Do I need a wireless receiver per heating zone?

Lavericksg

Hi, Im replacing a Nest system with Tado. I have 3 Nest heatlinks. One heatlink/stat controls CH and HW, the other two control just CH. The 3 heatlinks operate a CH zone valve each (Honeywell 272848/u). Looking at the installation guides, they dont offer much advice about zoned systems but my guess if that my first tado receiver will control HW and CH (CH demand from rads/stat in Zone 1), then I will need another wireless receiver for rads in Zone 2 and another wireless reciever in Zone 3. It seems fairly obvious but when I research it, I keep getting confused by statement that you only need 1 receiver per home.

PS - I use Zone Valves because I have UFH in zone 3 and I have some rads in zone 1 that are antique cast iron and I dont want to fit a modern Smart TRV.

Thanks

Steve

GrilledCheese2

You can only have one wireless receiver per system, so you will need two wired thermostats to go with a single receiver. If the placement of wired thermostats is an issue for CH zones 2 and 3 then you can buy two wireless temperature sensors. Each sensor is paired with a thermostat to move temperature sensing location to the preferred position.

Lavericksg

Hi GrilledCheese, If I only have 1 receiver, I cant separate the output to 3 zones - it only has one NC/NO output. I am referring to the "receiver" as the unit wired to the boiler. I am aware only 1 Internet Bridge is allowed per system if thats what you were referring to? Cheers

GrilledCheese2

The receiver is a direct replacement for the heatlink with near identical wiring. HW NO controls the HW zone valve and CH NO controls the CH1 zone valve. There's no direct connection from the receiver/heatlink to the boiler.

For the other CH zones the wired thermostat replaces the heatlink. Different wiring, but CH NO from the thermostat is connected to the zone valve for CH2 and CH3.

Normally the four zone valves are wired to the boiler and will switch the boiler on when the valve has moved to the open position.

You can wire the Tado receiver directly to the boiler, but I doubt that is how your heat links are operating. You should be able to trace all the CH NO wires going to the zone valves.

Lavericksg

You are correct, the heatlinks are wired to the zone valves and the valves fire the boiler. I understand what you mean about the wired stats - but there's my next challenge - the Nest stats are connected wirelessly to the heatlinks, hence why I was thinking multiple receivers. Screwfix are doing a starter kit for £99 so Im going to buy one and try it - I just wont need the internet bridge.

In case anyone else has my dilemma, I'll post an update once tried.

GrilledCheese2

You will need the internet bridge for Tado system to work. The bridge creates a wireless subnet for Tado devices to communicate to each other. It's a different protocol to the WiFi used by your home router.

You're doing the right thing by initially buying just the wireless receiver starter kit. £99 isn't too big a sum to evaluate if the Tado system is right for you. Personally I think the system is good, but I wouldn't recommend the smart TRVs to anyone.

Lavericksg

So an update on the current state of play. I have added a 2nd wireless receiver and wireless sensor. The App allows me to select the 2nd receiver as a zone controller - meaning I have two heating zones operated by 2 wireless sensors/receivers. This is working perfectly so I dont quite know why Tado say I can only have one wireless receiver. This is effectively mimicking what I had before with multiple Nest Heatlinks?

I am adding a 3rd zone using a wired thermostat and that then completes the replacement of Nest.

Pagi

Might just misuse your question :)

If i understood your issue correctly.

You wanted to use a second/third/fourt wireless receiver to control different zones(Valves within).

As you said, its always mentioned you can only have one receiver.

So you tried to add a second receiver for a second zone and it worked, if i understood it right?

Would you mind sending me a picture of your setup?

I have the same issue, we have 10 valves with basically 10 zones to control(manually). I wanted to install a wireless sensor in 4 rooms. Therefore i need 4 receivers(no biggie besides some money if it works) but since the valves are manually i need to install a remote valve and some kind of bridge between(sorry im not sure how to explain that proper in english :D)

But if i understood it right, the wireless receiver can give out an basic I/O signal, which the bridge would just has to forward to the remote valves to open or close when its off power.

Lavericksg

Hi Pagi, yes you understand correctly. I setup a 2nd sensor and receiver. I use the CH controls on the 2nd wireless receiver to operate a 2nd zone valve to fire up the boiler. Its working fine and you can direct the wireless sensor or a smart trv to operate this second zone.

What I dont understand is why tado support say this isnt supported and I'm trying to get an answer. If they want to compete with Nest, or other smart systems that support multiple zones, this seems an obvious "enhancement" that appears to already work. The issue is that as tado say they dont support it, you do this at your own risk.

Perhaps someone from the dev team at tado could step in and explain why this isnt supported? Assuming its installed by a competent heating engineer.

M_G46

That was very useful. I have been able to replace both nest/heatlink zones with two wireless receivers. Receiver 1 controls the hw and ch in zone 1 which has a wireless sensor in hallway (needed for HW) and 4 smart radiator valves in bedrooms. Receiver 2 controls ch in zone 2 which has a wireless sensor in hallway and 2smart radiator valves in bedrooms. It all seems to work. You can allocate which receiver is used in each zone for all addons.