Automating old heating system with Moes ZigBee TRVs
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- Опубликовано: 27 ноя 2024
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I'm trying to save some money this winter by automating all my radiators at home with ZigBee TRVs - tag along!
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I don't recommend those Moess TRVs. They are either almost fully open (reporting 25%) and fully closed (0%) and when open the radiator is hot as hell and noisy. They also spam zigbee with lots of messages unnecessarily, wasting the battery in the process. I got rid of them all and replaced them with Danfoss which supports granular valve opening (pi heating demand) and I am happy.
Really looking forward to this Matt. I've been thinking about this but had put it off to next year. I suspect half of the existing TVRs don't work any more. The idea is to set different room temperatures at different times but to avoid the horrible programming via 3 buttons! I had concluded like you that the automation needs to override the main thermostat as otherwise a TVR might open in one room but the boiler stays off as the main thermostat has not switched in. This is particularly so where the main thermostat is in the room with the bypass radiator so that room gets heated whenever the boiler is on.
The biggest challenge is my wife! She is constantly changing the main thermostat in order to adjust the heating in the room she is in!
Take a look at my smart heating v3. It will handle constant fidgeting with thermostat settings and it has framework ready for trvs ;) just need bring all together
Nice video. Looking forward to seeing you control these with individual room thermostats
I'm looking forward to playing with all of them now. I also have a self calibration script in mind.
In generel, (Zigbee/smart) TRVs are missing a mode where you can set the valve-opening, eg. in 5 steps or more. Lets say you want to control floorheating - the valve is not always placed in the same room, so the temperature setting is not usefull.
Perhaps theres a workaround. Excited to see if this also becomes an issue for you - and a solution :)
I'll have a solution to this problem too thanks to uto calibration. That's a great problem btw I didn't think of that. I appreciate this.
By only heating certain rooms, you will find you save quite a lot of money even with the older boiler. The boiler will not be so undersized if some radiators are closed off.
You're definitely on the right track with this one. In Australia, hydronic heating is not so popular. Most of our solutions are forced air, but this sort of setup could be modified to use controllers that can run damper motors instead of radiator valves :)
Heat pumps are trending and I'm not sure what is going to be a most ideal heating scenario that is efficient and has a low carbon footprint. Gas boilers are definitely not considered low carbon footprint.
Keen to give it a year or two and then make the decision once the market matures enough and takes a direction
@@notenoughtech Unfortunately here in Australia electricity is still primarily produced by coal so electricity here is pretty dirty, but heat pumps are meant to be quiet efficient. I am not sure how the go as far as controlled heat like Gas can do, but I am sure it will mature over the next couple of years
You would think that places like Australia would take advantage of solar power more right? Or maybe nuclear as the pushback would be smaller due to available space (although nuclear needs water).
@@notenoughtech Nuclear is not really very popular here. The coal industry has made sure to push how dangerous nuclear could be.
Solar would work well, so would wind. All I can say is Government is in bed with the coal industry.....
I always wonder how that manipulation works. Its been 40 years since Chernobyl and Japan has proven that nuclear tech can rapidly deconstruct itself in an unscheduled manner without imposing risks.
I have recollections (I was a small kid but recall flashbacks) of being shielded and taking anti radiation pills after Chernobyl. After all we weren't incredibly far. And yet I reading about it more, learning what went wrong (human error) and having 40 years of technical progress I feel comfortable with the fact of having nuclear plants. One is located just shy of 20 miles where I live.
I've got a system called Bosch Easycontrol for my heating. It's had similar devices which I believe probably have ZigBee running on them but it has some shortcomings and I would have preferred to have a system I could have developed myself rather than theirs. For example it doesn't notify me when the trv battery is low, a very simple thing really. Plus mine was expensive. 11 TRVs at 50 quid a pop and the 200 quid unit which connects to WiFi and boiler plus fitting took it to the £1200 range. And it hasn't made a massive dent on how much I save but does regulate the temperature better. However as it's measuring temperature on the trv which is right next to the radiator it's skewing it's own result and you are only able to use a -2/+2 degree adjustment on each device. Would be better to have seperated temp sensors mounted in room which work in conjunction but not an option I now have.
I have good news in regards to my system and making you a little bit jealous. I already have a ZigBee battery monitor which sends alarms to Android devices.
