Thermostat recommendations?

[MattBurgoon]

I'm slowly building up my house to proper geek level (and no wife to worry about!) Next on the list is a thermostat to replace the one that's currently there with something that's not as old as I am. I have a 1400 sq ft house, and live in the san francisco bay area where it doesn't freeze. Heck, I don't even have AC (though this may change, it does get a bit warm in the summer.)

With all that said, I do intend to take all of these toys with me to my next house which will likely be bigger, and who knows where it's going to be.

The equipment I currently have in my house as far as MH goes is insteon, and was looking at their 2441V which is an RF insteon unit that plugs into a Totaline or Venstar thermostat to extend control. I'm not 100% set on staying insteon given the lack of choices, but it would be nice so I don't have to tie another module into my PC. So for those of you who already have this set up (have found a few posts on it, including the previous conversation of extending the insteon object) but I'm not totally clear on a few things.

What I'm mainly after is the ability to control the on/off functions of the heat or AC. The decision making will likely be complex: What time of the day is it, is anyone home, is there movement in this room, what is the temperature in that room, what time of the year is it, what's the temp outside, is the attic fan on, etc. Obviously, programming this into a single hardware device isn't easy, but building the logic into misterhouse won't be too much of an issue.

I also envision my next larger house being split up into zones and the thermostat in the hallway, each zone has a temp sensor, as well as duct air dampers for each zone. The hallway may be 75, but the office while I'm working from home is 68: turn the heat on. It's night time, it's 63 in the hallway and when it hits 68 in the bedroom, turn heat on. It's 80 degrees everywhere in the house, the temp outside finally falls to 70, turn attic fan on, when inside temp gets to 75, turn fan off, if people are home, turn on the AC to cool down living room and master bedroom to something more comfortable (but only if the fan is off).

In looking through the Insteon_Thermostat code, it doesn't look like I can say just turn on/off heat/AC, all control will have to be done through set points. Is that correct? And more importantly, is this sufficient for complex logic? Just set various extreme set points that will guarantee the desired action for heat or AC by the thermostat regardless of what temperature it sees? (with the 'off' extremes something reasonable so I don't come home to a 60 degree or 85 degree house in case my PC dies.)

The problem will be when the (future) wife wants to adjust the temperature. I can't think of a good way to handle that if misterhouse is making all the decisions and there's no way to feed back changes to misterhouse from the thermostat, Unless someone has something creative, she'll just have to learn how to use a web page to control the heat.

I like the idea of using an already established thermostat for safety or manual override reasons, plus the ever present possibility of future wife-compatibility.

[Brian Warren]

MattBurgoon wrote:
>
> In looking through the Insteon_Thermostat code, it doesn't look like I can
> say just turn on/off heat/AC, all control will have to be done through set
> points. Is that correct?
Nope.
$thermostat->mode('off') will shut it off.  Then set whatever mode you
want on the flip-side.


> And more importantly, is this sufficient for
> complex logic? Just set various extreme set points that will guarantee the
> desired action for heat or AC by the thermostat regardless of what
> temperature it sees? (with the 'off' extremes something reasonable so I
> don't come home to a 60 degree or 85 degree house in case my PC dies.)
>
>  

Can't recommend the Insteon Thermostat setup.  The RCS that I had at the
previous house was comparably priced (given that I had to by APs,Tstat
and adapter) and much more functional.  I too was wooed by the Insteon
luster.  Poll the list for alternatives.  Or buy mine  so I can get
something better ;)
> The problem will be when the (future) wife wants to adjust the temperature.
> I can't think of a good way to handle that if misterhouse is making all the
> decisions and there's no way to feed back changes to misterhouse from the
> thermostat, Unless someone has something creative, she'll just have to learn
> how to use a web page to control the heat.
>
>  
You could poll the setpoints @hourly or whenever, but you are correct in
that there is no direct feedback.

> I like the idea of using an already established thermostat for safety or
> manual override reasons, plus the ever present possibility of future
> wife-compatibility.
>
>
>  
Good luck.  In this case choose !Insteon.

hth,
Brian

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[Gregg Liming]

Brian Warren wrote:
> MattBurgoon wrote:
>> In looking through the Insteon_Thermostat code, it doesn't look like I can
>> say just turn on/off heat/AC, all control will have to be done through set
>> points. Is that correct?
> Nope.
> $thermostat->mode('off') will shut it off.  Then set whatever mode you
> want on the flip-side.

