - this all seems sensible. But, this creates a problem for my Evohome installation in two ways: 1) Evohome wiring likes to control the HW itself; 2) I can't see anywhere to fit the Evohome HW thermostat on the Megaflo cylinder. I've spoken to Megaflo who confirm there is not an auxiliary pocket to fit a 2nd thermostat. Their recommendation was to fix the sensor to the HW outlet at the top of the cylinder.

So I thought I'd ask the forum if they have any ideas (I have done some searching but couldn't find any definitive guidance, and I don't really want to drill a hole in the outerskin of my nice new water tank)! I get that the Megaflo sensor should be fine for controlling the internal water temperature, but I like seeing what temperature the water is in Evohome. Also, I want to use Evohome as the programmer to control when HW turns on / off (I don't want it on all the time)! Can I use the HW BRD91 without a HW sensor attached and have it acting just as a programmer? And one last point of complexity, I have pv solar running off a solar switch (that diverts spare electricity to the immersion) - I don't see this as a problem as the solar switch is on the immersion supply.

Can anyone offer any words of wisdom on how best to control HW with the new system?

Thanks - Adrian
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Questions about evotouch - HR92 and temperature measure on T87RF in the same zone

October 20, 2016, 2:07 pm
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Hi
I have evohome evotouch main module (older model without built-in wifi) with HR92 motorised valve and a T87RF sensor. Is it possible to bind HR92 to the same zone as T87RF and use T87RF as a temperature sensor ? As I see temperature measurement on HR92 is not accurate and I would like to measure it somewhere in the middle of the room - not close to the radiator.

Another question: My evotouch version:
Application Software Version: 25 Jan 16 2014
Bootloader Softaware Version: 6.0 Aug 27 2013
Is it possible to update its firmware to the latest version ? Do I need RFG100 internet gateway to update firmware and how to do this ?

Please advise.

BR
Wojtek
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Evohome power down

October 21, 2016, 7:45 am
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Hi All,
I'm moving house and need to go in rented for 6-8 weeks.
I've removed everything from the house and removed batteries from any device with one.

The main controller is currently sat in its mains cradle keeping the battery charged.
I don't see anyway of disconnecting the battery so when I move it's going to die.
What effect will this have on the battery being discharged fo 6-8 weeks?

Any suggestions please?
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Hot Water Kit - sensor details

October 21, 2016, 7:49 am
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FYI: I tested the remote sensor head at work today, my findings are:

1. It's a Negative Temperature Coefficient thermistor, with a value of 10,000 ohms (10K) @ 25ºC.

2. It's resistance falls with increasing temperature at a rate of -4%/ºC

A fairly standard device to measure temperature, not linear but can be easily calibrated with a lookup table (temperature v resistance) or an equation that yields a rough approximation. You can buy these off the shelf at most electronic component suppliers if you ever need to, example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/In-S...608.0.0.XIz3L2
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Evohome override in multi room zone

October 21, 2016, 10:30 am
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We have one zone which is actually three rooms, a downstairs wc, utility and small hall connecting the two. One radiator in each.

Previously this was just set as a single room with three rads. Primary HR92 was the one in the hall, theory being if that area is up to temp then the other two will be.

We were previously able to override the temperature in the utility room to say 24 degrees and it would alter the temp of the other radiators (expected) and also revert back to the setpoint 5 degrees at midnight (so any manual override would be cancelled at midnight if we forgot to turn it back down manually)

I have now changed this to a multi room zone in an effort to be a bit more efficient.

However now if the radiator in the utility is manually changed to say 24, while I see the expected behaviour of the other two radiators not changing, it also does not revert back to 5 degrees at midnight. The manual override stops on indefinitely.

Is this normal that a manual override in a multi room zone does not get overriden by a schedule? Is there any workaround or setting to prevent this?

Many thanks for any help.
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