(Check out ZigBee low battery waring vid). I also came up with automatic calibration for the temperature so my thermostats will show the actual room temperature without worrying about thermal properties affecting offset.
Next step is to add my PIR sensor to make an a heat map of rooms in use over time. This data will be used to lower setpoint in rooms not used as often at selected times.
Looks like YT filtered your comment out. Feel free to DM me on social media especially if you are sharing any links.
Yep I really looking for smart TRV's which you can directly control the valve position. Then you can make the control loop via external temperature sensor which you can tune. Now you are depending on the control loop inside the TRV. I'm experimenting right now with another ts0601 clone, and temperature control is horrible. Large ripple on the room temperature, which tends to grow over time which means instability of the control loop! My good old traditional Heimeier TRV does the job much better!
I actually have figured out the control scheme and I think you will like what I have done.
@@notenoughtech super! Looking forward to it! If you have a sort of solution to this, that would mean giant step forward! Good job!
Nice info on your system. I've been playing around for some time now with my heating system and did not opt for thermostatic valves on the radiators. Each radiator has a 220v operated on/off valve. The downside is that it needs wiring from the relayboard on the Raspberry Pi to the individual valves/rooms. On the other side, they don't need batteries and there is no wireless system required to operate. Avery room has it's own wired DSB1820 temosensor.
I'd have to rewire to do the same. Unless wires are hidden wife would kick off about this too much. May consider this if I ever change the heating system
My wife wants to keep the house free of EM radiation ;)
DONT PUT THEM ON EVERY Radiator! (unless you have a wet heated towel rail in the bathroom-non electric with no TRV on) A heating system should have at least 1 bypass element in it. when you turn off the boiler the pump still runs for some time afterwards to dissipate the heat in itself radiators help to dissipate the heat even after the system is 'off'. having TRVs on every item on your central heating system can lead to kettling.
I am in the process of ordering these for my system but I'm leaving my porch radiator unmanaged because the heat from the boiler has to go somewhere when the system shuts off - and if the valves are all closed everywhere else I want it to go to the porch...not get stuck in the boiler.
from a radiator sales website (who would benefit from trying to sell you more TRVs) -
"However, while TRVs can, technically, be installed on all radiators, it’s usually a good idea to leave one radiator without a TRV and permanently switched on.
Ideally, this should either be a bathroom, which would usually benefit from permanent heat, or the room with the thermostat in it."
I'm just trying to save you a potential repair bill down the road!
Hey thanks for the info. I'll definitely check this out. I will have it installed by a professional so it's likely they will advise me on my system and see if indeed that's the case with mine.
Either way one radiator running wild is a small price to pay for having others controlled. :)
I appreciate the input in that matter
@@notenoughtech You may find that your existing boiler doesn't do whole 'over-run' thing when it's turned off.
But a lot of the condensing new ones do as it's "free heat" so something to keep in mind for further down the road. You could always just pull the valve off one down the line and leave the pin exposed (that's the same as leaving it always on).
As you say one small radiator doing it's own thing will still definitely be a saving overall!
Looking forward to the updates!
I'm able to program this in with redundancy to select the most used room open and fall back on the next room in line if TRV dies
This same problem you will have with traditional TRV's. When they all close, o water can flow in the circuit. But you can install an (adjustable) bypass valve which opens beyond certain pressure difference and thus keeping the flow alive!
Just make the 11th trv on at a higher temp (or automate to do so). I have a zigbee thermostat that reads the open position of all valves and shuts of the pump if less than one quarter open. Btw I added some of these devices to z2m.
I was thinking about doing the same. I have the 10-11 radiators that I need in my shopping cart on Ali but haven't gone through with the purchase. I was thinking I would be able to control how much "heating" I could get from each radiator by using the temperature sensors I had in the room vs the one on the TRV, but looks like it's the TRV that does everything - so I have push data to the TRV for it to adjust itself. Look forward to your followup videos.
Ideally you want this done and fitted before the heating season :) looks like I'll be tinkering with mine over Xmas :)
@@notenoughtech they've been on my shopping cart since last year when I first started looking at them. It's the fact that each one is £20+ that makes me think about it. I wanted to be able to "turn off" certain rooms. Looks like it's not as cut and dry. I would need to do a cost analysis on these like you did with automating lights etc.
For the actual saving analysis you will have to wait till spring haha :) but I'll try to make some tests with and without system to prove its working. Its an experiment and I'm curious how well it will work
Thanks for telling your experience.