FYI - the methods for Insteon_Thermostat were heavily "borrowed" from
the RCS thermostat code for consistency (as opposed to inventing
something totally new).  This way, it's easier to "upgrade" from an
insteon thermostat to an RCS one :)

Gregg

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[Tom-172]

I've had my RCS TR40 for several years and it works great.

It has an alert light for messages that I use to alert me when the
mail arrives. (a red light turns on)
I created a Reset Mailbox Indicator button on the MisterHouse front
page that resets the red light.

It connects over an RS232 cable so the Insteon solution may be easier
to deal with unless you want to run the extra cable.

Check out my wiki entry for how I use mine.

http://misterhouse.wikispaces.com/Tom

The Media Center 2005 screen shots are outdated.  I've created a new
Vista Media Center page but I haven't included those screen shots.


On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 8:52 AM, Gregg Liming <gregg@...> wrote:

> Brian Warren wrote:
>> MattBurgoon wrote:
>>> In looking through the Insteon_Thermostat code, it doesn't look like I can
>>> say just turn on/off heat/AC, all control will have to be done through set
>>> points. Is that correct?
>> Nope.
>> $thermostat->mode('off') will shut it off.  Then set whatever mode you
>> want on the flip-side.
>
> FYI - the methods for Insteon_Thermostat were heavily "borrowed" from
> the RCS thermostat code for consistency (as opposed to inventing
> something totally new).  This way, it's easier to "upgrade" from an
> insteon thermostat to an RCS one :)
>
> Gregg
>
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>

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[MattBurgoon]

And here I was just about to pull the trigger on my insteon cart.. :) Thanks for the feedback, I'll follow your advice and skip the insteon thermostat. Now, onto some alternatives! I'll check out RCS and see what all I'll need for that.

Brian Warren wrote:

Can't recommend the Insteon Thermostat setup.  The RCS that I had at the
previous house was comparably priced (given that I had to by APs,Tstat
and adapter) and much more functional.  I too was wooed by the Insteon
luster.  Poll the list for alternatives.  Or buy mine  so I can get
something better ;)

Good luck.  In this case choose !Insteon.

hth,
Brian

[Joel Davidson]

I've had good luck with my Omnistat RC-80.  The graphical interface
that Chuck wrote that uses the basic library that I got working looks
pretty nice, but I've never used the web based stuff.  I just have a
couple of buttons on my console that change the mode between home,
away and sleep.

If I want to change the setpoints while I'm home, I just push the
buttons on the thermostat.  Yeah, I know that sort of goes against
what we stand for around here, but it works!

Joel

On Tue, 24 Feb 2009, it would appear that MattBurgoon wrote:

>
> And here I was just about to pull the trigger on my insteon cart.. :) Thanks
> for the feedback, I'll follow your advice and skip the insteon thermostat.
> Now, onto some alternatives! I'll check out RCS and see what all I'll need
> for that.
>
>
>
> Brian Warren wrote:
>>
>>
>> Can't recommend the Insteon Thermostat setup.  The RCS that I had at the
>> previous house was comparably priced (given that I had to by APs,Tstat
>> and adapter) and much more functional.  I too was wooed by the Insteon
>> luster.  Poll the list for alternatives.  Or buy mine  so I can get
>> something better ;)
>>
>> Good luck.  In this case choose !Insteon.
>>
>> hth,
>> Brian

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[Marc MERLIN-7]

I'm looking at doing a subzone in my house. Basically I'd have a huge duct
go from the furnace to the master bedroom, and a zone damper to control it.
That zone damper is actuated by 24V, which can be gotten from the furnace.

For now, I'll have the wire go in the master bedroom and use some
switch/relay to turn that damper on.

What I'd like to do is this:
Have a thermostat in the bedroom that actuates that damper, but that also
has a way to remotely turn on the master termostat that controls the
furnace.
This is because having the thermostat trigger in the master bedroom would
not trigger the master thermostat and cause airflow. Things would only work
if the master thermostat happened to trigger because its own temperature got
tripped.

So, what I'd like to do is have the bedroom thermostat be able to remotely
tell the master termostat to turn on or off, bypassing the master
thermostat's temperature (which it would then go back to once it gets the
off signal).
This is of course trivial for insteon switches, but I'm not sure what
thermostats I should consider to do this.

