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radiant heating

jisaacjisaac Posts: 34
in Residential Forum
Just curious as to what folks are doing out there for control of radiant heating if any? Is this a request that you guys have generally seen or do you just leave the radiant to work on its own without access from the TP. Any thoughts, suggestions, experiences would be appreciated. Thanks.

Comments

  • DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    I generally leave it alone. Most radiant systems work so slowly they just don't loan themselves well to external control. They take hours to warm up, and hours to cool down again. My customers tend to turn it on in the Winter and forget about it until Spring. If I had a customer that insisted, I don't think I would try thermostat control - I'd have the HVAC guy or electrician give me a relay to kill it, and just control that with a simple on/off. They just aren't the kind of system you are constantly tweaking.
  • viningvining Posts: 4,368
    It depends on the situation. If this is a country house (weekend house) or vacation home where there's a possibility the customer may want more frequent control then it probably should be controlled. Say the customer wants to come up for the week end and bring the house up to a comfortable temperature. He can set the temp from the office or primary residence and by time they gets there depending on when they made the change it may be up to temp.

    Like Dave said these are very slow to respond systems and sometimes don't even use a T-stat at all, just and outdoor aticipator (outdoor temp sensor) a return boiler water temp sensor an that's it.

    So if it's a full time residence with 24/7 occupancy then there's not much point as it's a Ron Popeil system where you just "set it" & "forget it", except for the seasonal change over from heating to cooling.

    That being said I would still probably control it just because I can so that the few times a year when changes need to be made it can be automated or manually done via a TP instead some remote change over switch. I view a TP as a Commnd & Control Center and if it's a system that can be controlled, well then I want to. Then you just have to figure out if this control is something the customer is willing to pay for and worth the expense, something you throw in for free or a subject you don't bring up unless asked.
  • joelwjoelw Posts: 175
    jisaac wrote:
    Just curious as to what folks are doing out there for control of radiant heating if any? Is this a request that you guys have generally seen or do you just leave the radiant to work on its own without access from the TP. Any thoughts, suggestions, experiences would be appreciated. Thanks.

    Hi jisaac,

    This company will have a TN4 automation gateway out soon.

    http://www.tekmarcontrols.com/

    AMX will be supported.
  • Spire_JeffSpire_Jeff Posts: 1,917
    joelw wrote:
    Hi jisaac,

    This company will have a TN4 automation gateway out soon.

    http://www.tekmarcontrols.com/

    AMX will be supported.


    Unless something has changed in the last few weeks, don't expect anything anytime soon. I spoke with the company because one of our clients is insisting on using these stats and the word I got was not positive. It seems the person they contracted to develop the interface hardware and programming for external controls has blown 2 or 3 deadlines already and the last estimate I got was 2nd or 3rd quarter of 07 .... maybe :)

    Jeff
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