I don't know how to manage the boiler using individual TRV. How to do the on/off of the boiler through the cables of the traditional thermostat. Do you have experience on this?
Thanks a lot!
I wouldn't manage the boiler from TRV. Have a separate system to enable heating and use TRV to trim your temperature as needed.
@@notenoughtech do you know if it's possible to integrate a thermostat to manage the boiler together with the TRV?
hello thanks you for that .Did you have any problems with feedback from the valve? example: in HA it displays open when in reality it is closed?
Hi :) I have these TRV's installed but I have a problem. They show offline state on my zigbee gateway. Do you know how I can reset them so I can configure them again and try to solve the problem? Thank you
I assume you are using z2m? It has settings for how long is the timeout for offline state. You can configure that if your device don't report back often enough
@@notenoughtech no, I'm using the default moes zigbee gateway. I don't know how z2m works :/
Ok. The only reason for them to go offline would be battery level are you using re chargeable batteries? They have lower voltage than normal ones
How did you get along with the smart trv’s? I’ve replaced my old 1990’s boiler in 2019 for a baxi 600 combo boiler, made a huge difference in gas, then developed my own opentherm thermostat based on an esp32, homeassistant and nodeRed. Reduced anual usage from around 32.000 kWh per year to 13.000 kWh/year. (5 bedroom detached house in Cheshire!)
Node red used to apply weather & load compensations to the flow temps on the rads, keeping the boiler at the lowest acceptable temps, maximising the condensing mode of operation.
I’m after feedback is there is a significant reduction in gas usage before investing in them! (14 rads total!)
Thanks for the video!
P.s if you replace your boiler, go with an opentherm compatible one!
Sadly still waiting for the plumbers visit 🙈 this month it will finally happen so finger crossed.
@@notenoughtech Thanks for the reply, Well, would be interesting to see how you get along with them. I think i'll give it a try, worst case i can flash them with ESPHome or something simmilar and sort it that way. Thanks.
Hi - did you run into problems with these TRV's going into idle state and not updating HomeAssistant until the touch screen is activated?
I don't use the HA so it's hard to comment on that front. Not come across this in NR
Hey just reading your article (big fan btw).
I have done something similar to you, decked out NINE radiators with trvs all controlled using HA and better thermostat.
My question is, how many of your Moe's (BRT-100) have failed?
Id say I have had to replace about half of mine in the 2/3 years I've had them and my pre season check reveals more failures.
I have started to transition away from Moe's... But I still have a lot of them that that have just failed with the fastening and if you/anyone had any solutions to this?
One I have trialled is to replace the batteries with an external USB source and GLUE the bottom on, but my USB powers off as the draw is so low.
Ant thoughts?
I had to disconnect mine as I moved places so my heating at the moment isn't automated. (that sucks). Was the failure caused on plastic parts? I wonder how much temperature fluctuations influence the strength of the plastic parts
Hey, I stayed away from wifi/zigbee TRVs as I heard the motors driving them are noisy and not recommended in bedrooms. Any feedback on the noise on this one? I was planning on doing electrovalves in the splitter box controlled by a NodeMCU + relays but it's more expensive and harder to install (pipe cutting + fitting)
They are completely silent. You can only hear it if you are holding it in your hand.
When I was reading the article on your site, when you mentioned a boiler, I had envisioned one like my parents have in their house; 5 feet tall with a built-in water tank.
I couldn't imagine heating a home here (mid-winter we can have outside temps around -25°C or lower 🥶) with a tiny unit like that.
Your gas prices are brutal!
How have you found the accuracy of the SNZB-02 temperature sensors?
I have a couple; the one in the living room agrees with the one that's in my Echo 4, but neither one agrees with the actual wall thermostat.
I have one of these too (for water heating in en suite bathroom) it's a mess of a setup that begs for an upgrade. I'm clearly not making enough money on RUclips
☺️
Temperature tests are in progress. I know I promised the earlier but life happened
Have a look at intergas boilers, not sure how much room you have in the cupboard but they are pretty good. The price that you’ve been quoted to move the boiler seems a bit steep, given that the move is very small. Depends on where you are in the uk but maybe reach out to another RUclipsr Allan heart and see if you can do a collaboration?
Be interested in your diy solution as I’m looking for a system to control a manifold so I don’t need trv’ s on the radiators from a noise perspective.