So, I've read so far:
1) Insteon thermostat, which apparently isn't great, but maybe would work
   either as a master or slave?
   http://www.smarthome.com/2491T1/Venstar-Thermostat-INSTEON-Remote-Control-Thermostat-1-Day-Programmable/p.aspx

2) Brian said 'RCS', not sure which one.
   http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_info.php?products_id=1293  ?
   (not cheap)  

3) Joel said Omnistat RC-80, not sure if it would work well as a master
   or slave, and be money efficient.


What I'm looking for can use Insteon, X10, or even standard wiring if necessary.
I'm not sure if there is a way to reuse my existing master thermostat as a
master or slave (I have the regular 7 heat/cool/fan programmable kind, but
no remote programming that I know of, and I don't think its wires allow
signalling to trigger it remotely, but maybe its relay signals can be used
to control a smarter new master thermostat in addition to my subzone damper?

So, what would you recommend as my cheapest workable setup?

Thanks,
Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

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[Marc MERLIN-7]

Ok, so I had no luck with my last query, so should I maybe ask what smart
thermostats you folks use and what you recommend I look at? (I can study
data sheets and work from there).

Thanks,
Marc

On Tue, May 05, 2009 at 10:42:36PM -0700, Marc MERLIN wrote:

> I'm looking at doing a subzone in my house. Basically I'd have a huge duct
> go from the furnace to the master bedroom, and a zone damper to control it.
> That zone damper is actuated by 24V, which can be gotten from the furnace.
>
> For now, I'll have the wire go in the master bedroom and use some
> switch/relay to turn that damper on.
>
> What I'd like to do is this:
> Have a thermostat in the bedroom that actuates that damper, but that also
> has a way to remotely turn on the master termostat that controls the
> furnace.
> This is because having the thermostat trigger in the master bedroom would
> not trigger the master thermostat and cause airflow. Things would only work
> if the master thermostat happened to trigger because its own temperature got
> tripped.
>
> So, what I'd like to do is have the bedroom thermostat be able to remotely
> tell the master termostat to turn on or off, bypassing the master
> thermostat's temperature (which it would then go back to once it gets the
> off signal).
> This is of course trivial for insteon switches, but I'm not sure what
> thermostats I should consider to do this.
>
> So, I've read so far:
> 1) Insteon thermostat, which apparently isn't great, but maybe would work
>    either as a master or slave?
>    http://www.smarthome.com/2491T1/Venstar-Thermostat-INSTEON-Remote-Control-Thermostat-1-Day-Programmable/p.aspx
>
> 2) Brian said 'RCS', not sure which one.
>    http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_info.php?products_id=1293  ?
>    (not cheap)  
>
> 3) Joel said Omnistat RC-80, not sure if it would work well as a master
>    or slave, and be money efficient.
>
>
> What I'm looking for can use Insteon, X10, or even standard wiring if necessary.
> I'm not sure if there is a way to reuse my existing master thermostat as a
> master or slave (I have the regular 7 heat/cool/fan programmable kind, but
> no remote programming that I know of, and I don't think its wires allow
> signalling to trigger it remotely, but maybe its relay signals can be used
> to control a smarter new master thermostat in addition to my subzone damper?
>
> So, what would you recommend as my cheapest workable setup?
>
> Thanks,
> Marc

--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

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[Daniel Arnold-2]

Marc,

I use an HAI RC-80 thermostat with RS232 serial control.  I believe HAI also
makes a thermostat compatible with zoned systems.  I don't think there would
be anything to change in MisterHouse to add support for zoned systems since
it already supports multiple thermostats.  If anything did need changing I'd
be happy to assist.

Dan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marc MERLIN [mailto:marc_mh@...]
> Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 2:43 AM
> To: MattBurgoon; Joel Davidson; brian-lists-mhu@...
> Cc: misterhouse-users@...
> Subject: Re: [mh] Master-Slave Thermostat recommendations?
>
> Ok, so I had no luck with my last query, so should I maybe ask what
> smart
> thermostats you folks use and what you recommend I look at? (I can
> study
> data sheets and work from there).
>
> Thanks,
> Marc
>

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[Marc MERLIN-7]

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 10:45:01AM -0400, Daniel Arnold wrote:
> Marc,
>
> I use an HAI RC-80 thermostat with RS232 serial control.  I believe HAI also
> makes a thermostat compatible with zoned systems.  I don't think there would
> be anything to change in MisterHouse to add support for zoned systems since
> it already supports multiple thermostats.  If anything did need changing I'd
> be happy to assist.

