Multi zone, rads and ufh design

r4ds

Hi all, I have a few design questions:

I have 8 rooms, 3 zone valves (+ hot water valve), due to constrains all zones need wireless temperature control.

zone valve 1 = 4 rooms / 4 rads

zone valve 2 = 3 rooms / 3 rads

zone valve 3 = 1 room / 1 ufh

As far as I can work out i need the following:

z1 (+ hw) = Wireless Smart Thermostat, Wireless Receiver, Internet Bridge, 4 Smart Radiator Thermostats - all in one zone with wireless receiver as the zone controller

z2 = Wired Smart Thermostat, 3 Smart Radiator Thermostats - all in one zone with wired receiver as the zone controller

z3 = Wired Smart Thermostat - in one zone with wired receiver as the zone controller

Assuming the above is correct, my question - I need to place the wired smart thermostats for z2 and z3 in cupboards so I cant use them as thermostats (just zone valve switches), in this case can I:

• In z2 use the Smart Radiator Thermostats to measure temperature in the rooms and totally override the temp of the wired smart thermostat?
• And in z3, how do I override the temp of the wired smart thermostat and use a wireless thermostat? This is alluded to in this article https://savvycons.nl/en/blogs/blog/tado-en-vloerverwarming at the bottom it says in option 3 - "an extra thermostat to control your underfloor heating valve, this will be mounted at the distributor, but it does not measure the temperature here, that is what the other (current) thermostat is for" but I can't work out what this means???

Anyone know about this setup? Thanks

GrilledCheese2

This is how you can setup the system with the wireless receiver and two wired thermostats in a cupboard. When grouping devices there can only be one device that measures the temperature. Ensure the Bridge is in a central location to communicate with all devices.

z1 (+ hw) = Wireless Temp Sensor , Wireless Receiver, Internet Bridge, 4 Smart Radiator Thermostats - all in one zone with wireless receiver as the zone controller.

z2 = Wired Smart Thermostat, 3 Smart Radiator Thermostats - all in one zone with Wired Smart Thermostat as the zone controller. Wired Smart Thermostat is grouped with one TRV and TRV is assigned as temperature sensor for the room. Temperature sensor in Wired Smart Thermostat is automatically disabled.

z3 = Wireless Temp Sensor, Wired Smart Thermostat - in one zone with Wired Smart Thermostat as the zone controller. Wired Smart Thermostat is grouped with Wireless Temp Sensor and Wireless Temp Sensor is assigned as temperature sensor for the room. Temperature sensor in Wired Smart Thermostat is automatically disabled.

GrilledCheese2

For Z2 you create 3 rooms in the app and each room will have its own schedule. Up to 10 rooms can share a zone controller, so you can assign the same zone controller to all 3 rooms. Each room can Call for Heat from the zone controller, regardless of the status of the other rooms. Alternatively, you assign 1 or 2 rooms to the zone controller and the other room(s) are Independent from the zone controller. An independent room cannot call for heat. The TRV will simply open its valve and the radiator will heat if another room in the same zone is calling for heat.

In general it's not recommended to divide a large physical room into two logical rooms. In theory you can have up to 7 TRVs in the same room in the app. Within the app it is not possible for one room to turn off another room, but it would be partly possible with IFTTT. IFTTT is not aware of the schedule, so the trigger point would be a fixed temperature.

In terms of purchases you could order:

1 x Wireless Starter kit (z1)

1 x Quad pack of TRVs (z1)

3 x single TRVs (z2)

2 x Add-On Wired Thermostats (z2 &z3)

1 x Add-On Wireless Temp Sensor (z3)

GrilledCheese2

To make progress with the app you will need to pretend you currently have a regular wired thermostat and not select the Nest. For example you could select Drayton RTS1, which is a traditional wired thermostat using COM and NO.

r4ds

Thanks, this makes sense. A couple of supplemental questions which may or may not be possible:

for z2 say, if the Tado zones where at the room level (3 rooms = 3 tado zones), can all three rooms share the same zone controller (z2), a trv in each room assigned as temp sensor for each tado zone; can the rooms independently call for heat turning on z2, the trv and the heat independently?

if a (big) physical room has two trv's (or wireless temp sensors), and it is set into two tado zones, one of the trv's (or wireless temp sensors) assigned as the temp sensor in each, both tado zones sharing the same zone controller (z2); can you set one tado zone to turn off the another when it reaches temperature (even if the other hasnt reached temperature)? (could you do this with IFTTT or something?)

can i buy 2x wireless smart thermostat kit and use the thermostats wired in z2 and z3?

can i buy another wireless smart thermostat kit and use the thermostat as the wireless temp sensor in z3?

r4ds

many thanks, very helpful

r4ds

@GrilledCheese2 I purchased the kit and i am having trouble with the Wired Thermostats (Smart Thermostats) controlling their zones, they don't appear as zone controllers? When I add a Wired Thermostat in the tado setup installation section it is asking me for the existing model it is going to replace, well, its going to replace a Nest Heat Link but when I select a Nest Heat Link it says it was not designed to replace a receiver.

A note, on the previous setup - i had three Nests, one for each zone. I replaced the first Nest with the Wireless Receiver , that was turnkey, works fine. But now I am blocked, for the Wired Thermostat I have wired COM and NO from the Nest (the COM is live and the NO goes to the zone valve) - the Nest Heat Link also had Neutral and Ground but I not using those for the Wired Thermostat.

Thanks

r4ds

👍 done it, testing now

r4ds

@GrilledCheese2 I just added the second wired smart thermostat and it doesn’t appear as a zone controller, I only have two zone controllers in the app and the third one isn’t showing up, any ideas?

GrilledCheese2

Has it installed as wireless instead of wired? Either way select the device in the app and restart the installation instructions. If that still doesn't work you'll have to get customer support to manually update the configuration. At this time of year you should get a quick response.

r4ds

i had to message support and they sorted it, pretty quick response, many thanks