What is the noise level on those trv you have? Remember if you fit them to every radiator you will need a bypass valve on the water system or a radiator that’s on all the time incase every valve shuts and the boiler keeps on heating.
I'm thinking a heat pump as this is where world is going next I believe. The trv have a separate article. They are almost silent I know the noise was a concern in the previous model.
I got one now to test, that I want to set up in ZHA. You say, you paired it with 3 buttons. How did you do that, I spent 2 hours now and can't get it in pairing mode. How did you pair it in HA ? 😢
I use the z2m - and to pair it you have to hold minus button for a couple of seconds until it shows up
@@notenoughtech Thank you very very much :-) it works now
Just curious why you need to change the valve on your radiator, is it because none of the thread adapters they supply are suitable? I’m already using Tado but had a thread compatibility issue so I 3d printed some adaptors using PETG and it has no issues with the temperature it has to handle.
Unfortunately i have a very old and awkward valves on my system. Wish I could just pop the trv on it
Thanks Mat. Great video.
How far are you with your project? I am very interested in it, because I have a similar problem. Unfortunately, I don't have the skills to do it yet.
Greetings Nico
I'm slating this for september. Most of the software is done, some integration issues, plus I have 3 more TVR to test.
@@notenoughtech I am so excited to see your automation! I have learned from your videos really ne menge, but to set up a whole automation for it my skills are still far from enough, unfortunately, but I'll keep at it. the thermostats I have also already ordered. if you still need a DAU to test let me know! Thanks for the great videos!
VG Nico
Great video as usual!
I was wondering if you have tried to open the case to see what's inside ?
I want to use it as a wireless thermostat for a bunch of electrical radiators with shelly one controlling the pilot wire.
It works but I would like to remove the motor that has no use for my application. After removing the 2 motor screws nothing came apart. Any idea on how to open it?
I haven't tried to open thses but most likely they have a hot press or glued in guts. it means damage is likely. It's a bit odd way of using these, perhaps consider a zigbee dev board with a e-ink display?
@@notenoughtech I acknowledge it is a little odd but it is doing the job. I am afraid that a a zigbee dev board with a e-ink display is a lot of work to do the same function
Fair enough
The previous model TRVs from Moes were flooding with mqtt messages, between 15 to 20 within 3 seconds then break for a few minutes and flooding again 15 to 20 messages. Is this still happening with this model?
Not that I noticed. The interval of messages depends usually on the sensor changes as well as interval
Would love to know if these have lasted the test of time and do they integrate with home assistant.
Should work ok on zigbee2mqtt without converter setup (added already in z2m) look for z2m for HA
thanks for your excellent video
No probs. Pleasure is mine
@@notenoughtech you have done a really good video,and I have subcribed,lookig forward to your more excellent ones
hi! this valve has programming mode "- In this mode, the device executes a preset week programming temperature time and temperature". Don't you know how to set current date and time for this valve?
Yes I mentioned that you can use the buttons on the TRV to enter up to 6 periods per \wekedays/weekends with your temperature optimums
Damn first to comment, looking forward to you covering more on these.
Early bird gets the worm!
Does it work with Amazon's Alexa echo or do i have to purchase a ZigBee gateway? Thanks
If your Amazon Echo has built in ZigBee - it should work natively
@@notenoughtech Thanks
Hi, very interesting video. I installed 2 of these to try them before installing others for the other radiators. I opened my Google nest thermostat and closed these 2 TRVs by setting the temperature lower than the “minimum temperature” as mentioned, but the radiators are still heating!! My aim is to switch them off but it doesn’t work! Can the TRVs work with a Google nest thermostat?
Thanks !
They should close pretty quickly after setting them that way just be sure the Temperature is calibrated correctly.
@@notenoughtech Thank you very much
hello
Following your video I bought 12 moes valves (I had hesitated with the aqara). I tested only one but I think there is a problem. After 2 days the battery is only at 83% while the valve has activated maybe only 5 times for the tests. What I find strange is that the display is always on (despite the lowest setting (0) the brightness reduces but does not turn off). Is this normal? Can the display be turned off? it's amazing that it stays on all the time. The battery of other valve models that I tested in zwave lasted more than a year... if so, I really regret my choice. Thank you very much for the additional information.
Hi. The display should only have a home icon on after timeout. Nothing else until you touch it. If yours stays on something isn't right. Another thing to check is how smooth your valves are. New valves can be opened with a hard push of the finger. Anything with more resistance will drain the battery more too.