Thanks for the reply. I looked at the little RC-80 documentation I could
find, but it didn't say much about its input/outputs (also found the
RC-112).
Is the RC-80 basically an on/off thermostat that can be remotely actuated on
and off via serial, and its temperature read from mh?

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 09:16:03AM -0400, Brian Warren wrote:
> Marc,
>
> I wish I had the time to really think about what you are looking to do
> and offer some solutions, but I'm afraid anything beyond rehashing what
> I've already said WRT t-stats is all I have to offer right now.
>
> I currently own the Insteon setup as you've linked below.  I find it
> inadequate on many levels, which have been outlined on the list.

Right. Thanks for confirming that I don't want to buy the Insteon one. What
a shame it's so badly thought out :(

> I previously owned an RCS TR16(?).  There are/were 2 models, the 16(?)
> and the 40.  The 40 was more advanced and had a cooler LCD on the
> controller.  Both seem to be well supported in mh already.
 
I have a call with smarthome on the TR40 to see whether it supports reading
temperature from a 2nd zone as a bypass.
 
> I have also considered rolling my own using remote ibutton temp sensors
> and relays at the HVAC unit.   As it stands, I intend to replace the
> insteon solution as soon as resources allow.  What I choose will be
> determined based on what is available at that point.

Thanks for the replies,
Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

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[Marc MERLIN-7]

I did some more research and looked at earlier posts from you on the list
on the venstar unit.
I also found this:
http://pixiescorner.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/getting-setting-insteon-information-from-the-venstar-t1700-thermostat/
I think I understand the problem now where it won't let you query it
for whether it has told my AC or furnace to turn on, you can only query for
temp, which is pretty silly.

The problem with RCS TR40 is that it's not RS232 compatible, and you need yet
another $170-ish module just to gateway RS232 to RS485. Were you able to
plug your RCS RT16 in directly into your PC?

Also, the RCS has no built in support for master/slave configurations,
so it would rely on mh to do the job via serial port cabling (I need to
include the price of additional cabling in the house).
In other words, it looks like I would need 2 RCS thermostats plus wiring
plus RS232 to RS485 before I could make this work (around $600).


Otherwise, smarthome also told me to consider this:
http://www.smarthome.com/3038A/HVAC-2-Zone-Controller/p.aspx
plus a couple of these:
http://www.smarthome.com/30951/Thermostat-Display-TS40-001-01060/p.aspx
That's around $500 before anything to make it talk to my computer.

I'll see if I find anything else, and try to read up on the HAI solutions
(didn't find a lot of info yet).

Thanks,
Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

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[Greg Satz]

I really like the Aprilaire 8870 Thermostats. http://aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductDetails&category=23&item=8870 
. They do need a 232-485 converter but I think it is worth it. They  
also recommend you get a wiring harness/panel that is basically a  
powered 485 bus but for one or two thermostats you don't really need  
it. These thermostats will also let you hang remote temperature and  
humidity sensors off of them for simple reporting or for averaging  
multiple sensors. They do provide runtime information which I find  
very useful. I put together an xPL gateway so you can remotely control  
the thermostats as well as query them using the xPL HVAC schema. The  
thermostats will also display text messages which the xPL gateway  
supports via the xPL osd schema. An RRD is generated per thermostat  
which tracks the runtime.



The outside temperature is pulled in from a weather station RRD. You  
can find many of these parts on ebay or from  
worthingtondistribution.com.

Thanks,
Greg

On May 19, 2009, at 1:34 PM, Marc MERLIN wrote:

> I did some more research and looked at earlier posts from you on the  
> list
> on the venstar unit.
> I also found this:
> http://pixiescorner.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/getting-setting-insteon-information-from-the-venstar-t1700-thermostat/
> I think I understand the problem now where it won't let you query it
> for whether it has told my AC or furnace to turn on, you can only  
> query for
> temp, which is pretty silly.
>
> The problem with RCS TR40 is that it's not RS232 compatible, and you  
> need yet
> another $170-ish module just to gateway RS232 to RS485. Were you  
> able to
> plug your RCS RT16 in directly into your PC?
>
> Also, the RCS has no built in support for master/slave configurations,
> so it would rely on mh to do the job via serial port cabling (I need  
> to
> include the price of additional cabling in the house).
> In other words, it looks like I would need 2 RCS thermostats plus  
> wiring
> plus RS232 to RS485 before I could make this work (around $600).
>
>
> Otherwise, smarthome also told me to consider this:
> http://www.smarthome.com/3038A/HVAC-2-Zone-Controller/p.aspx
> plus a couple of these:
> http://www.smarthome.com/30951/Thermostat-Display-TS40-001-01060/ 
> p.aspx
> That's around $500 before anything to make it talk to my computer.
>
> I'll see if I find anything else, and try to read up on the HAI  
> solutions
> (didn't find a lot of info yet).
>
> Thanks,
> Marc

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[Joel Davidson]

Marc-

I didn't see anyone answer your RC-80 questions so I'll try...

Basically it's a fully programmable thermostat for a single zone,
hvac system with an rs-232 serial interface.  Using the serial
interface you can query the status and programming of the 'stat,
and you can also remotely set the programming, set points and state
of your hvac system.  It doesn't have any auxiliary i/o available.

As I recall, HAI sells a version for heat pump systems if you need
that.

HTH.

Joel


On Tue, 19 May 2009, it would appear that Marc MERLIN wrote:

> On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 10:45:01AM -0400, Daniel Arnold wrote:
>> Marc,
>>
>> I use an HAI RC-80 thermostat with RS232 serial control.  I believe HAI also
>> makes a thermostat compatible with zoned systems.  I don't think there would
>> be anything to change in MisterHouse to add support for zoned systems since
>> it already supports multiple thermostats.  If anything did need changing I'd
>> be happy to assist.
>
> Thanks for the reply. I looked at the little RC-80 documentation I could
> find, but it didn't say much about its input/outputs (also found the
> RC-112).
> Is the RC-80 basically an on/off thermostat that can be remotely actuated on
> and off via serial, and its temperature read from mh?
>
> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 09:16:03AM -0400, Brian Warren wrote:
>> Marc,
>>
>> I wish I had the time to really think about what you are looking to do
>> and offer some solutions, but I'm afraid anything beyond rehashing what
>> I've already said WRT t-stats is all I have to offer right now.
>>
>> I currently own the Insteon setup as you've linked below.  I find it
>> inadequate on many levels, which have been outlined on the list.
>
> Right. Thanks for confirming that I don't want to buy the Insteon one. What
> a shame it's so badly thought out :(
>
>> I previously owned an RCS TR16(?).  There are/were 2 models, the 16(?)
>> and the 40.  The 40 was more advanced and had a cooler LCD on the
>> controller.  Both seem to be well supported in mh already.
>
> I have a call with smarthome on the TR40 to see whether it supports reading
> temperature from a 2nd zone as a bypass.
>
>> I have also considered rolling my own using remote ibutton temp sensors
>> and relays at the HVAC unit.   As it stands, I intend to replace the
>> insteon solution as soon as resources allow.  What I choose will be
>> determined based on what is available at that point.
>
> Thanks for the replies,
> Marc

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[Marc MERLIN-7]

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 05:42:42PM -0500, Joel Davidson wrote:
> Marc-
>
> I didn't see anyone answer your RC-80 questions so I'll try...
 
Thanks :)
 
> Basically it's a fully programmable thermostat for a single zone,
> hvac system with an rs-232 serial interface.  Using the serial
> interface you can query the status and programming of the 'stat,
> and you can also remotely set the programming, set points and state
> of your hvac system.  It doesn't have any auxiliary i/o available.

Cool. So it sounds like my solution may be to use an insteon I/O link to
know when my slave (dumb) thermostat opens the subzone damper in the master
bedroom.
When that happens, mh will receive a signal via the PLM and can I then just
tell the RC-80 to start heating or cooling until I tell it to stop, or do
you give it a target temperature and it stops on its own?

And when you say "query status", it obviously means you know what
temperature it sees, but also whether it's at idle, actively heating,
cooling, and what its target temperature is?

If I get mh involved in the middle, I don't think I'll need aux I/O,
so I should be good there.

> As I recall, HAI sells a version for heat pump systems if you need
> that.

Won't need that.

Is there a master web page that you found this info on? My google searches
haven't returned anything on the RC-80's RS232 communication capabilities.

Thanks for the details,
Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

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[Joel Davidson]

On Tue, 19 May 2009, it would appear that Marc MERLIN wrote:

> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 05:42:42PM -0500, Joel Davidson wrote:
>> Marc-
>>
>> I didn't see anyone answer your RC-80 questions so I'll try...
>
> Thanks :)
>
>> Basically it's a fully programmable thermostat for a single zone,
>> hvac system with an rs-232 serial interface.  Using the serial
>> interface you can query the status and programming of the 'stat,
>> and you can also remotely set the programming, set points and state
>> of your hvac system.  It doesn't have any auxiliary i/o available.
>
> Cool. So it sounds like my solution may be to use an insteon I/O link to
> know when my slave (dumb) thermostat opens the subzone damper in the master
> bedroom.
> When that happens, mh will receive a signal via the PLM and can I then just
> tell the RC-80 to start heating or cooling until I tell it to stop, or do
> you give it a target temperature and it stops on its own?