@@notenoughtech Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
There must be a problem because even set to 0 the display stays on.
I set it only with zigbee2mqtt, maybe it comes from there. I will see with the others.
@@notenoughtech hello,
I tested with another valve, it turns off fine. But on the other hand I have another problem with this one... the range of the zigbee signal is really low (1 meter from the coordinator!!! while the first remains on but has a long range) I will test with a third. .but i feel i'm going to have only problems and i'm going to send them back.
Sounds like an issue with the unit.
Is it possible to start google home routine from eWeLink (Sonoff device) event/scene?
Probably via ifttt
I need to find the Frankenstat video! 🤣 I bought parts to do what I believe is a similar build.
Sounds interesting :) best things are DIY no matter what everyone says
@@notenoughtech I was referring to your video as Frankenstat. Now that I watched it I see my plan and thermostat are a little different. I want to simulate button presses on my thermostat rather then override the control as you did.
I could in theory have a mini stepper driving the setpoint on my mechanical one :) that would fall as "pressing buttons"
@@notenoughtech That would truly make it a Frankenstat! 🤣
I kinda like the idea. Although I'd lose the ability to set it manually unless I experiment with a holding torque
I have 7 exatly the same TVRs. One of them is set to 23 degrees, shows 25 degrees and full heating. I tryed to close it manually I mean I set temperature to 27 degrees and TVR closed heating. But why it doesnt do it when it shows 25 degrees?
Hmm that's a strange one. How's the battery voltage?
@@notenoughtech New alkaline battery
Try the Wiser by Drayton system if you not into the whole node red thing.
That's cheating :) NodeRed or bust 😆😆
I tried with an individual Drayton trv and it kept resetting to default every 2 hours.
Or Tado, Or Hive which are a little cheaper.
ooh the zigbee
ZigBee is the best :D (for now)
@@notenoughtech completely agree. I also use BLE mesh which I feel is a bit less power hungry than the wi-fi based protocol Have been using the xiaomi el-cheapo temp/humidity meters for a year and they still at 100% battery charge if you believe
I actually have great experience with Bluetooth mesh as well. Battery life on these is awesome
hi, nice video, can you add this TRV to Hive themostats?
I use it with custom coordinator. You can link it via services like nodered and home assistant. I'm not sure if direct integration works as I haven't used hive myself.
@@notenoughtech thanks, I don;t have to intergrate it with Hive, can I use it in one radiator in parallol with hive as different zone? e.g. only heat the TRV in the room not rest of rooms in the house?
Yes you can use it in self deployment mode without cloud. I recommend you watch today's video about these and how they lie about the temperature
@@notenoughtech yes, just watched it, aware of this as this is the same issue for Hive and other TRVs, as Hive says the TRV will learn the behaviours and adjust.
I wonder how good that learn is. 9 degrees was the biggest difference I noted with hot thermostat and my room.
I'd be keen to get some data from that process and see how well I did.
Btw my TRVs just arrived! Wasn't expecting it after xmas
Is it me, or are these trv poorly implemented in Z2M?
You have access to all the data posted by the thermostat. I'm not sure what else would you like to see on these
Winter came 😭
Well if by winter you mean excessive rain, no sun and miserable moist weather.. then yes it's here 😆😆
Keep warm :)
You are Polish, aren't you?
So I've been told :)
Tak coś czułem. Naprawdę rewelacyjny projekt (bo przy tyłu social mediach, blogu ciężko sprowadzić to tylko do kanału)
Dzieki, :) mam nadzieje ze to co dalej z tym zrobie tez Cie zainteresuje!
Beware battery life. I tried one of these - at least, not the same model, but very similar functions, so probably just re-packaged. The batteries lasted just a few months. That's probably not surprising when you consider it's driving a pin against quite a resistant valve.
Although I am sure you will save significantly more in fuel than it costs in batteries, by the time I factored in the effort to change batteries in all my radiators every few months I decided it wasn't worth the effort, so I abandoned the idea.
Few months is what I would expect from these - My rough estimate is about 2-3 months and I would be pretty content with it. I will have a brand new valves which will also help as any resistance put on the driving pin will cost you deal. In my tests so far I drive it 3 times a day on/off and after 3 weeks I have 90% charge reported (granted its driven without a load).