   It's a regular thermostat, so you can just give it a target
   temperature and it'll heat or cool until it gets there.  It'll
   then cycle as you might expect to maintain the temperature.

> And when you say "query status", it obviously means you know what
> temperature it sees, but also whether it's at idle, actively heating,
> cooling, and what its target temperature is?

   That's correct.  You can query current sensed temperature, the
   current heat and cool setpoints, current mode (auto/heat/cool/off)
   etc.

> If I get mh involved in the middle, I don't think I'll need aux I/O,
> so I should be good there.
>
>> As I recall, HAI sells a version for heat pump systems if you need
>> that.
>
> Won't need that.
>
> Is there a master web page that you found this info on? My google searches
> haven't returned anything on the RC-80's RS232 communication capabilities.

   I've attached the manuals for ya.  That should clear it up...

> Thanks for the details,
> Marc
>


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[Daniel Arnold-2]

Marc,

Joel didn't state it specifically, but you can query the current status as
to whether it's actively heating or cooling.  If you do use an Omnistat, I
think you'll want to look at the RC90 series or Omnistat2 RC-2000 which
support zoned systems.

Dan


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[Marc MERLIN-7]

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 10:32:03AM -0400, Daniel Arnold wrote:
> Marc,
>
> Joel didn't state it specifically, but you can query the current status as
> to whether it's actively heating or cooling.  If you do use an Omnistat, I
> think you'll want to look at the RC90 series or Omnistat2 RC-2000 which
> support zoned systems.

Thanks for the pointer.
I looked through the documentation and talked to the HAI folks.
Basically, the RC90 looked promising for subzone support without getting mh
involved as it has 2 extra lines for subzone heating/cooling modes, but
turns out that those are output lines (not input as I hoped) and they only
work with a subzone controller (i.e. a separate unit which I don't really
need).

So, it seems that I'll still need to find some way to somehow tap the slave
thermostat when it turns on and feed that to mh. Then, I'll relay that
signal to the HAI RC-80/90 through mh and tell the master thermostat to turn
on too.

I looked at the Omnistat2, and apparently they have a different serial
protocol, so I don't think they'll work in mh.

Thanks,
Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

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[Georgia Dutchman]

I have three heat pumps for my house, one feeds two zones and is controlled via a Honeywell Zone controller. I use two RC80B's for the zones on HP #1 and then use two RC100's for HP #2 and #3. I've been impressed with the serial communication interface reliability. I ran Cat5e wiring to each stat but as invariably happens with installation in existing structures, some of the path lengths are very long and there are a number of splices along the way but the interface seems to be rock solid. You can snag RC80/RC100's on ebay for less than $100 usually while most other solutions seem to be in the $250 each range or higher.  The Honeywell zone controller I went with works off of standard generic thermostats so the simpler RC80 is just fine. the other two RC100 are heat pump stats. Having all the thermostats interchangeable with generic thermostats is a plus for when I do move on to another house I can replace them with $10 wallymart stats and take them with me.

Marc MERLIN-7 wrote:

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 10:32:03AM -0400, Daniel Arnold wrote:
> Marc,
>
> Joel didn't state it specifically, but you can query the current status as
> to whether it's actively heating or cooling.  If you do use an Omnistat, I
> think you'll want to look at the RC90 series or Omnistat2 RC-2000 which
> support zoned systems.

Thanks for the pointer.
I looked through the documentation and talked to the HAI folks.
Basically, the RC90 looked promising for subzone support without getting mh
involved as it has 2 extra lines for subzone heating/cooling modes, but
turns out that those are output lines (not input as I hoped) and they only
work with a subzone controller (i.e. a separate unit which I don't really
need).

So, it seems that I'll still need to find some way to somehow tap the slave
thermostat when it turns on and feed that to mh. Then, I'll relay that
signal to the HAI RC-80/90 through mh and tell the master thermostat to turn
on too.

I looked at the Omnistat2, and apparently they have a different serial
protocol, so I don't think they'll work in mh.

Thanks,
Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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